Blog: Hardball
TAMPA — Derek Jeter is in the eye of the beholder.
If you are a Jeter true believer then you dismissed the visual and statistical evidence from the beginning of 2010 to midway through last year when Jeter performed as one of the worst regularly used players in the game. You criticized his critics and in your eyes Jeter remained the same as he ever was.
If you are a Jeter doubter, you dismissed as an aberration the final 11 weeks of 2011 when he returned to the same as he ever was. You just don’t believe he can sustain that any more at age 37.
Jeter, 20 years after being drafted, officially reports with position players to Yankee camp today and begins to answer this question: Who are you?
Anthony J. Causi
ANOTHER SEASON: Joel Sherman says there are a lot of questions surrounding Derek Jeter as he enters his 17th season as the Yankees starting shortstop.
“What he did late last year said, ‘I’m not done yet,’” Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said.
General manager Brian Cashman said: “I think he is an above-average player.”
The Yankees, of course, remain vested in this belief, need it to be true. They like Eduardo Nunez. But for the 17th straight season, Jeter is the starting shortstop. Until further notice, he is going to lead off. This cannot be an emeritus position, in other words.
Jeter turns 38 in June and the only shortstops in major league history to perform well at this age were the Cooperstown duo of Honus Wagner and Luke Appling in the first half of the 20th Century. Barry Larkin, a 2012 Hall of Fame inductee, was, for example, a poor facsimile of himself at age 38, producing a .672 OPS.
That is not that different from the .691 that Jeter had managed from the start of 2010 through July 8 of last year. And that is no insignificant period. It was 943 at-bats in which he particularly struggled against righties (.648 OPS) and on the road (.666). He soiled his clutch reputation hitting .080 with the bases loaded (2-for-25) and .243 with runners in scoring position.
Had he not been Derek Jeter, he would have lost his leadoff spot, particularly against righties, and Nunez would have played even more, in general. Considering his age and the length of the slide, Jeter was trending toward the cliff. It felt Movie-of-the-Week-ish to think he could conjure his past for any sustained period.
And then he had a comic book superhero Saturday. He reached 3,000 hits with a home run off Rays ace David Price within the confines of a 5-for-5 day in which he drove home the winning run. From there to the end of the season, Jeter hit .338. It wasn’t 943 at-bats, but it was 266, which is half a season.
After a season and a half of limp singles, Jeter began to sting the ball again. He regained his timeliness (.355 with runners in scoring position). And he even held his own against right-handed pitching (.315 average).
Cashman theorized that Jeter was unnerved somewhat by playing for a free-agent contract in 2010 and closing in on 3,000 hits in 2011, and liberated from those twin problems he returned to being a highly productive player. The normally imperturbable Jeter admitted after reaching 3,000 hits that he was unsettled by the hunt.
In addition, Jeter spent three weeks on the disabled list starting in mid-June and that allowed him to reunite with his personal hitting guru, Gary Denbo. After the problematic 2010, Jeter and Long had worked on redoing the shortstop’s stride and trying to pull more. Denbo and Jeter restored his career-long style, and suddenly Jeter was letting the ball travel longer toward him and finding his hands still were quick enough to do damage, even in his late 30s.
“For some people the more analytical and mechanical you get the worse they are,” Long said. “I was probably throwing too much out there.”
So what does this mean for 2012? In the true believers’ eyes, Jeter will always be young and beyond criticism. The doubters will consider the birth certificate and the overall results make Jeter look more like Marco Scutaro the last two years than his prime self.
Unlike fellow dynastic cornerstone Mariano Rivera, Jeter is giving no indications he is ready to retire. But Rivera has had no deviation in his greatness. Jeter has. Thus as another camp opens for Derek Jeter we are left with a question:
Who are you?
joel.sherman@nypost.com
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