Jeter SP Foil auction

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by BLongley

Not saying I would pay $100k, but Jeters numbers are impressive, not to mention he played his entire career for one team and played only one position his entire career (he played more games at SS than Robin Yount and Ernie Banks added together).

And yet, in his prime, he was nowhere near the shortstop Yount or Banks were in theirs. Banks won two MVPs. Yount won two, also. One at shortstop, another in center field.

Originally Posted by BLongley

A five-time World Series champion, Jeter is regarded as a central figure of the Yankees' success of the late 1990s and early 2000s for his hitting, baserunning, fielding, and leadership.

LOL at mentioning Jeter's fielding as being part of the reason the Yankees were successful.

First of all, regarding his base running, he was decent on the bases. Let's not make him out to be Rickey Henderson as a base stealer, or Stan Musial with the doubles and triples, because he wasn't. Stealing 356 bases in two decades, and 4,717 times on base, isn't that great. That he leads the Yankees all-time shouldn't be surprising, as the Yankees have historically been a team built around power. Rickey Henderson stole 326 in five years with the Yankees, so he nearly equaled Jeter. Henderson also had a 135 OPS + those five years with the Yankees. Jeter had one season in twenty (1999, 153) with an OPS + over 135. That's why Henderson's considered an all-time great. Jeter just didn't get that many extra base hits, either. His last fifteen years, he averaged 28 doubles, 2 triples and 13 home runs, or 33 doubles, 3 triples and 16 home runs per 162 games played, in an era where offensive numbers were off the charts. In 1996, his first full season, there was a league average of 5.39 runs per game, the third highest in the 117 years of American League history. Between '96 and 2005, there were an average of 5.01 runs scored per game. Compare that to the last five years, when there were an average of 4.46 runs per game. When you consider what other premier hitters were doing, Jeter's offensive numbers look downright paltry.

Originally Posted by BLongley

He is the Yankees' all-time career leader in hits (3,465), doubles (544), games played (2,747), stolen bases (358), times on base (4,716), plate appearances (12,602) and at bats (11,195). His accolades include 14 All-Star selections, five Gold Glove Awards, five Silver Slugger Awards, two Hank Aaron Awards, and a Roberto Clemente Award. Jeter was the 28th player to reach 3,000 hits and finished his career ranked sixth in MLB history in career hits and first among shortstops.

Games played, times on base, plate appearances, at bats. Compiled stats from a long career.

Hits? The last five years, Jeter was downright awful. He combined for 4.9 WAR, worth less than one win a season. If his name weren't Derek Jeter, the Yankees would have (and should have) canned him. Only a decent 2012 where he hit .316 salvaged the last quarter of his career from being a complete embarrassment. Like Rose at the end of his career trying to top Cobb, Jeter was clearly just trying to get to 3,000 hits and beyond. He got 718 hits those last five seasons, with a 94 OPS +. He was 6% below league average with the bat, and abysmal defensively.

And, I know the awards. All Star Games are popularity contests, so a guy playing in (by far) the most populous city in America being sent 14 times, when in a handful of those seasons he clearly wasn't deserving, doesn't impress me. Robin Yount wasn't even an All Star in 1989 when he won the MVP. The most deserving players don't always go, and sometimes, a player goes just because their name is Derek Jeter, even when they were worth 0.2 WAR for the whole season. Same with the Gold Gloves. He was at best an average shortstop in his prime, and awful otherwise. The Silver Sluggers? Somebody at every position has to win one. Jeter won one in 2008 with a 102 OPS +. The position in the American League was abysmal that year, so he was the least undeserving player. The award shouldn't have even been handed out that year because American League shortstops were pathetic. The other four seasons he put up pretty good numbers.

Originally Posted by BLongley

The only players with more career hits than Jeter are Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial and Tris Speaker. And you have to remember all of Jeters postseason records, all time postseason hits leader, etc.

Cobb, Aaron, Musial and Speaker are immortals of the game. Jeter doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath with those other men. And Rose? Well, Rose and Jeter are a good deal alike at first glance. They played long careers, and put up some monster compiling numbers. Jeter was a career .310 hitter in 12,602 PAs. In 12,935 PAs, which covered the period 1963 to 1980 (when Rose turned 40, the age at which Jeter retired), Rose was also a .310 career hitter. Jeter had a 115 career OPS +, and Rose, at the same point, was at 124. And they had similar career WAR. But unlike Jeter, Rose actually won three batting title, and he led the league in doubles five times. He led the league in hits seven times (Jeter did it twice), and in runs scored four times (once for Jeter). He also led the league in OBP twice.

And the postseason records? He was a member of the Yankees for two decades, a franchise that was in the playoffs nearly every year. He should be at or near the top in many categories, don't you think? Again, games played, at bats, plate appearances, hits-when you play a long time on a team that is incredibly successful, you amass those numbers. He was a .308 hitter in the post season. Pretty good, but hardly spectacular. He had some great post season series, and he had some terrible ones. Overall, he was a pretty good player in October. But is he close to being one of the best performers in playoff history? Nope.

Derek Jeter is worthy of being in the Hall of Fame. But his "greatness" as a player is totally overblown. The second half of his career, he was a slightly above average offensive player, and awful defensively. The last seven years (or, one third) of his career, he had a 101 OPS +. That's league average, folks. I know WAR isn't the ultimate metric, but if we're going by that for a quick eyeball test, and 5 + WAR is considered All Star level, from age 26 on, the last fifteen years of his career, Jeter had exactly three seasons that were All Star caliber. 2001 was a 5.2 WAR, 2006 was a 5.4, and 2009 was a 6.6 WAR. He had one other fringe All Star caliber season with a 4.6 in 2000. Besides the 4.2 he put up in 2004, he failed to reach 4 WAR in ten seasons. By WAR, he was All Star caliber in six of his eighteen full seasons.

Jeter is in the Hall because he hit .310 lifetime with 3,000 hits, 75% of which were singles.