The Best of FanGraphs: March 26-30, 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, 3/26
Scott Kingery and the Problem of the Prisoner’s Dilemma, by Sheryl Ring
Ah, what a different time it was back then, six days ago when Scott Kingery had never played in a major league game and signed an unprecedented contract.

The Giants Really Didn’t Need a Madison Bumgarner Injury, by Craig Edwards
Like… really, really didn’t need a MadBum injury.

TUESDAY, 3/27
Let’s Strategize Under the Potential Extra Inning Rule, by Michael Augustine
The rule would throw a runner on second a few innings into extras, possibly the 12th. How might teams capitalize on that gift?

The Lurking Error in Statcast Pitch Data, by Gerald Schifman
An excerpt: “In April 2017, FiveThirtyEight’s Rob Arthur wrote that Statcast was having more trouble than PITCHf/x did accurately determining pitch location and movement. That analysis presented a good early look at the new system’s pitch-tracking problems, but there are more stones to unturn. What was the magnitude of the errors throughout the 2017 season? How accurate were the pitch velocities tracked by Statcast last year? Does a full-year look at the 2017 season reveal smaller biases than the April estimates? And to what extent did offsets change within each park?”

Rich Hill Has a Theory About Spin and Aging, by Travis Sawchik
Rich Hill’s path is one of the more remarkable among major leaguers. All that time spent traveling that path possibly gave him some wisdom that he’s extended to this theory.

WEDNESDAY, 3/28
The 2017 Strike Zone, by Jon Roegele
An excerpt: “The observations of the strike zone in 2017 suggest what was suspected after the 2016 season was real —that the strike zone size peaked in 2015 and now is slowly shrinking. Here is a visual representation of the typically called strike zone from last season for left-handed hitters and right-handed hitters, from the home plate umpire’s perspective. Cells colored green indicate square inch areas above the front of home plate where more than half of all pitches crossing in the area were called strikes.”

The Great Australian Home-Run Spike, Part 1, by Alexis Brudnicki
The first installment in a three-part series, Alexis explores a home run surge in another part of the world. Was juice the culprit there?

When College Teams Face the Pros, by Jeff Sullivan
The Marlins are (at least projected to be) very, very bad. But also, they’re very, very good.

THURSDAY, 3/29
Post-Hype & No-Hype Hitters to Know, by Paul Sporer
Potential “early season waiver gems,” as Paul calls them, could be essential to know when patience wears out with fringe players on your fantasy roster.

It’s Always Different, by Jason Linden
An excerpt: “Baseball is undergoing a shift. We’ve seen it for the last few years: the idea of blowing up a team and taking the time to rebuild. It’s frustrating, especially when the team is really awful for a few years. But there’s something, perhaps, to admire in it. Starting over. When I was a kid, my mom liked to say, ‘Sometimes, you have to make a mess to clean a mess.'”

Let’s Dream on Cristian Pache, by Travis Sawchik
A lone cellphone camera caught a glimpse of who Cristian Pache could be with his new swing adjustments working to their potential.

FRIDAY, 3/30
Opening Day Fastball Velocities & Lineup Positions, by Jeff Zimmerman
All guts, little flair. Jeff lists exactly as the title says.

What You Can Say About Matt Davidson, by Carson Cistulli
On their way out of the stadium, did the three (3) baseballs Matt Davidson hit on opening day do anything to change his evaluation?

Giancarlo Stanton’s Adjustment Appears to Be Carrying Over, by Travis Sawchik
*Watches Giancarlo blast a baseball.* *Drives to The Bronx Museum of the Arts* *Finds baseball* *Runs extensive, highly involved tests on baseball.* Sir, you’ll want to see this. Giancarlo Stanton is still a baseball mashing demi-god.