Posted by MikeT23 on 3/13/2013 8:34:00 AM (view original):
This is stupid:
"So yeah, Jeter is and has been good, and probably belongs in the HOF. But he's certainly not an all-time great. I don't even know that I love him for the Hall, but I'm pretty sure he'll go in and he's good enough that it won't be ridiculous."
Any credibility you think you have on the subject of baseball has been ****** out the window. There's no question that he belongs in the HOF. "good enough" isn't even in play. Idiot.
Obviously you're going to think that. 117 career OPS+, 122 wRC+, those are not shoe-in numbers. So he has 3000 hits. I don't like that standard; in fact, I feel like Molitor was pretty borderline as well. Not a lot of black ink on Jeter's player page - led the leagues in runs once, did lead in hits twice but never in hitting. Both of the years he led the league in hits he also led in PAs, so he had that advantage.
Obviously he's going in, almost certainly on the first-ballot. There's no question in my mind that he's far less deserving than many guys who haven't gone in on the first ballot. But 3000 hits will do it, as well as winning WS titles, as if that were somehow an individual accomplishment... Now someone is going to say "BUT JETER IS THE NEW MR. OCTOBER!!! HE'S SO GOOD IN THE POSTSEASON!!!"
Derek Jeter regular season - .313/.382/.448
Derek Jeter postseason - .308/.374/.465
Looks basically the same to me...
So yeah, I'll stick with what I said. He'll go in, and that's fine, but he's not nearly as good as some of the guys bad_luck just mentioned - Gwynn in particular. Raines isn't in, and he has a 123 career OPS+ to Jeter's 117 and a much better baserunning record. 126 wRC+ to Jeter's 122. And a better defender, albeit at a less premium position. So tell me again how with Raines not in Jeter is a no-doubter in your mind. I mean, he is, because he's the Yankee captain, like I care... But people love him. Like you, obviously. But objectively... If you throw out the 3000 hits, which realistically is a totally arbitrary benchmark, there's nothing on Jeter's player page that really jumps off.