Steve,

This is a late post but I was looking for the appropriate place to leave this comment about Jeter. As anyone can see, his offensive numbers are way down this year. The sad thing is that his numbers do not begin to capture his decline.
He hit into his 14th recorded DP in today’s game @ Toronto. I say recorded because he should have had at least a 2nd DP but Scutaro booted the play. It is possible he hit into a 3rd DP later but got a close call at first. I am aware of no less than 5 instances in the last month when Jeter escaped a GIDP becuse of an error by a SS or 2B.

On his actual GIDP’s alone, he has now matched or exceeded his annual totals in all but 3 years in his career. He trails only noted speedsters Lyle Overbay and Jhonny Peralta in the AL. If even half of the botched DPs were completed, he’d lead the league.

There was stretch in late May when DJ should have had a negative BA – he erased more runners hitting into DP’s then times he got a hit.

Jeter is not only no longer a mid-teens HR hitter, he is no longer a line drive hitter. His GO/AO is 2.31, which is very high but he managed to hit.343 in ‘06 with ground/fly ratio of 2.83. He has alway hit a lot of ground balls – just not as many straight to short or 2nd with a man on.

On the defensive side, its a pity we don’t have a stat for “would have been a DP if the throw had been on the mark.” I can think of 6 or 7 so far. There may be more. Yes a good 1B probably catches Jeter’s throw last night that Posada couldn’t but it was a routine play, not a rushed turn at 2nd. Jeter should have hit Posada on the nose.

Everyone is entitled to an off year. If we wrote off Posada after ‘05 or ‘06, we have missed a big year in ‘07. But then that came with a 4 year tail.

If Jeter comes back with a more Jeter like year in ‘09, how long will his tail be?