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Thursday, February 28, 2008

Ump Bump: Green: My scorn for Derek Jeter’s defense is entirely justified

The latest pequaknock on Jeter’s defense…

And yet, somehow, the people with the microphones just refuse to believe the evidence that is staring them in the face. When I was watching some Red Sox Spring Training coverage over the weekend, there was NESN’s Tom Caron chatting it up with the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo. The two of them just went on and on about how great Jeter is on defense, and how you can make stats prove anything, and how only lame homer Red Sox fans don’t “respect” Jeter (as if “respect” is synonymous with “think his defense is really great, even when it’s clearly not”). They even claimed Jeter’s defensive ability is actually just really clutch (oh, is that what they’re calling it these days? those crazy kids!). Cafardo kept talking about Jeter’s skills ‘after the seventh inning,’ as if Jeter is just keeping all his defensive range in reserve for those close-and-late situations. Even worse, to cap it all off, they finished up the segment by showing a clip of Jeter with the Gold Glove trophy and saying, “Well, Jeter has the hardware and you can’t argue with that, ha ha!” I would posit that one actually can argue with that, as I hope I have just effectively demonstrated.

I respect Derek Jeter. I respect his ability to reliably hit .300 with moderate power. I respect his ability to sell flavored water on TV. I respect his dimples.

I just think his defense sucks.

Repoz Posted: February 28, 2008 at 02:19 AM | 10 comment(s) | Login to Bookmark
  Related News: GeneralSabermetricsNY YankeesMediaAnnouncersTelevision

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Page 1 of 1 pages
   1. Hugh Jorgan Posted: February 28, 2008 at 02:42 AM (#2701746)
And in other breaking news Barry Bonds may have done PEDs....
   2. Rich Posted: February 28, 2008 at 02:49 AM (#2701751)
It sucked last year. It's often just somewhat below average.
   3. The Piehole of David Wells, Red Sox Colostomy Bag Posted: February 28, 2008 at 02:50 AM (#2701752)
didn't i just read here the other day that it's not the whole defensive package that's bad, it's just that certain very important aspects are? as in, when he goes left, he might as well not move, but if he's chasing down a popup he's actually very good.
   4. pkb33 Posted: February 28, 2008 at 02:55 AM (#2701755)
It sucked last year. It's often just somewhat below average.

I think the most accurate description is that it sucked a number of years and been somewhat below average a couple more.

Still a great player, though.
   5. Charter Member of the Jesus Melendez Fanclub Posted: February 28, 2008 at 03:04 AM (#2701764)
didn't i just read here the other day that it's not the whole defensive package that's bad, it's just that certain very important aspects are? as in, when he goes left, he might as well not move, but if he's chasing down a popup he's actually very good.

Yeah, you might have read that "the other day," about 800 times. No infielder's ability to track pop ups has ever been so analyzed as Jeter's.
   6. Howie Menckel Posted: February 28, 2008 at 03:53 AM (#2701783)
I'm just happy I got Repoz's intro for once (though it forces a mispronunciation)...
   7. Textbook Editor Posted: February 28, 2008 at 11:08 AM (#2701888)
It would take a lot of effort, and MLB would probably shut down the video once it got posted to YouTube, but someone needs to put together a string of clips where Clip A is a "past a diving Jeter" clip, showing a ball getting by Jeter to his left, and the very next clip (Clip B) shows another major-league SS fielding a ball hit to roughly the same spot cleanly.

You'd repeat this process over and over again--maybe show 100 clips of Jeter not getting to a ball and then 100 clips of other SS fielding a similarly-hit ball cleanly. Maybe 500 clips are needed, I don't know... But it seems that doing something like this--and then trying to get it out there as widely as possible--might be the only way to ever get some movement on this issue among the "Jeter is the greatest defensive SS ever" crowd.
   8. TomH Posted: February 28, 2008 at 01:04 PM (#2701898)
Can someone look up Jeter's post-season fielding pct (or at least errors committed per game) to compare with his regular season f pct? If you want evidence of 'clutch' fielding. I don't have a souurce to find that without it taking me about a whole hour.
   9. Bad Doctor Posted: February 28, 2008 at 02:43 PM (#2701964)
I'm beginning to miss the Jim Rice threads.
   10. Bad Doctor Posted: February 28, 2008 at 03:29 PM (#2701995)
Aw hell ... that was a joke!
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