.BA Overrated? Derek Jeter's Year Overrated?

As everyone that watches baseball is aware, Derek Jeter is having the best year of his career since the late 90's. He has been so good he is in the conversasion for AL MVP. Well I was watching MLB Network last night and reporter Mitch Williams brought up many good pionts on how .BA is overrrated many times.

When you look at Jeters year the one stat that sticks out at you is the .BA but all that matters is the production. If your hitting .240 but still are being productive you are still more valuable then a guy that is hitting .320 but only has 5 HR and 40 RBI.

Think about it a former NL MVP shortstop Jimmy Rollins is having one of the worse years of his career but in some areas his stats are comparable to AL MVP contender shortstop Derek Jeter.

Jeter                       Rollins

94 Runs                   80 Runs

176 Hits                  130 Hits

25 Doubles               34 Doubles

17 HR                      17 HR 

60 RBI                     60 RBI

Triples 1                  Triples 3

K's 67                      K's 59

SB 23                      SB 25

Grounded DP 14        Grounded DP 7   

TB 254                    TB 221 

Now obviously I amn't saying that Rollins is having a better year then Jeter but the numbers in many areas are comparable.

Yes, there is almost a .100 difference in Rollin's .BA and Jeters .BA but people put way too much stress on .BA that they forget the big stats are the production you are giving to your team. I mean if your like Mark Reynolds who will most likely pass his K record but possibly hit 50 HR this year you are not going to under value him.

Another good example of a player that is a lot like Jeter is Brandon Phillips. Even in a off year his stats other then .BA can compare with Jeters

Jeter                            Phillips   

94 Runs                        63 Runs

176 Hits                       123 Hits

25 Doubles                   23 Doubles

17 HR                          18 HR 

60 RBI                         83 RBI

Triples 1                      Triples 3

K's 67                          K's 58

SB 23                          SB 22

Grounded DP 14            Grounded DP 15

TB 254                        TB 206

Again its about production, I could have used other guys as well who don't have .BA comparable to Jeter but are a lot like him by the way they play, guy like Tulowitzki, Andrus, Adam Kennedy, Ian Kinsler and others. And their numbers could compare to Jeters in areas.

The point I am trying to make here is that although Jeter is having a MVP calliber year sometimes broad casters, managers, the fans heck even us writers put way to much on .BA and forget the production.

As always feel free to write your opinion down there .