The Best of FanGraphs: May 8-12, 2017

by
May 13, 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
The Yankees Have Been the Best Team in Baseball, by Jeff Sullivan
As Jeff said, they may not be likable, but they are the most likable Yankees team I can remember.

Jameson Taillon has Surgery for Suspected Cancer, by Travis Sawchick
Best of luck to Jameson Taillon. Cancer sucks.

Managing Decisions and an MLB Team, by Travis Sawchick
No one wants to be second guessed.

The Death of the Sinker, by Akex Stumpf
The pitch is fading from the map, but there are still those who swear by it.

Mixing Fantasy & Reality: Beltran, Keirmaier, & Gray, by Jeff Zimmerman
Among other interesting tidbits, Jeff has good news for those curious about Sonny Gray.

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.

The Predictable Bias of MLB Network, by John Paschal
John spent the 2016 season watching two MLB Network shows, and found that five teams were featured far more than the rest.

TUESDAY
12 Minor League Starters to Monitor, by Paul Sporer
If it seems like good starting pitchers have been harder to find this season, then you might want to think long-term. If that’s the case, don’t miss this piece by Paul.

WEDNESDAY
Eric Thames and the Transformative Power of Boredom, by Travis Sawchick
And YouTube. Don’t forget about YouTube.

The Giants Are Stuck, by Nicolas Stellini
The Giants don’t have a roster built for a quick rebuild, as Nick explains here.

How Much Power Does Andrew Toles Have?, by Eno Sarris
Probably not as much as Snap!, is my guess.

THURSDAY
Aaron Altherr Is Breaking Out, by Dave Cameron
Eric Thames isn’t the only one who’s having a monster season.

Misconceptions About Launch Angle, by Andrew Perpetua
Very interesting stuff from Andrew.

Are We Missing the Boat on the Yips?, by Kyle Jones
Dr. Jones, in his THT debut, spoke to Rick Ankiel and Dr. Steve Jordan from the Andrews Institute about this seldom understood topic.

How to Make Yourself Interesting by mgregor3
Indeed the player in question has made himself interesting, even if his progress is not sustainable.

FRIDAY
The Fringe Five: Baseball’s Most Compelling Fringe Prospects, by Carson Cistulli
Given Boston’s troubles at third base, they may need to think outside of the box, and if Tzu-Wei Lin keeps this up, he might just become part of the solution.





 

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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