Colorado Rockies: MLB Network ranks Trevor Story as best shortstop for second straight year

Among a slew of other things happening, one good thing came out on Tuesday and it was MLB Network’s ranking of the Top Ten Shortstops Right Now. For the second straight season, Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story was named the best shortstop in baseball.

However, as expected with the way things are going for Rockies fans, it was not good all around. Of the five people that had their own rankings (host Brian Kenny, MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds, SABR President Vince Gennaro, MLB.com’s sabermetric experts Sarah Langs and Mike Petriello) had Story as the best shortstop.

In fact, Kenny and Gennaro had him ranked sixth on their lists. Petriello had Story fourth, Reynolds had him third, and Langs had him second. For Petriello, Langs, Kenny, and Reynolds, they all went with Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis, Jr., who was announced as the cover guy for MLB The Show 21. Gennaro went with Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who ended up coming in third on the list for “The Shredder.”

Here was “The Shredder’s” list:

1. Trevor Story
2. Fernando Tatis, Jr.
3. Xander Bogaerts
4. Francisco Lindor, New York Mets
5. Trea Turner, Washington Nationals
6. Corey Seager, Los Angeles Dodgers
7. Carlos Correa, Houston Astros
8. Bo Bichette, Toronto Blue Jays
9. Javier Baez, Chicago Cubs
10. Tim Anderson, Chicago White Sox

You can check out the sabermetric experts lists here.

Also, as a part of each edition, they have been doing the Top 10 at each position in the divisional era (1969-present). For this segment, Brian Kenny and Bob Costas have each made a list for each player. For previous installments, Costas has had Rockies on them but Kenny has not but for this one, it was different.

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Kenny ranked former Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki as his 9th-best shortstop while Costas said that Tulowitzki and Jimmy Rollins just missed his list. Other than the order and Tulowitzki being left off the list in favor of Francisco Lindor (at number 10), the two were in agreement on the players. Here was Kenny’s list compared to Costas’ rankings in parentheses behind.

1. Cal Ripken, Jr. (2)
2. Derek Jeter (3)
3. Robin Yount (6)
4. Ozzie Smith (4)
5. Alex Rodriguez (1) (Kenny also noted that he knocked him down due to the steroid allegations and positive tests)
6. Alan Trammell (7)
7. Barry Larkin (5)
8. Nomar Garciaparra (9)
9. Troy Tulowitzki (NR)
10. Omar Vizquel (8)

You can check out the segment here.

For Tulowitzki, he’s a classic case of “what could have been” but his career was derailed by numerous injuries. Otherwise, he’d definitely be on the list and, perhaps, toward the top of the list. If Tulowitzki’s replacement, Trevor Story, stays healthy and plays like he has been, he will likely be among those on that list in a few years.