The Best of FanGraphs: September 4-8

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
The Reality of the Anti-Ground-Ball Revolution by Jim Melichar
We were mostly off as a company on Monday, but the Community was still hard at work, including, of course, Jim.

TUESDAY
Protecting Players Against Big Data, by Michael Hattery
Michael is our Resident for the month of September, and this was his debut article. Please give him a warm welcome!

Is the LeMahieu Shift the Boldest One Ever?, by Travis Sawchick
If it isn’t, it definitely needs to be in the conversation.

J.D. Martinez Makes History, Keeps Improving, by Travis Sawchick
Tuesday was “Travis Sawchick writes about the Diamondbacks” day.

Where the Diamondbacks Have Found Their Wins, by Jeff Sullivan
Jeff didn’t want to be left out of the fun of writing about Arizona.

Six Days in September: The 1967 AL Pennant Race, Part 1, by Shane Tourtellotte
Part 1 implies that more of these pieces are coming. Check back each Wednesday this month, as Shane breaks down what might have been the best pennant race of all-time. Also, if you didn’t notice, we made some changes this week at THT.

WEDNESDAY
Manny Machado’s Lost Season Now Found, by Craig Edwards
Now, if only he could find the keys to that old Buick.

THURSDAY
The CBA’s Poison Pill Isn’t Very Poisonous, by Stephen Loftus
We’re very excited to welcome Stephen to the FanGraphs team!

The Disconnect in Pittsburgh, by Travis Sawchick
Travis takes the unpopular stance of being reasonable on the internet.

Baseball Is Moving Away From the Sinker, by Jeff Sullivan
These things come and go, and right now, the sinker is on the downswing, no pun intended.

Quick Takes on Rookie Call Ups, by Jeff Zimmerman
Jeff runs through 16 players who have been called up so far.

Pitcher Spotlight: Luiz Gohara’s MLB Debut, by Nick Pollack
File this one away for the late rounds of your draft next March.

Unaccounted For Changes In Exit Velocity, by Andrew Perpetua
Somehow, all three RotoGraphs articles ended up being on Thursday. Maybe RotoGraphs is turning into NBC. Or maybe it’s a huge coincidence.

Using Statcast Data to Measure Team Defense by Nate
New stats are fun. Nate has created xRS. Have fun with it.

FRIDAY
MLB Should Fight Technology with Technology, by Dave Cameron
Earlier in the week, Dave had had with it the whiners and cheaters. On Friday, he proposed a solution, as he is wont to do.