The Way He Didn't Get to That Ground Ball Was Rather Jeterian

Because nothing in the world is more fun than bringing up Derek Jeter's lack of fielding prowess, I bring you the 2008 Fielding Bible Awards, in which Jeter ranks as the 22nd best shortstop in the Majors. The real enjoyment, however, comes from reading the responses from Yankee fans to such statistics.

The story is getting old, but never stops being fun: according to most advanced fielding measures, Jeter is a below average shortstop (and before anyone yells too loudly, I agree 100% that he is a fantastic hitter, and deserves to be in the Hall of Fame someday). Presented with such evidence, Yankee fans point to one or more of the following, irrelevant things: 1) JETER IS TEH CLUTCH!!@!&. 2) His Gold Glove awards (given out by the same idiots who thought Bartolo Colon was the best pitcher in the AL in 2005). 3) The 2 plays (2001 "flip" and 2004 running catch into the stands) which must "prove" what a great fielder he is. Good plays, both, but indicate about as much as that one half-court shot I made one time shows how good a long-range shooter I was. (For the record, I was not). 4) Bill James works for the RED SOX and this is clearly a conspiracy to tarnish Jeter's legend and/or create a "name" for the company doing the statistics (in this case, Baseball Info Solutions, who I think already have a pretty decent "name" amongst students of the game). 5) Jeter has slept with a lot of hot women. Why some Yankee fans like to brag about this, I have no idea. 6) Statheads like me don't understand the game and should stick to sitting in our mother's basements playing with spreadsheets.

Jeter himself has defended himself by saying that these models don't account for things like the pitchers, the runners on, etc... but as Tom Tango's "With or Without You" study showed, even when you DO correct for these things, Jeter just doesn't seem to be a great fielder. Maybe there are things he does on the field that are important in helping his team win games. But it appears that for the things we are able to actually measure in term of fielding ability, at this stage (and I will grant you that fielding statistics are imperfect science with many advancements that need to be made) Jeter appears to be behind many of his peers.

Really, Jeter seems like a pretty decent guy: good teammate, hard worker, and a fine hitter (although perhaps a really great teammate would have been the one to volunteer to move positions when the best shortstop in baseball gets traded to your team). But the mythologizing over him and his accomplishments creates a cult of personality that is incredibly common these days. Of course, when the fans of a baseball player think he can do no wrong it's not a big deal, and is makes for fun arguments. But when fans of the president think he's beyond criticism, that's not healthy for society. Another reason why baseball is better than politics.