John Dewan's Stat of the WeekTM
Or is he underrated?
" 'Derek Jeter is so overrated,'
Reuben says. In the James household, the Yankees' captain is
known as 'Dirty Rotten Jeter.' I'm guilty as anyone thinking
Jeter is overrated, but we may have reached a point at which he
is both overrated and underrated, depending on who does the
rating."
Reuben is Bill James' son. Do you
think he might be influenced by his dad who works for the Red Sox?
There are many of us in the sabermetric
community who probably feel that Derek Jeter is overrated,
especially defensively. My book,
The Fielding Bible, shows that Jeter made 34 fewer
plays than could have been expected from an average shortstop last
year, if that average shortstop had the exact same balls hit to him
that Jeter did last year. Yet, he won the Gold Glove in the American
League. That's the definition of overrated.
But, we also may be underrating him at
the same time. He's a tremendous hitter, especially for a
shortstop, at the top of the Yankee lineup. And he brings so much to
the table that you can't measure statistically (yet), such as
leadership and a winning attitude.
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