The Best of FanGraphs: March 28-April 1, 2016

by
April 2, 2016

Each week, we publish north of 100 posts on 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, orange for TechGraphs and blue for Community Research.

ALL WEEK
2016 Season Preview
We were back at it again with a second straight week of Season Preview content at THT. It’s hard to single out a post because they were all awesome, but if you must pick just one (how could you!?!?) go with Eno Sarris’ food post, which is going to be a handy resource for the foreseeable future. But the other four posts — Chris Gigley on the Giants, Frank Firke on 2016 public analytics expectations, Emma Baccellieri on fifth starters and Corinne Landrey on Opening Day are all worthy of your time.

MONDAY
MLB Tiered Third Base Rankings: 2016 Preseason, by Randy Holt
This was Randy’s debut post at RotoGraphs. Welcome Randy to the RG team!

Here Come the Prospects: Diamondbacks and Angels, by Marc Hulet
The Angels might not have a great farm system, but they’re bound to graduate some players, and Marc lets you know which ones to keep an eye on.

TUESDAY
2016 Positional Power Rankings: Relief Pitchers (#1-15), by Craig Edwards
Craig put the capper on the Positional Power Rankings posts. If you missed any, go here to read them all. We put a lot of work into these.

Let’s Invent a New Pitch, by Eno Sarris
Eno was in rare form here.

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The Crowd: Angels Have Riskiest Roster in Baseball, by August Fagerstrom
August horned in on Sullivan’s territory, and did a pretty damn good job of it. Watch out, Jeff!

WEDNESDAY
Where Are All The Contract Extensions?, by Dave Cameron
Possibly hanging out with all the cowboys?

The Math of Winning Ottoneu, by Trey Baughn
Incredibly thorough and informative. Don’t read this if you’re in my Ottoneu league!

THURSDAY
The Most Important Players of 2016, by Dave Cameron
While I was surprised to not see Yasiel Puig here, it’s hard to argue with Dave’s choices.

Our Most Common Bold Predictions, by Chad Young
Yeoman’s work by Chad to combine all the bold predictions into a collective post.

This is the Way Daily Fantasy Ends — Not With a Bang, but With a Whimper, by David G. Temple
David astutely points out that “FanDuel and DraftKings aren’t just interested in a positive decision, they need a fast positive decision.” Because, as “Diamond” Joe Quimby once so eloquently stated:

quimby

And we’ll move on to something new soon.

FRIDAY
FanGraphs 2016 Staff Predictions, by 55 of Us
Bookmark this one so you can mock our foolishness in a few months time.

How It Could All Go Wrong for the Cubs, by Dave Cameron
Nice breakdown from Dave, though I agree with Richie that we should also be wary of a Ben Zobrist collapse.

2016 RotoGraphs Staff Picks, by Alex Chamberlain
The RG team also has staff picks for you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go fight Chamberlain for disparaging Xander Bogaerts.

How the Positional Adjustments Have Changed Over Time: Part 1, by tacoman
One thing I learned in this post, or perhaps remembered, is that the quality of first base and second base defense has been on the decline for awhile now. Interesting stuff from tacoman.





 

Paul Swydan used to be the managing editor of The Hardball Times, a writer and editor for FanGraphs and a writer for Boston.com and The Boston Globe. Now, he owns The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Acton, Mass. Follow him on Twitter @Swydan. Follow the store @SilUnicornActon.

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