New York Yankees: Is Derek Jeter Overrated?

For a few years now there has been a debate about one of the most controversial players in baseball, Derek Jeter.

Is the Yankee shortstop overrated or is he as good as everyone says?

For years, even as a Yankees fan, I was on the side of the people saying Jeter was overrated. Boy was I wrong. Below I will so, sabermetricly and objectively, that Derek Jeter is one of the top five offensive short stops of all time.

In an effort to identify sleepers for an ongoing draft of all-time greats, I was looking over a spreadsheet of wOBA leaders by position. Then I saw Jeter, sitting there, in the sixth spot. This was a surprise so I looked at who was above him. Here are the top 6 players:

1.       Alex Rodriguez

2.       Nomar Garciapara

3.       Arky Vughan

4.       Joe Cronin

5.       Honus Wagner

6.       Derek Jeter

So what does that mean? Well for one, it means Jeter is pretty good. But he has played during an offensive era right? Well lets look at league adjusted OPS for shortstops:

1.       Honus Wagner

2.       Alex Rodriguez

3.       Arky Vaughan

4.       Nomar Garciapar

5.       Ernie Banks

6.       Derek Jeter

So even when you league adjust, Jeter still cracks the top 6. Now I think the true ranking lies somewhere in between these numbers, especially at the top. However, this seems to show that Jeter is in fact one of the top shortstops in league history.

So let's take another look at a few of the guys ahead of Jeter. Nomar Garciapara has good numbers, yes, however the amount of time he’s missed do to injury and the fact that he only had a few really good years drop him down my list a bit. That would put Jeter in the top 5. So the list would go as follows.

1.       Alex Rodriguez

2.       Honus Wagner

3.       Arky Vaughan

4.       Ernie Banks

5.       Derek Jeter

That would put Jeter in the top 5 all time. Not overrated.

Now you can call on defense, and I will admit Jeter is not good defensively, but really what measures are you going to use. Quite simply at this time there isn’t an accurate measurement for defense that is commonly available.

So there you have it. Look at my argument. I just dont see how Jeter is overrated. He is a very good offensive shortstop, and he should be in the hall of fame.

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