4 ms·
Nevertheless it's very very easy to argue that Jeter is overrated if you stop evaluating with your eyes and dive into the metrics. He's got the lowest defensive
by msbarnett 4y ago
Nevertheless it's very very easy to argue that Jeter is overrated if you stop evaluating with your eyes and dive into the metrics. He's got the lowest defensive WAR (-9.4) of any shortstop in the modern era – the objective outcomes of him playing in that position are quite literally worse than average, and worse than any other shortstop who played under Steinbrenner or in that media market (Didi Gregorius gets far less attention, but is a far better SS).
People rate him highly based on watching his spectacular, dramatic diving catches – forgetting that those dives are the product of him being badly positioned on the hit, and that a correctly-positioned player would simply make an unremarkable routine catch on the same hit.
Jeter's the baseball equivalent of the programmer who an Org is in love with for constantly spending nights and weekends fighting fires, failing to notice that it's the same person who's accidentally starting all of the fires to begin with.
- theluketaylor 4y agoThat’s all certainly true, and he should have moved to third for A-Rod, and yet he is still a hall of fame calibre player, which don’t exactly come around every day. Despite his -9.4 dWAR, his 96.3 oWAR still leaves him well beyond the 60 WAR HOF barrier. Jeter is such an odd player since he is simultaneously one of the best to ever play the game and massively overrated. I’m not sure there is another baseball player who fits that description.
- altdataseller 4y agoYeah, I'm not even looking at the defensive metrics. I don't even think he's that great defensively either. But the offensive numbers AND more importantly, his clutch performances are what makes him special. People underestimate how hard it is to produce offensively in a pressure cooker environment in NY. Many superstars have come here and simply not produced the way they have in the past because they can't produce under the pressure.
- cjpearson 4y agoI'd say Joe DiMaggio is similar. He's an all-time great, but there are many better players with less renown. You could make a case for Pete Rose too. In a way Jeter's career is a cross of those two. His triple slash is similar to Rose, and he's also among the hits and plate appearance leaders. And like DiMaggio, he was the face of a Yankees dynasty.
- nfRfqX5n 4y agoI think most people rate him highly based on being the captain of a winning team.