Posted by burnsy483 on 3/13/2013 6:14:00 PM (view original):
I think if you put most LFers at SS, they struggle mightily. Jeter isn't good at SS, but he held his own.
I guess that really depends on what you consider "held his own."
Over the last ten seasons (we don't have anything better than total zone prior to 2002),
26 shortstops have played at least 6000 innings at SS. Over that period, Jeter has a UZR of negative 64 -- dead last. Granted, he played more innings (~14,000) than everyone but Jimmy Rollins on that list. Still, if you use UZR per 150 instead, he only improves to 23rd. Rollins has a UZR of 51 over almost the same amount of innings. That's a swing of over 100 runs or about one team win a year for the last ten years.
He's cost the Yankees a lot of runs with his glove over the years. Obviously he's more than made up for those with his bat, but the real question is would the Yankees have been better off with someone else at short and Jeter at another position? I don't know. but he's definitely a Hall of Famer.