Towards the end of the article The Post got reactions from some Yankee fans. Yankee fans that apparently base how good a fielder somebody is, on everything but their fielding.
"I don't know what they're smoking down at Penn," said Yankees fan Mike.
Birch, 32. "That's preposterous. I completely disagree. Jeter's a clutch player."
What does being "clutch" have to do with being a good defensive shortstop?
"It's ridiculous," said fan Jay Ricker, 22. "Jeter is all-around awesome. He's better than A-Rod any day. Character has a lot to do with it. He's out there for his teammates, not just himself. He does it for the good of the team. That's the kind of guy you want on the field."
Ricker added that "A-Rod's only out for the money. For him it's not about baseball, it's just about banking."
Jay, you lose all credibility with moronic statements like "Jeter is all-around awesome. He's better than A-Rod any day."
Seriously Jay, stop talking.
This study is about who the best and worst defenders at each position are, not who is the nicest guy or who has the best "character."
About the whole money situation, last time I checked Derek Jeter didn't work for free. A-Rod makes $25 million per year, and Jeter makes $21 million, so please, if you are going to get on A-Rod's case about his salary, you must do the same to Jeter.
Fans said Jeter's greatness goes beyond the numbers he produces on the field.Another one of these fans who focus on everything but the things that actually matter.
"He has intangible qualities that can't be measured with statistics," said East Village bar owner Kevin Hooshangi, 28.
"He's he ultimate teammate. It doesn't matter what his percentages are when he's making big plays in big games. He's the one with four World Series rings."
First of all this isn't about "Jeter's greatness." He will go down as one of the best hitting shortstops of all-time, and one of the greatest Yankees of all-time. But that doesn't matter, this is about his defense only.
"He's the ultimate teammate," OK fine, can this ultimate teammate get to a slow roller up the middle one of these days?
"I would disagree [with the study] of course, Jeter does a good job," said Pam Lips, 28. "Rodriguez is OK but I would take Jeter over A-Rod."
Finally a fan with some sense of reality. I can't disagree with most of what Mr. Angelo said. At least he admitted A-Rod was the better defender.However, Frank Angelo, 50, gave A-Rod his due. "He's the best shortstop in the American League playing third base," Angelo said.
But Jeter as one of the worst?
"That's not true," Angelo said. "He's a good fielding shortstop." He even said he would keep Jeter at short. "Jeter's the captain, he was there before A-Rod," said Angelo.
But what does Jeter being the captain have to do with any of this? I guess if you are the captain, it's OK to hurt your team defensively by forcing the better defensive player to change positions.
I know it may seem like I'm bashing Jeter, but that's not why I posted this.
My beef is with fans who would rather sound like a complete fool instead of facing the reality that Jeter may not be the greatest at everything. Especially when they are also so quick to bash the best player in the game, who also happens to be a Yankee, and will be for the next ten seasons. Whether you believe Jeter is a great defensive SS or not is your prerogative. And if you want to defend his defensive abilities, go ahead, but please talk about his DEFENSE and not everything else.
I'm just happy they are both Yankees, regardless of who the better defensive shortstop is. However, some of these fans need to be traded immediately.
OK rant over.
5 Comments:
I agree completely, these fans are retarded, and not because they believe Jeter isn't the worst defensive SS, but because like you said, their reasoning is completely retarded.
The fans are the fans. That's what makes sports work. Blind loyalty. However on the other hand if Bill James really was right then teams like the Oakland A's would be champs and guy's like Jeter might be coaching High School softball or something. I think the problem is that when you take any one element of a players game, and you separate that stat from the whole, you get skewed results. That's why when the Jeter bashers of the world attack him they always pick one part of his game and isolate it. There is no more complete player in the bigs then A-Rod. On the other hand Jeter has 4 rings and A-Rod has none. You would think that if A-Rods game was so much more superior to Jeter's he would have one at least one championship by now. Of course we know that isn't the case so you have to take a lot more into consideration then one statistical category when deciding that any player is the "best" or the "worst" at his position.
Baseball is not an individual sport. That's why it was unfair for A-Rod to be blamed for the Yankees recent 1st round exits. If you replace Jeter with A-Rod during the late 90's I'm sure it's A-Rod that has the four rings.
And my point was not to turn this into Jeter vs. ARod, I was just pointing out how stupid fans get when they defend Jeter. Like being a good person, or a team player, has anything to do with being a good fielding SS.
You're completely right. I've been on the "move Jeter to right field/1B/DH" band wagon for a few years now.
He hurts the team defensively on most plays. There is a lot that he does better then most SS such as catching balls while running towards the outfield and he has a strong arm. But for the most part his time at the key position is over with.
Very good post and analysis. I wrote something similar on my blog about these fans who defend Jeter using everything from his WS rings, Gold Gloves and his captaincy but don't mention his obviouslack of range.
I guess they just have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that the Yankees have their best SS playing third.
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