Is Derek Jeter One Of The Ten Best SS In Baseball Today?
It’s been shared with me that the Yankees’ Derek Jeter will be featured in the MLB Network’s “Top 10 Right Now: Shortstops” this evening at 10pm ET. Jeter returns to the list after being ranked tenth on last year’s list.
Hosted by Brian Kenny, MLB Network determined its rankings of the top 10 shortstops using “The Shredder,” which uses statistical analysis to measure performance. In addition, renowned author Bill James and MLB Network analyst and former shortstop Larry Bowa both give their own personal lists of the top 10 shortstops in baseball.
The “Top 10 Right Now” series concludes next Friday with “Top 10 Right Now: Managers” and the beginning of MLB Network’s countdown of the “Top 100 Right Now.”
So, what do you think, is Jeter among the “Top Ten” shortstops in baseball today?
I put in “for single seasons, for 2012, played 50% of games at SS, (requiring qualified for league batting title), sorted by greatest WAR position players” to see what bWAR would say about this.
In 2012, Jeter was the 13th most valuable player at his position (2.1 bWAR). Ahead of him were:
Erick Aybar (4.0)
Elvis Andrus (3.5)
Starlin Castro (3.5)
Alcides Escobar (3.2)
Ian Desmond (3.2)
Asdrubal Cabrera (3.0)
JJ Hardy (3.0)
Jose Reyes (2.8)
Yunel Escobar (2.5)
Zack Cozart (2.4)
Jimmy Rollins (2.3)
Alexei Ramirez (2.2)
Is Jeter only the 13th best SS in baseball? I doubt it. But given his age and his lack of range, it wouldn’t surprise me if 2013 looks a lot like 2012 in terms of how much value Jeter produces relative to his peers at the position.
Curious to see how Reyes will perform given those numbers
The Shredder: 7th
Bill James: 2nd
Bowa: 9th
BTW, on the show, Bill James gave his Top 10 Now SS list and it had:
Reyes #1
Jeter #2
Tulo #3
Wow.
@ Steve L.:
Bill James is losing his mind. In no universe is Reyes a better SS than Tulowitzki.