Who is the better Shortstop?

With opening day approaching the Yankees have elected to keep Derek Jeter at Shortstop and move the newly acquired Alex Rodriguez to third base. Jeter in this case should be the captain of the Yankees and realize that he has the worst range in the entire league and will cost his pitchers singles up the middle or through the hole. In 2002, Derek Jeter had 600 total fielding chances and had 14 errors compared to Alex Rodriguez having 741 Chances and 10 errors in the same year according to MLB.com. That’s 141 more balls that Mr. Rodriguez has gotten too in just one season. If the pitchers have the vote and not Torre, whom would they want at short? Jeter does posses a great arm and is ideal for third base while Rodriguez is a defending Gold-Glove winner. A Yankee fan may argue that Jeter does what has to be done for the team to win a game. Offensively that’s great. Defensively he makes these miraculous plays but to the common shortstop they would be routine. Jeter recently called Rodriguez “arguably the best player in baseball.” If that’s the case and shortstop is the hardest position in the game, doesn’t he understand he should move? Maybe Torre knows something that we don’t. “There are things that go beyond ability,” Torre said. “There’s something special about Derek Jeter, who doesn’t hit 20 home runs, doesn’t knock in 100 runs, doesn’t steal 30 bases. But it’s something that you can’t put down on paper, and that’s my job to have a feel for that.” What is so special? Torre loves a slow first step. He loves to be on the edge of his seat every play. Why make things easy?


John Goettfert  ¶ 8:51 PM