All Lined Up

All the stars were aligning perfectly last night until Brian Giles' home run with two outs in the ninth inning in San Francisco knocked one, hopefully temporarily, off line. It's certainly nice to know that we single-handedly sucked all the life out of the Dodgers last week.

During the telecast last night they mentioned that the Rox are on pace to set the MLB record for team fielding percentage. I pulled out my trusty Lahman database and did a little research. The Rockies are at .9893 for fielding percentage, putting them .0002 ahead of the team which currently holds the MLB record for team fielding percentage, the 2006 Boston Red Sox. Prorating the Rockies' total chances through the rest of the season, I estimate they can commit two more errors and still set the mark. Here is a table of the top ten teams all-time in fielding percentage. Here also is a table of the Rockies' fielding percentages each season. I don't remember the 1993 season being THAT bad.

Until next time, Go Rockies!

Looking Ahead

Yesterday I began contemplating the possibility of the Rockies finishing in a tie with the Padres and/or Phillies for the wild card. First off, let's not entirely rule out the Rockies in the hunt for the division. I agree, it's a long shot and a few (not a lot though) things have to fall into place. The Rockies were considered a long shot just to be in the position they are in right now, so anything can happen. The Mets seemed determined to play themselves into the conversation too. The good news is, with two wins against Arizona in the series to end the season, the Rox would hold the head-to-head tie-breaker with every team that is currently ahead of them in the divisional and wild card standings. The RMN this morning ran down the scenarios of a tie and what would happen to determine the winner of the WC. The bottom line is this: IF the Rox can stay on their current path of playing baseball worthy of a postseason berth, they are in a decent position to earn that berth. Keep this in mind also: if the Rox can win one more game of the next three than the Diamondbacks (and the Padres continue their free fall), the final series at home with Arizona could be for the division title. Would there be anything more exciting than if the Rox could take the first two from the Snakes and the last game of the season would have the division title on the line for the two teams involved? Granted, the Rox have to beat the Dodgers AGAIN and the Pirates have to beat the Diamondbacks at least once, but if we have learned anything in the last seven days it's that anything can happen. It was just one week ago tonight that the Rox accomplished the improbable with late home runs off of Broxton and Saito to beat the Dodgers. Helton's bomb and subsequent run around the bases still gives me chills when I think about it.

The ongoing conversation regarding the NL Rookie of the Year, particularly the defensive short-comings of Milwaukee thirdbaseman Ryan Braun got me thinking. I've been wondering how bad, historically speaking, Braun's defense really is. This table lists the bottom ten thirdbasemen in fielding percentage since 1920 with a minimum of 200 chances.

Braun currently has a fielding percentage of .900, so that would make him the sixth worst thirdbaseman by fielding percentage since 1920.

Until next time, Go Rockies!