The Best of FanGraphs: March 19-23, 2018

Each week, we publish in the neighborhood of 75 articles across our various blogs. With this post, we hope to highlight 10 to 15 of them. You can read more on it here. The links below are color coded — green for FanGraphs, brown for RotoGraphs, dark red for The Hardball Times and blue for Community Research.

MONDAY, 3/19
2018 Positional Power Rankings: Introduction, by Jeff Sullivan
This week, FanGraphs writers went position by position to provide commentary on the projected WAR from FanGraphs’ depth chart projections. Craig Edwards began with catchers, and Carson Cistulli closed things out with designated hitters.

Do The Padres Have Their Own Three-Headed Bullpen Monster?, by Conrad Parrish
If they do, I hope it looks like Cerberus with priest heads.

Chris Archer Has Some Questions About the Future of Pitching, by Travis Sawchik
The five-man rotation is becoming less of a given. Chris Archer will be a part of a four-man rotation this season in Tampa Bay. He knows the way forward is a golden brick road with all of the hiccups you expect along with it.

Juan Lagares and the Power of Perception, by Stephen Loftus
A bargain acquisition is hiding behind the perception of the Mets’ fourth outfielder.

TUESDAY, 3/20
The Minor-League Wage Battle Might Be on the Verge of Ending, by Sheryl Ring
Nineteen thousand pages deep in the omnibus spending bill that was passed Friday, three days after this article was published, sits “language insulating Major League Baseball from liability for not paying minor leaguers minimum wage.” What impact could the Save America’s Past Time Act have on minor league class action lawsuits and other legal action?

MLB Teams With the Most Dead Money in 2018, by Craig Edwards
Which teams could start a funeral home with their dead money?

WEDNESDAY, 3/21
A Rebuilding Year: My Way Back to Baseball, by Anne Maroon
An excerpt: “But I let my head fill up with other things, from the fall into the winter. And before long, things that should have been obvious began to occur to me: other jobs I could do, places I could live, stories I could write. For all my mid-20s fatalism (I seemed to have absorbed the scouting notion that 26-year-olds are well over the hill and, inexplicably, applied it to non-baseball life), it turned out that I could still change my mind.”

On Caring for One Another, by Meg Rowley
It might be more outside the norm for a community glued together by a constant drive to reach subjectivity, but all communities are asked to reflect at one point or another. That is what Meg does here.

Alex Cobb’s Patience Actually Worked, by Jeff Sullivan
Patience is virtuous without results if conventional wisdom is to be trusted, but it’s a bit more satisfying when it comes with them.

THURSDAY, 3/22
The Most Underrated Base Stealer of the 1980’s and ’90’s, by Ryan Pollack
Ryan uses statistical analysis to pull an underrated base stealer out from the shadows of a current general agreement.

The Remaining Path Forward for Minor-League Players, by Nathaniel Grow
The omnibus spending bill, which includes language that strips minor league players of minimum wage rights, was signed by President Trump Friday night. MLB reportedly lobbied for years for the Save America’s Past Time Act, which legalizes its minor league paying practices. Where do the players go from here?

FRIDAY, 3/23
Pitcher Spotlight: The Noah Syndergaard Flaw We’re All Ignoring, by Nick Pollack
What flaw? What rose-colored glasses?

How Long Can Joey Votto Hold Off Decline?, by Travis Sawchik
Joey Votto is a man of many talents. He can fake out a fan with the best of them and the walks he’s taken combined would probably land him somewhere across the globe. But how long can he stave off the monsters of decline?