The Best of FanGraphs: October 12-16, 2015
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
Baseball Is Not a Contact Sport, by Jeff Sullivan
Just in case you didn’t know.
TUESDAY
Introducing the 2016-2018 Sortable Draft Ranking Boards, by Kiley McDaniel
Kiley said farewell this week, but before he left us for good, he had one last golden egg to give.
(Mis)handling David Price, by Owen Watson
It’s still happening, somehow.
Terrance Gore and Fixing Baseball’s Broken Replay System, by Matthew Kory
MLB needs to get this fixed.
What’s Wrong With TV Baseball? Learning From Red Barber and MLB Classics, by Jack Moore
After you read this, you’ll be amazed at all the quick cuts on broadcasts that you probably weren’t paying attention to before.
WEDNESDAY
2015 RotoGraphs Staff Picks: A Review, by Alex Chamberlain
Congrats to Michael! (And Brad.)
THURSDAY
The Bizarre (Legal) Play That Almost Started a Riot, by Eno Sarris
Eno looks back on the play that kicked off the craziest seventh inning ever.
The Inning That Was Everything Baseball, by Jeff Sullivan
And Jeff recaps the whole, glorious thing.
On the Line Between Emotion and Sportsmanship, by Dave Cameron
Finally, regarding Jose Bautista’s three-run homer, Dave knows that “if you can’t celebrate in that moment, then none of this is worth anything.”
MASH Report (10/15/15) – Final PAIN and HURT Values, by Jeff Zimmerman
Jeff wraps his informative and indispensable series for the 2015 season.
Roto Comeback Hitter Award, by Chad Young
The RotoGraphs crew kicked off its awards season, and this category is always one of my personal favorites.
Away Flies the Boy, by Mark Pelesh
A superbly written piece about two members of Washington’s 1924 World Series winning team.
MLB Teases New StatCast Features Coming Soon, by David G. Temple
Tentatively exciting!
FRIDAY
Re-Introducing Myself, by Dan Farnsworth
Kiley Dave made the initial announcement, and then Dan reintroduced himself. We’re looking forward to reading Dan’s unique viewpoint more often!
The High Cost of the Dodgers’ Small Mistakes, by August Fagerstrom
An Introduction to Determining Arbitration Salaries: Starting Pitchers, by Rich Rieders
Though perhaps overly boastful, there’s some solid work done here.
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.