The Best of FanGraphs: November 3 – November 7, 2014

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.

MONDAY
The 2014 FanGraphs Player of the Year: Clayton Kershaw, by Dave Cameron
It was a close vote, but Clayton Kershaw brought the trophy home. If you’d like to see each voter’s individual ballot, click here.

2015’s Far Too Early Sleeper Team, by Mike Petriello
Psst — it’s the Indians.

A Season Recap of the Little League Home Run, by August Fagerstrom
In which August ranks three “home runs” as worse than that crazy Ryan Raburn comedy of errors…and isn’t wrong. Astounding.

Making the Case for Ian Desmond as Fantasy’s Top Shortstop, by Scott Strandberg
One of the top players plus one of the healthiest players equals the best player? Scott makes his case.

TUESDAY
The Yankees Found Another Way To Outspend Every Other Team, by Kiley McDaniel
This is the sort of creativity that kept the team competitive last season. Of course, if they hadn’t whiffed on some of their big budget signings, that probably would have helped even more, but still.

You Can Now Play Old Sports Arcade Games Thanks to the Internet Archive, by David Wiers
Cool.

WEDNESDAY
Xander Bogaerts: Post-Hype Sleeper?, by Mike Podhorzer
Mike takes the 30,000 ft. view.

The Cy Young That Never Was, by Owen Watson
A chance encounter leads to a revelation on the 1980 Cy Young Award race, and much, much more.

THURSDAY
The Astros Get Their Jose Molina, by Jeff Sullivan
Psst — it’s Hank Conger.

On Game Theory, 0-2 Meatballs, and You, by Drew Fairservice
Sometimes, hitters need to think more. But sometimes, they need to think way, way less.

The Breakup, by Chris Gigley
How do minor league teams cope when their local big league team leaves them for another affiliate?

Has the Modern Bullpen Destroyed Late-Inning Comebacks?, by Rob Mains
An interesting thought experiment with an All-Star comment.

FRIDAY
2015 Free Agent Predictions, by Dave Cameron
Dave maps out the top of the free-agent class, breaking the signings down per team (note: not all teams are predicted to sign free agents).

Did Bumgarner and Shields Throw Too Many Pitches?, by Jeff Zimmerman
Probably not, which we know thanks to Jeff’s interesting breakdown.

Quick Looks at Matzek, Odorizzi, Despaigne and Colome, by Jeff Zimmerman
Tyler Matzek had a great finish to his season, but Jeff isn’t impressed.