Now if you asked any Yankee fan their answer's would probably all sound the same "Jeter's the Captain... It's his team... he is a championship caliber SS". Others would point to the famous "Range Factor" and other wild stats to prove there points. But ask yourself this.. who would you rather have at Shortstop today, and going forward Arod or Jeter? Alex has slowed down tremendously since his hip surgery. There have been numerous occasions where he has hit into double plays that he would've been able to beat out just a year ago. Oh, and lets not forget, Arod has been more prone to injury lately and has more surgery to come.
Although he still has a stronger arm than Jeter, he does not seem to posses the same lateral movement he once did. Add that to the fact that he has a heavier body and the fact that Jeter is having his one of his best defensive seasons in ages and you could easily make the case that Jeter not Arod would be the better of the two. Now if will be foolish to think that Jeter will maintain this level of play for much longer especially with defensive standouts like Ramiro Pena waiting in the wings, so u can expect a position change soon, but a few more productive years at SS can be easily seen.
3 Comments:
well clearly everyone should pick Jeter. ARod bulked up when he went to 3B. He has a 3B body(power hitter). This answer is pretty obvious to me.
The days of A-Rod being the better overall player may be over. Right now defensively, Jeter is a better shortstop than A-Rod is a third baseman. Much of that has to do with A-Rod's hip surgery and Jeter's newly found range.
Jeter is hitting 70 points higher, and his OPS is about 15 points less than A-Rod.
In 2004 it should have been A-Rod, but now it's Jeter.
It's clear that AROD is not 100% this year (range, speed, taking spring training at bats during the season, etc).
The test will be next year when AROD is done with the hip surgery and has amble recovery time with a regular spring training to get his at bats before the season.
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