Top Shortstops in Major League Baseball – Part 2
The Philadelphia Phillies are on top of everything this season. They have the best pitching rotation in Major League Baseball, lead the National League standings by a considerable margin and are ranked the Number one team in MLB overall standings as well.
What seems so easy to the eye has a lot of hard work and dedication attached to it and their shortstop, Jimmy Rollins has been at the core of it.
Rollins has started 104 games as shortstop and has enjoyed considerable success at the technically most-demanding position. With just five errors in 942 innings of full play, Rollins’ fielding percentage stands at .989 which is the second-best in MLB behind
Troy Tulowitzki of Colorado Rockies whose fielding percentage stands at .992.
Rollins has accumulated more than 300 assists this season and his current tally of 304 ranks third among the top ten shortstops this season. Like all other star players, Rollins has worked hard on his batting skills and his hard work has paid off this season
with impressive statistics.
In 442 at-bats, the right-handed batter has accumulated 69 runs assisted by 13 home-runs which highlight his ability as a slugger as well. The multi-talented player has bagged 116 hits already and is just two short of 50 RBIs with 48 so far in the season.
Rollins’ batting average at .262 has been in touching distance of most of the top-quality batters this season.
Rollins’ 11 years at professional baseball have been exemplary. His seventh hit this year took him to 1000 career-hits and he is now just 170 hits away from 2000 career-hits. With still many years left in him, he has the ability and the talent to join the
elite club of players who have recorded 3000 career-hits. If the Phillies go on to win the World Series this year, the probability of which is exponentially increasing, Rollins will be a major contributor to it.
The Baltimore Orioles are not having a good time this season. They are undoubtedly the worst team in the American League while the Houston Astros take the honours away from them when it comes to overall standings.
However, there has been individual joy for a few Orioles’ players, one of them being their shortstop J.J. Hardy. The right-handed fielder is ranked the third-best shortstop this season but his team has failed to avail this advantage and build a good starting
line-up around him.
In his 81 starts as short-stop, Hardy has played in 708 full innings and has committed just five errors which, compared to his team’s overall performance, is a blessing. Hardy’s fielding percentage at .987 is the third-best in the Majors and the Orioles
are lucky that he has stayed with them after the trade deadline.
Just 28 years of age, Hardy is just five runs short of completing fifty runs this year and 15 hits shy of 100 hits. He has hit 19 home-runs thus far in the season and his 19th homer would be long remembered as it brought up his 100th
career-home-run. A batting average of .265 to support his laurels make him an elite player which many top teams can eye if the Orioles continue performing in this fashion.
With the importance of shortstops increasing, there have been very few players who have been able to prove themselves at the highest level. Derek Jeter remains the best shortstop of modern times and will surely be remembered for long.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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