The Best of FanGraphs: May 29-June 2, 2017

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 and blue for Community Research.

MONDAY
Lowering the Hands Works for Everyone Unless It Doesn’t, by Alex Stumpf
We were mostly off as a company on Monday in celebration of Memorial Day, but Alex worked up this little ditty, and then ended his Residency with a piece on Tuesday. His seven pieces is the early leader in the clubhouse for most Resident pieces in a month. He also appeared on FanGraphs Audio with Carson on Tuesday. Congrats to Alex on a great Residency!

TUESDAY
Players’ View: Are Two-Seamers and Sinkers the Same Pitch?, by David Laurila
As far as I’m concerned there are three types of pitches — fast, slow and breaking. Dealing specifically with these two pitch types, most people interviewed by David agreed that a two-seamer and a sinker are the same pitch, which seems important.

KATOH’s Most-Improved Hitting Prospects So Far, by Chris Mitchell
It is certainly notable that one of the players listed here is Brendan Rodgers. Chris tackled most improved pitchers the following day.

Who is Being Shifted More and Less Versus 2016?, by Mike Podhorzer
Is the increased shifting to blame for Andrew Benintendi’s slump? If so, he may need to start spraying the ball around the park a little more.

Rookies Are Keeping Their Minor League Power, by Jeff Zimmerman
Really interesting findings here from Jeff.

Should Managers Save Their Challenges?, by Kolya Illarionov
What were you doing as you were graduating high school? If you were writing high-level statistical analysis, well, then, congrats, you’re just like Kolya!

WEDNESDAY
Dictating the Action with Joey Votto, by Travis Sawchick
Sometimes it feels like we’re always talking about Joey Votto, but he really is endlessly fascinating.

What this Game Needs is More Cats, by Brian Reinhart
Brian went to “Take Meow to the Ballgame” so that you didn’t have to.

THURSDAY
The Astros Have Been Completely Unstoppable, by Jeff Sullivan
The Astros are making the AL West race boring in the best possible way — by smashing the competition.

What’s Wrong with the Cubs?, by Dave Cameron
Dave breaks down three succinct reasons why things haven’t gone as planned for the North Siders.

Anthony Rendon Is Doing His Own Thing, by Eno Sarris
#toehole

What if The King Wanted to be The Kid?, by Eli Ben-Porat
Eli uses select basketball metrics to inform a discussion about how good of a baseball player LeBron James would have been.

Matt Moore and the Terrible Schedule by Justin Chernow
Matt Moore has been very bad. His schedule though, hasn’t done him any favors.

FRIDAY
Tampa Bay’s Attendance Problem, by Michael Lortz
Michael is our Resident for June, and you should read his piece if for no other reason (and there are lots of very good reasons to read it) than his great names for the four different eras of Tampa Bay Rays attendance. Welcome, Michael!

Underthrown Pitches And The Pitchers Who Underthrow Them, by Rylan Edwards
This article is great for two reasons: 1. It represents a lot of great research. 2. It contains a Samuel Deduno reference!