The Best of FanGraphs: September 22 – September 26, 2014

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September 27, 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
How Jose Altuve Got to 200 Hits, by August Fagerstrom
I think it was by playing baseball, but you should probably read this post to double check.

John Hatfield Threw a Ball, by Patrick Dubuque
Booze and licorice are excellent items on which to spend money.

The History of Baseball Shrunk to 24 Hours, by Aaron Stilley
I was fascinated by this concept when I watched “Cosmos” this summer, so seeing it applied to baseball is pretty tremendous.

TUESDAY
Return to Being Useful: Justin Morneau, by Landon Jones
No, I didn’t just pick this post because Landon said nice things about me. Landon has some solid advice about not just Justin Morneau but all similar seasons.

WEDNESDAY
Brandon Moss on the Anatomy of a Slump, by Eno Sarris
“The GM. They have no say.” If you’d like to listen to this awesome interview rather than read it, you can do so in all of its gloriousity here.

The Three Most Distinctive Team Philosophies, by Jeff Sullivan
Conclusions are hard to come by as to effectiveness, but three teams are going about things in a more extreme way than others, and that is certainly noteworthy.

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Is Josh Harrison’s Approach a Concern?, by Chris Cwik
See above post about conclusions being hard to come by.

Blow Up Your Innings, by Michael Barr
A friendly reminder for those of us in Yahoo! leagues.

Microchip Technology Incorporated to Improve Athlete Bioanalytics, by Jen Mac Ramos
Dallas sports teams are leading the way in a new, wearable-ish technology that could provide a wealth of useful information.

THURSDAY
Mariners’ Scouting Director Tom McNamara on Alex Jackson and High School Picks, by David Laurila
It’s always interesting to hear just how many scouts observe a highly touted player in the three-year span before he is drafted.

Scouting Yasmany Tomas, by Kiley McDaniel
Will Tomas be the first player to get $100 million signing right out of Cuba? More importantly, is he worth it?

FRIDAY
Derek Jeter: Not Just a Good Hitter for a Shortstop, by Dave Cameron
In a normal year, Dave’s hypothetical AL MVP ballot would have been the biggest story of our week. But this isn’t a normal year, it’s Derek Jeter year. So, sorry about that, Mike Trout.

Matt Holliday is the Cardinals, the Cardinals are Matt Holliday, by Drew Fairservice
When Matt Holliday signed long-term with the Cardinals, it was considered a reach by many, but both player and team have to be thrilled with how things have worked out.

The All Undrafted Rotation, by Michael Barr
Every season has surprises, but it seemed like they were more of them this season. Michael breaks down the top starting pitcher surprises.

2014 Ken Giles: 2011 Craig Kimbrel’s Long-Lost Brother, by David Palardy
David paints an interesting comparison.





 

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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