The Best of FanGraphs: October 16-20

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
Joe Maddon Had a Bad Night, by Dave Cameron
Joe Maddon actually had a pretty bad series overall.

Pitching Labels Are Increasingly Irrelevant, by Travis Sawchick
Starting pitchers are throwing more in the bullpen. I put some numbers to this on Tuesday.

Tebow or Not Tebow, a Visualization, by Eli Ben-Porat
More people really did show up to games when the Heisman Trophy winner was playing.

TUESDAY
We Need More Astros, by Travis Sawchick
Contact equals fun.

Playoff Games Tend to Take a Very Long Time, by Jeff Sullivan
It’s pretty stark when you actually put it down in black and white.

What if a Team Bullpens an Entire Season? by Michael Herring
Initial thoughts on a concept that many people consider to be inevitable.

WEDNESDAY
Contract Crowdsourcing 2017-18: Ballot 1 of 15, by Carson Cistulli
Like we always do about this time. Make sure you make your opinion heard!

ALCS Notebook: Cashman on Yankee Analytics, Luhnow on Hiring Hinch, by David Laurila
David was on hand in New York, and was somehow able to get answers on some meaty questions during playoff time. It’s what he does.

These Are the Most Talented Playoff Teams of the Wild-Card Era, by Jeff Sullivan
Whether you believe in the rise of the super team (I don’t), this still is useful information.

Ottoneu Power Rankings: Final 2017, by Justin Vibber
Congrats to all of the winners!

Turning Scoutable Traits Into Projections, by Jeff Zimmerman
Jeff takes step 2 in his process, churning out thought-provoking results, but by his own admission, he still can do some fine tuning.

THURSDAY
Scooter Gennett, Giancarlo Stanton, and RBI Luck, by Scott Spratt
Not only is this interesting stuff from Scott, but it spawned an interesting discussion in the comments. I love when that happens.

Bird-Brained, by Kiri Oler
This really fun story was inspired by an infamous mound confrontation that wasn’t.

FRIDAY
The Cubs Already Need to Retool, by Dave Cameron
They’re probably still the National League Central favorites, but they’re a lot closer to the pack than they were last off-season.

Mental Health and the CBA, by Michael Hattery
In his THT debut, Michael looks at a very specific piece of language in the CBA.