http://friarforecast.com/?p=1074 Yesterday, I wandered over to espn.com in search of an update on the score of the Padres game. I quickly discovered the Padres were losing 5-0 in the fourth, and after a brief glance at the box score revealed Adrian Gonzalez was the only Padre to record a hit at that point, I disgustedly hit “back” on my browser, and proceeded to scroll through the rest of the scores. A few lines down, I stumbled upon a stunning score: Yankees 15, Mets 0… W-Burnett, L-Santana. An examination of the box score revealed Johan Santana had been lit up by the Yankees bats. Derek Jeter led the charge with a 4 for 4 day at the plate. Jeter’s day piqued my interest. I noticed it brought his batting average up to 0.310, and his on base percentage to 0.378 on the season. Very solid numbers, particularly for a shortstop. This got me thinking. Has Derek Jeter become underrated? As a fan who reads a lot of sabermetrically friendly articles, and does not live in New York, I believe he has. In recent years, it has become popular to call Derek Jeter overrated. A 2008 poll of 495 major league players conducted by Sports Illustrated resulted in “Cap’n Jetes” being labeled the most overrated player in the game. Most fielding studies have concluded Jeter is, if not the worst, then one of the worst fielding shortstops of his generation. Certainly not worthy of his three gold gloves. The Jeter backlash has been further compounded by his status as captain of the New York Yankees, and his $189 million contract. Lost in all of this is that Derek Jeter is actually a great player. And he has been. For a long time. For his career, Jeter has 2614 hits, 215 HR, and an OPS of 0.845. He has been remarkably consistent, only recording an OPS below 0.800 three times in 14 seasons, and none below 0.771. About a month ago, Beyond the Boxscore published an article and accompanying chart that highlights the career WAR for an “average hall of famer” and a “ replacement hall of famer.” Below I have updated the chart so we can see how Jeter stacks up (note: Seasons are arranged in descending order of WAR): While Jeter’s career is not finished, to this point, it looks a lot like that of an “average” hall of famer. Essentially, a Tony Gwynn, Eddie Murray, or Brooks Robinson type career. The correlation between Jeter’s WAR and that of an average hall of famer was a remarkably high 0.985.* WAR does not consider variables such as “heart,” “determination,” or “post-season excellence.” It merely considers a player’s contributions with the bat and in the field during the regular season. Even throwing out all of the “ intangible” arguments, Jeter has played at a hall of fame level throughout his career. *Note: In 2009, Jeter has already accumulated 2.5 WAR. I decided to bump it up to 4.0 WAR for the year, and include it has a data point. While Derek Jeter is probably not the best player to play the game, he is certainly amongst the best. His election to the hall of fame (whenever that occurs) will have been deserving. Sure his fielding is poor, and at one point, he probably received too much credit for the Yankee’s success, but somewhere along the way, some of us (certainly myself) lost track of just how good Jeter has been. And still is. --

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