I just wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter on winning Sports Illustrated’s 2009 Sportsman of the Year Award. The award is given to “the athlete or team whose performance that year most embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement,” and, in my opinion, there is no one more deserving than Jeter. He had one of his most productive seasons at the plate, silenced critics with his more than sound defensive play, helped lead the Yankees to their 27th World Series championship, and exhibits nothing but class on and off the field. He is truly one of the greatest to play the game.
Now sure, the hordes of critics and Yankee-haters will come out with a bunch of other names to slight the Bronx Bombers captain, but you know what I have to say to them. In fact, last season, during Spring Training, I even had a specific post defending him against those naysayers who moronically labeled him “the worst defensive shortstop in baseball.” Idiots. Total idiots.
And since this is a fantasy baseball site, let me put the fantasy spin on this. Draft with confidence. No, he’s not Hanley Ramirez, but according to CBS Sportsline number crunchers, Jeter was the second most valuable shortstop in fantasy baseball in 2009 with Ramirez being first. He’ll continue to hit at the top of the most productive lineup in baseball and will continue to produce at levels better than most guys at his position.
Congratulations Derek Jeter: 2009 Sports Illustarted’s Sportsman of the Year!
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As one of the described yankee haters, I hate to tell you this, but Jeter is certainly a worthy selection for this award. He is most definitely not the worst defensive shortstop, but when Adam Everett is better that you defensively, you most certainly aren’t the best– he is middle of the pack at best. However, he does exemplify an athlete that embodies “the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement”.
Seriously? I understand that Jeter’s greatness is a tough pill for you to swallow, but to state that Adam Everett is better just boggles my mind. I don’t know what Kool-Aid you’re drinking, my friend, but it’s been dosed. You are truly delusional.
What stas are you looking at to say that Everett is better defensively? Are you looking at career or just a particular season?
If you’re looking at career, then I hope you’re factoring in that Jeter has played in a total of 2,123 games (10,241.1 innings) with 8,725 Total Chances (TC) as opposed to Everett who has played only 792 games (6,521.1 innings) with a mere 3,435 TC. They have identical career fielding percentages (.976) and statistically, they both commit 1 error per 41 chances. While the numbers might be the same, it seems to me that Jeter’s are a bit more impressive as he’s done it year in, year out for 14 seasons averaging 151 games per season while Everett’s only been around for 8 seasons and only averages 98 games a year. If he was that good, wouldn’t he be playing more each year? Oh yeah, his bat sucks, but that’s a whole other story.
But since Jeter has a far greater sample size than Everett, let’s just take the 2009 season. Jeter played 150 games to Everett’s 116. Jeter had more total chances which led to more put outs and more assists. He also had only 8 errors (3rd best in the majors among shortstops) to Everett’s 14 (tied for 12th). Jeter’s fielding percentage was .986 (2nd in the league). Everett’s was .969 (15th).
But you probably want to throw in some stats from the sabermetric family (which is where you may find your only support). The good ol’ Range Factor (RF) which is defined as [((put outs + assists) x 9) divided by innings] You got me there, buddy. In 2009 Jeter’s RF of 3.90 was not as good as Everett’s 4.23 but only sat 6 shortstops behind him in the category. However, Range Factor is a useful tool in comparing players at the same position, but is heavily team-dependent. For example, the Yankees pitching staff last season ranked highly in the Majors in strikeouts and in fly ball/ground ball ratio, so their infielders would necessarily have lower Range Factors than those on other teams.
So how about another great sabermetric category…Zone Rating (ZR)? ZR is a statistic that is like a batting average for fielding. Every fielder is assigned a zone of responsibility on the field. The zone is malleable based on the trajectory of the ball. Fielders have less territory of responsibility for line drives and more responsibility for fly balls, due to the different reaction times needed to get to the ball. Every ball that passes in that zone is either a putout (PO) or a hit. We then divide the PO by the Balls in Zone (BIZ). A ball caught out of the zone (BOZ) are counted as a PO and added to BIZ. Thus, the formula for ZR is ZR = PO/(BIZ+BOZ). Jeter actually led all shortstops with a 6.480 ZR while Everett ranked only 10th with a 5.799 ZR. Now sure, just like Range Factor, this stat has it’s flaws. At what point does a line drive become a flyball? How can an observer identify the edge of the zone precisely? Do scorekeepers vary in how they make these judgment calls? It’s not a perfect system, is it?
Fact is, we can quote stats back and forth and each of us can find fault with the other’s logic and calculations. There’s no system that’s perfect. But to say that Everett is better defensively, with no substantial proof, is absurd. If he was that much better, don’t you think he would have atleast received the AL Gold Glove at shortstop? Now I may be crazy, but isn’t the Gold Glove award given annually to the Major League Baseball players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position? Jeter’s got 4 out of the last 6 years and I’m still looking for Everett’s name anywhere on the list of winners.