The Best of FanGraphs: September 12-16, 2016

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
Adam Jones Addresses “Baseball Is a White Man’s Sport”, by David Laurila
Adam Jones is a pretty smart man. Whether you agree with him or not, he deserves your respect. If people like he and Colin Kaepernick and Megan Rapinoe can help spur discussion about what we need and want the role and behavior of the police in this country to be, then we’re all better for it.

Rich Hill and the Conflicting Priorities of History, by Dave Cameron
I’ll never agree with this decision, but as Dave explains, it’s easy to understand why Dave Roberts made it.

When to Give Up an Out on the Bases, by Craig Edwards
Some good work here by Craig on an under-explored area of the game.

TUESDAY
The Near-Historic Characteristic of the Indians Offense, by August Fagerstrom
When we talk about the gap between public and team-level knowledge, this is probably one of those areas. Was the breaking ball proclivities of free-agent hitters like Mike Napoli and Rajai Davis something we could have researched, and paired it with Indians youngsters like Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez and Tyler Naquin? For the most part, yes (hard data on the prospects would have been harder to come by). Would anyone have thought to do that? Not a chance. The Indians, it seems, may have, and as such while their offseason plan didn’t make much sense at the time, in this light it very much does.

Watching ‘Pitch’ at Dodger Stadium, by Sarah Wexler
Sarah was there for the pilot screening of this potentially exciting new series from FOX, and reported what she saw.

WEDNESDAY
The Case for Corey Seager for National League MVP, by Dave Cameron
The case for NL MVP doesn’t have nearly as many players as the AL does. Dave lays out one of the two cases here.

The Case for Kris Bryant for National League MVP, by Jeff Sullivan
And Jeff lays out the other.

The Dodgers Need Yasiel Puig Whether They Want Him or Not, by Corinne Landrey
Am I the only one who pictures Yasiel Puig singing this before bed every night since the Ryan Braun trade story leaked?

But as Corinne explains, this is going to be the Dodgers if they do trade #Puigyourfriend:

The Unwritten Rules, by Justin Mason

Raining David Crosby: Reviewing Our Preseason Predictions, by The Birchwood Brothers
They weren’t all good, but they were definitely all entertaining.

THURSDAY
What Can Hitters Actually See Out of a Pitcher’s Hand?, by Eno Sarris
Eno goes in. You read now.

Seven Theories for the Home Run Surge Tested, by Scott Spratt
The tests may have all failed, but the article itself was a triumph.

Spin Rates, Swinging Strikes, and an xSwStrk Stat., by Andrew Perpetua
As Andrew advises in the post, you should do yourself a favor and click through to the full-screen visual.

Doing What it Takes to Keep Players Healthy, by Alissa Noe
Alissa’s THT debut was a well-reported feature on what trainers go through with their players.

FRIDAY
2016 Fringe Five: Summary and Results and Discussion, by Carson Cistulli
Congrats to Sherman Johnson! And congrats to you, for getting to read Carson write about oft-forgotten prospects for another minor league season.