The Best of FanGraphs: October 9-13

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
Letting Carl Edwards Face Bryce Harper, by Craig Edwards
The Nationals’ superstar took the right-hander deep. That doesn’t mean it was the wrong matchup.

Scoutable Hitter Traits to Projections: A Beginning, by Jeff Zimmerman
Actually, figuring out Cole Skills might be interesting as well.

TUESDAY
The Eighth Pitch to Josh Reddick, by Jeff Sullivan
If you’re not in awe of the way that Jeff builds beautiful narratives out of the tiniest observation or piece of data, you’re either not paying attention or are extraordinarily hard to impress.

In Defense of Dusty Baker, by Dave Cameron
Sometimes, stuff just happens. That was certainly true in Game 5, and it was also true in Game 3, which Dave wrote about here.

October 2018 Starting Pitcher Rankings, by Paul Sporer
I feel like the title was one number off, but don’t focus on that, focus on the rankings, which Paul also tiered for your binning convenience.

Let’s Have Some Action, by Joe Distelheim
Joe is getting bored, but unlike most columns decrying the creeping boredom that the game is becoming, he is armed with a solution.

WEDNESDAY
Starting CC Sabathia Tonight is Perfectly Reasonable, by Dave Cameron
The logic was solid, and with nine strikeouts in 4.1 innings, Sabathia made that logic stand up, too.

Grandstands Make Great Kindling, by Eric Robinson
Ballparks used to burn down a lot. Here, Eric tells some of their stories.

THURSDAY
Let’s Watch Brett Gardner Work a 12-Pitch At-Bat, by Jeff Sullivan
Long at-bats are pretty rare. Long at-bats that help decide playoff series are even more rare, but that’s exactly what we had Wednesday night, and Jeff expertly breaks it down.

Stephen Strasburg’s Magnificent and Surprising Wednesday, by Travis Sawchick
The Nationals’ righty might have been sick heading into Game 4, but it certainly didn’t show in his performance.

Dave Dombrowski Knows Why John Farrell Was Fired (We Can Only Speculate), by David Laurila
And will we ever!

FRIDAY
Dear MLB: Please Fix The Slide Replay, by Dave Cameron
This is the second time that Dave has had to write this piece. Hopefully, it’s the last time.

The Nationals’ Protest Case, by Craig Edwards
This was a bizarro game for the ages, with most of the Nationals’ wounds being of the self-inflicted variety. But one call that didn’t go their way perhaps should have.

Arbitration Advice from the Community, by Trey Baughn
If you play Ottoneu, there is valuable info here for you. And if you don’t play Ottoneu, it is probably still valuable, even if it’s not directly applicable. But you should really play Ottoneu, it’s quite enjoyable.

How the Strike Zone Alters by Count by Henry
This is an interesting way to break down the strike zone, one that I’ve never thought to do or seen done before.