The Best of FanGraphs: October 13 – October 17, 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, purple for NotGraphs, dark red for The Hardball Times, orange for TechGraphs and blue for Community Research.

MONDAY
The Good That Alex Gordon Got From Being Bad, by Eno Sarris
Not everyone can succeed right away. Even fewer can pick themselves back up when they fail.

19-Year-Old Jorge Mateo Is The Yankees’ Shortstop Of The Future, by Zeke Fine
For his first post at FanGraphs, Zeke picked a nice, easy topic that no one spends much time thinking about.

Avoid Rookies with your ottoneu Allocations, by Chad Young
Words of wisdom from our resident Ottoneu guru. (Hey, that rhymes!)

The Strike Zone Expansion is Out of Control, by Jon Roegele
Last year, Jon’s piece in The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2014 on the strike zone was one of the highlights of the book. This week, he updated the post with results from the 2014 season.

Progressive Pitch Projections, by Matthew Mata
First, try to say the title of this post five times fast. Then, feast your eyes. This insightful post has GIFs, hexplots and animated graphs. How cool is that? Oh, and it’s also potentially a very fruitful topic of analysis.

TUESDAY
Evaluating the Prospects: Boston Red Sox, by Kiley McDaniel
It was a word-filled week for Kiley, who also reviewed Cubs prospects on Friday.

The Physics of Splash Hits, by David Kagan
The Giants are headed to the World Series — will any balls head into McCovey Cove during the games in San Francisco? Read up on the forces that play on balls headed in that general direction in this great piece from David.

WEDNESDAY
All That Ned Yost Bunting Has Helped the Royals, by Jeff Sullivan
The tables, as they say, have turned.

“KC At The Bat”, by Jeremy Blachman
This comment reached +25 and therefore everything in it must be true.

Arizona Fall League Implements Tech to Speed Up Pace of Play, by Jen Mac Ramos
Players in the AFL are the guinea pigs for the new pace of game clocks, and Jen spoke to some of the players and coaches to get their reactions.

THURSDAY
What Happens When Madison Bumgarner is Really On?, by Daniel Schwartz
If Bumgarner’s release point was Elaine Benes, it would swing wildly from “No, I mentioned the bisque” to “Yama hama, it’s fright night!” Or something.

Using Vlookup for Sports Data, by Bradley Woodrum
An insightful how-to post from Bradley.

FRIDAY
Where I Was Wrong About the Royals, by Dave Cameron
Dave calls himself to the mat.

Introducing the First (And Last) Notty Awards, by John Paschal
Kenesaw Mountain Mandelbaum always knew that it was go time!

The DH and the Essence of the Game, by Adam Dorhauer
A very interesting and sobering discussion of the designated hitter from Adam.





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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