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Home FAQ Samples Endorsements About CRW Contact Us ___________________ Click the PDF icon to see what the emailed PDF attachment would look like. ________________ This Polanco throw is on the money. _______________ “Craig Wright is a brilliant analyst of the game. You know how that goes –‘intelligent’ means that he agrees with me; ‘brilliant’ means that I agree with him but I never would have thought of it myself.” Bill James Senior Baseball Advisor Boston Red Sox	Things You Don’t Know About Placido Polanco’s Errorless Streak (Oct-2-07) Detroit's Placido Polanco set the record this season for consecutive errorless games at second base, and then went on to become the first regular middle infielder to have an errorless season. I think I can tell you a few things related to this feat that most will not know. When Polanco set the new record he broke a mark that had only stood about 5 weeks. Luis Castillo of the Twins broke Ryne Sandberg's record back in May and then Castillo’s streak ended on June 6 after playing 143 errorless games. On August 13th, Polanco played his 144th errorless game to set the new record. Luis, we hardly knew ya. Because Polanco was a third baseman earlier in his career, he has not played enough career games at second base to be considered the career leader in fielding percentage at second base, but among those who have played 700 games at 2nd base, he now ranks #1:     1) Placido Polanco .993     2) Scott Fletcher  .990        3) Ryne Sandberg  .989 There are some remarkable similarities between Polanco and the other surprise name on that list, Scott Fletcher. Both had above average arms for second basemen and started off playing on the left side of the infield. Both started off as minor league shortstops. Polanco was a regular at third base in the majors in 2001-2002 and Scott Fletcher was a regular at shortstop for five seasons before his move to second base. They had surprisingly similar physiques. Both players were built with a low center of gravity with unusually thick thighs. They were about the same height (Scott was an inch taller), and before Polanco began strength training and raised his weight to 190, his listed playing weight was exactly the same as Fletcher's, and some encyclopedias to this day list them at the same weight. Neither had exceptional speed. Polanco's career steal total is only 57 which is exactly what Scott Fletcher's steal total was through the same age. While Polanco is the much better hitter, they had similar offensive styles in being good contact hitters who would spray the ball around. Both grew up in warm climates where they could play a lot, Polanco in the Dominican and Fletcher in Florida. (Like Polanco, I imagine Scott actually did play a lot of baseball growing up. He was from a baseball family, the son of a minor league pitcher.) Both ended up played some small-time college ball in Florida before being drafted, and neither was drafted very high. No matter what Polanco does, I believe the honor of being the steadiest fielding second baseman belongs to Hall of Famer Eddie Collins. He led the league in fielding percentage nine times, the most of anyone in history. Collins was particularly remarkable when he set a new record by fielding .972 in 1910. That would actually be a poor fielding percentage today, but it was amazing in that era. The diamonds were poorly kept compared to later generations, the fielding gloves were vastly inferior, and there were no extended coaching staffs where you had the luxury of taking as many practice grounders as you wanted. It was also an era of aggressive base running that put a lot of pressure on middle infielders. My grandfather was 26 years old in 1910, and a long time player and fan. Speaking in the 1970s he told me the collisions at the plate back then were much milder than they are today, but it was absolute war at second base compared to the modern game. The American League fielding percentage at second base in 1910 was .945, or forty points below what it is today. Unless you follow the Tigers, you may not know that Polanco’s errorless streak was saved near the end of August when official scorer Ron Kleinfelter reversed his decision on a throwing error by Polanco that appeared to pull the first baseman off the bag. The next day the first base umpire, Hunter Wendelstedt, told the official scorer that he did not call the runner safe because the first baseman came off the base to catch the ball, but because the first baseman had missed the bag when he set up for the throw and wasn't on the base to begin with. (The first baseman was outfielder Marcus Thames who was a relative novice at first base.) The official scorer then took away Polanco's error and gave it to Thames. With those being the facts, the official scorer's decision was a reasonable decision, though obviously a lucky one for Polanco. Again, it was not a good throw, and even though I believe an experienced first baseman could have been able to stay on the base and catch that throw, it is not a given, and I'm even less convinced Thames could have done it if he had been on the bag. But you can't charge Polanco with an error when there was no opportunity to retire the batter/runner, and because of Thames' error in missing the bag to begin with, Polanco had no chance. If you haven't seen the play, there was no time for Thames to catch the ball and then touch the base, and Thames himself indicated he would not have tried because he assumed his foot was touching the base. But to play devil's advocate, can a first baseman step off the base if Polanco bobbles a grounder and then argue, "Give the error to me, he had no chance to get the out"? One could always try, but I don’t see how it could fly. The error call is a judgment call, and no official scorer is going to be boxed in by such a manufactured argument. The official scorer would simply charge Polanco with the error, and if he felt he had to justify it, he would say the timing of the play made it clear the error belongs to Polanco. On a fun frivolous note, Polanco is the first player in major league history with that name. You might be surprised to learn, as I was, that Polanco is a very common name in the Dominican Republic and we will likely have another Polanco in the majors some day. There are a half-dozen of them playing minor league baseball (Celson, Elvin, Enohel, Joel, Julio, and Wary de Jesus). There are no "Fletcher"s in the minors or majors right now.
The Diamond Appraised baseball column is dedicated to Eddie Robinson