Defense wins championships. Sports fans, coaches, and players use this phrase, cliché, or mantra in almost every sport. Whether there is universal truth in the statement “defense wins championships” or not, baseball seems to be a sport where pitching and defense is inarguably the most important piece to a championship puzzle. The New York Yankees have won an unprecedented 27 World Series Championships in the organization’s existence… excuse me, I just threw up in my mouth…
Ok I’m better. Despite my extreme hatred for the New York Yankees, their dominance as a franchise is undeniable. Baseball fans across the country either hate them or love them. In the last fifteen years, the Yankees have been to the World Series 7 times and won the title 5 times. One of the common elements for the Pinstripers these past 15 years has been Derek Jeter. I think a quote from Will Ferrell’s movie, “Anchorman,” accurately describes my feelings for Jeter. Remember at the end of Anchorman when Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is climbing up the ladder out of the bear pit? Wes Mantooth (Vince Vaughn) grabs the ladder in what seems to be an internal battle as to whether he should push Burgundy, his biggest news rival, back down into the bear pit or let him live. Mantooth looks Burgundy in the eyes and says, “Deep down in my stomach, with every inch of me, I pure, straight hate you! But, damn it do I respect you.” I know where Wes Mantooth is coming from. I have felt his pain. I have had to control myself from drop kicking my TV on several occasions when Derek Jeter has come up with a game-winning RBI but damn it do I respect him.
The Yankee captain and shortstop is going to be enshrined in the walls of the Hall of Fame when his career is all said and done. He has an uncanny ability to come up with the huge hit late in the game that makes all Yankee-haters like myself want to ram our heads through the nearest wall. Jeter’s defense seems to be just as glamorous. Baseball players across the nation (I think across the nation. I know every team I have played on) have coined the term “Jeter-it” when an infielder backhands a baseball, jumps to his feet, and twists his body in the air to make the throw to the necessary base. The Gold Gloves, the unreal defensive plays like the jump throws, and many more of Jeter’s defensive abilities are why I was bewildered at one of my friend’s statements to me a few months ago.
Lucas Harry and Lance Rorex, two of my former teammates, were arguing about something when I walked into our locker room. Rorex saw me walk in (recognized the fact that I am always up for verbal battle) and said, “Vargie come listen to what Harry thinks!” Lucas Harry, straight faced and serious, looked me in the eye and said, “Derek Jeter is a TERRIBLE defensive shortstop.”
My first thought was we have to get Harry to the nearest hospital because he was clearly overdosing on some kind of drug. Once I realized his statement was not a result of severe substance abuse, I went into argue mode. Lots of my friends refer to me as Skip Bayless (the elderly analyst on ESPN’s show “1st and 10”) because, on occasion, I will take the outlandish side to an argument purely for the chance to argue with someone. In this argument, I wasn’t going to take the eccentric side. I was actually going to defend Derek Jeter’s defense (no pun intended, seriously I didn’t mean to say it like that). I heard the arguments about Jeter’s defense before but arguing against the fact that the 7-time Gold Glover is a “terrible” defensive shortstop was not going to be difficult. I threw out the number of Gold Gloves Jeter has won, the highlight real plays, and the fact that a five-time World Series champion team could not have won that many championships and been that dominant with a “terrible” defensive shortstop (Shortstop is often seen as the most important position on the field). Harry rebutted by referring to an article that analyzed Jeter’s defensive ability. In typical nerd fashion, I went home and read the article.
The article entitled “Jeter vs. Everett” by Bill James can be found in a book called The Fielding Bible. James’ writing is filled with stats and numbers that make it slightly monotonous to read so I will try to simplify his arguments. If you want to read the actual article, go to this URL: http://www.billjamesonline.net/fieldingbible/jeter.asp
Most of the article is based around the comparison between Derek Jeter and former Houston Astro’s shortstop Adam Everett. According to the observational study referred to in the article, Everett was one of the best defensive shortstops in 2005. I still find that hard to believe especially since in the ten years Everett has been in the big leagues, he has only played in over 110 games four times and has never even come close to being considered for a Gold Glove. Despite my first skeptical thought, the article revealed some extremely interesting ideas and maybe even FACTS about Derek Jeter’s defense in 4 major arguments.
The first point in the article was based on Baseball Info Solutions observational analysis of shortstops’ defensive play in the 2005 season. It is important for you to realize that this analysis has almost nothing to do with typical fielding percentages or error counts. In 2005 Jeter and Everett’s defensive stats were almost identical. Jeter had 15 errors with a .979 fielding percentage and Everett had 14 errors with a .978 fielding percentage. Here’s how the process worked. Baseball Info Solutions analysts (AKA Super-nerds who have nothing better to do than micro-analyze stuff like this. These analysts would make Buster Olney and Peter Kurkjian both look like a modern day Fonzie) broke the baseball diamond down into 263 vectors and defined every GROUNDBALL as either softly hit, medium hit, or hard hit depending on the velocity of the groundball towards the infielders. For example (I completely made this example up), a medium hit groundball in vector 17 (directly at a shortstop) was converted to an out 95% of the time. Baseball Info Solutions looked at every groundball that was hit in the 30 MLB teams’ 162 game seasons. Yeah. Told you. They are super-nerds. If a groundball was converted into an out 50% of the time but Jeter or Everett missed this type of groundball, that is considered a missed play. If Jeter or Everett gets an out on a groundball that was fielded by a shortstop under 50% of the time, it is considered a “plus play.”
The study showed that Jeter had 19 “plus plays” and 93 “missed plays” while Everett had 59 “plus plays” and 41 “missed plays.” The analysts covered a few of their holes as all super-nerds should be able to do. Just because Jeter or Everett had a “missed play” doesn’t mean that type of groundball was fielded cleanly 100% of the time by other shortstops. Some of their “missed plays” could have only been fielded 52% of the time. Remember, this is an OBSERVATIONAL study. These guys actually watched every groundball and FLYBALL. After making adjustments for plays that were close to 50% and balls hit in the air, analysts determined there was a 40-play separation in favor of Everett. In other words, Jeter allowed 40 more base runners than Adam Everett in 2005.
The next point in the article is not a sound argument and is completely unusable in this discussion. Basically, the next study counts the number of hits that land or go through the shortstop’s area. The number of hits that get through the shortstop position is not solely dependent on the shortstop. A rocket through the six-hole (between the third baseman and shortstop) goes through the shortstop’s area but has nothing to do with any kind of defensive deficiency. It has more to do with a pitcher leaving a fastball over the heart of the plate for the hitter to crush. This particular study does not consider whether or not an average shortstop would make a specific play, therefore the article’s second argument gets the Vargas stamp of DISAPPROVAL.
The third point in the article is not fully explained but seems to have some grounds for making a solid point. Another company, not Baseball Info Solutions, used “Relative Range Factor” to analyze shortstops. Basically the study considers, plays made per 9 innings, pitching staff tendencies to hit their spots, surrounding defenders, and makes adjustments for the strikeout and groundball tendencies of each team. I have no idea what the opposition’s strikeouts have to do with the defensive ability of a shortstop. Like I said, this study is not fully explained. The conclusion in the study was that although Jeter was considered close to average in the 2005 season, he was almost always found near the bottom of the league when it came to Relative Range.
John Dewan, author of The Fielding Bible, conducted the last study. The study is very similar to the Baseball Info Solutions analysis. Dewan used the same 262 vector system and velocity grade (soft, medium, hard) to analyze groundballs. If a groundball was fielded by a shortstop 50% of the time, that particular groundball was in shortstops “responsibility zone.” Jeter fielded groundballs in his responsibility zone 79% of the time and made 26 plays outside of that zone. Everett made plays in the responsibility zone 86% of the time and made 78 plays outside of that zone.
Congratulations you made it through the super-nerd but simplified jargon to analyze Jeter’s defense. Please take a break and towel off from the mental sweat that you’re going through right now. I now my brain hurt after reading the article.
After reading the article, I decided to do a little further research myself. There is a defensive stat in baseball that uses similar methods to analyze a player's defensive value. Forgive the lack of creativity for the name used by Major League Baseball: Total Zone- Total Fielding Runs Above Average per 1,200 innings. The stat shows how many runs a defensive player is worth. If the player has Total Zone of 10, then that player saves 10 runs from scoring in 1,200 innings compared to the average shortstop. A Total Zone of negative 10 means that player allows 10 more runs to score than the average shortstop because of his deficiencies on defense. A Total Zone of zero is the average score for a Major League shortstop. In Jeter’s fifteen-year career, he has only had a positive Total Zone rating 4 times. If you throw out Jeter’s first year in the big leagues where he only played in 15 games and made two errors, Jeter’s worst Total Zone rating is negative 21. His career Total Zone rating is negative 8. Although none of these stats fully make an argument that Jeter is a TERRIBLE defensive shortstop, they do make labeling Jeter a BELOW AVERAGE defensive shortstop pretty tough to argue against.
Here is my response. One big problem with these studies, especially the studies in the “Jeter vs. Everett” article, is that they do not consider defensive positioning. The article admits that Jeter shifts his positioning on the field much more than Everett does, but fails to admit the importance of this fact. Jeter is by far one of the most baseball savvy players in the Major Leagues. His experience and knowledge of the game are the reasons he is able to strategically position himself on the part of the infield where he believes he is most likely to field a groundball. Sometimes he is incorrect. Sometimes a pitcher misses his spot or a hitter inside-outs a pitch (hits a pitch inside to the opposite field) and crosses up the defense which does not allow Jeter to reach a ground ball the other shortstops could field because they did not shift their initial position.
My biggest issue with Total Zone and the article on Jeter is that Total Zone and the studies in the article are only analyzing Jeter’s RANGE. There is so much more to a shortstops defensive value than his left to right range. Footwork, hands, double-play turn speed, and positioning are some of the physical traits that affect a shortstop’s ability. Maybe more importantly, good instincts, leadership, communication with other fielders, and composure are intangibles that are all essential parts to having a good shortstop. Jeter’s intangibles are almost unmatched at the shortstop position or at any other position.
Let me give you an example of Jeter’s extraordinary instincts and composure. Think back to October 2001. The Yankees are playing on the road against the Oakland Athletics in game 3 of the American League Division Series. Mike Mussina and Barry Zito are in an epic pitchers’ duel. The score is 1-0 Yankees in the bottom of the 7th inning with 2 outs. Jeremy Giambi is on first with Terrence Long at the plate. Long hits a line drive down the first base line that gets all the way to the right field corner.
Pause from envisioning this moment so I can explain something. When a ball is hit down the right field corner with a runner or runners on base, the infielders lineup for a “double-cut.” In this case, the second baseman and the first baseman are aligned with home plate so they can receive the throw from the outfielder and to try throw out the runner attempting to score from first. The shortstop is generally nowhere near this relay throw.
Okay let’s flashback to October 2001. The ball is in the right field corner; Giambi is chugging around third with hopes of scoring the tying run. The relay throw comes from right fielder Shane Spencer but he severely overthrows the double-cut. It sails over the heads of Alfonso Soriano (second baseman) and Tino Martinez (first baseman). Then like Superman swooping into to save Louis Lane, Jeter comes flying towards the ball, catches it on a hop and flips it to Jorge Posada who applies the tag to Giambi who foolishly did not slide. Yankees still lead 1-0.
Come back to present day to analyze the play. If you want to see the play for yourself go to the following URLs: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=3134880
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq_kcKHBCcA (skip ahead to around 1 minute)
INSTINCTS. In the second video, the youtube clip, I want you to see how far Jeter comes to cut that ball off. Watch where he starts running from: the infield dirt! In that situation, 99% of the shortstops would be hanging out around second base as spectators of the tying run scoring. Jeter is not like 99% of shortstops. He realized the throw was not only going to be over the heads of the double-cut but he realized it didn’t have enough velocity to get to the plate. He took off to cut the throw and make the flip to the plate even though it wasn’t the textbook play to make. INSTINCTS.
COMPOSURE. In the first link, the mlb.com video, there are a few key components. I want you to focus on the ball after it hits the ground before Jeter catches it. Many people may argue that Jeter’s back-hand flip was completely unnecessary. I say, watch the video. The ball was obviously not going to make it to the plate. The second component is the accuracy of the flip. The ball goes directly to Posada’s glove hand side which enables the catcher to quickly make a tag on the runner. By the way, bravo Jorge Posada for holding on to the ball: not an easy tag to make. Imagine the magnitude of the situation! Game 3 of a one run game in the ALDS, thousands of people in attendance watching, maybe millions watching on TV, and Jeter makes a perfect flip. COMPOSURE.
So after the super-nerd analysis of vectors and range factors, flashbacks to an amazing play, and sarcastic babble, what is my overall rating of Derek Jeter’s defensive abilities? Here is how I break it down. Jeter’s PHYSICAL abilities as a defensive shortstop are below average. His range is severely limited and his arm strength is nothing to brag about. However, his intangibles as a defensive shortstop are off the charts. You will be hard pressed to find another shortstop as savvy as Derek Jeter. He is a composed, instinctive, and hard-nosed field general.
HARD-NOSED: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZsO4dOddaQ
Overall, his unmatchable intangibles make up for his lack of range and arm strength. I give Derek Jeter a defensive rating of SLIGHTLY ABOVE AVERAGE.
That being said, Derek Jeter is one of the greatest all-around shortstops to ever play the game. The championships he has brought to New York (gag-gag), the plays he has made, the clutch hits, and career stats will add to nothing short of a Hall of Fame career. For those reasons and the fact that I secretly have a huge amount of respect for Jeter, I decided to let him climb out of the bear’s pit and not push him back down to his death just like Wes Mantooth did for Ron Burgundy. For all you people who label Derek Jeter a “terrible” defensive shortstop, I wrote this blog for you. I wrote this blog IN DEFENSE OF JETER.
For those of you who just took that argumentative beat down, here is a video that might make you feel better. Actually, everyone should watch it because it’s pretty funny.
