Derek Jeter: Slowing Down? The Worst Infielder in Baseball? | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Much has been written recently about Derek Jeter slowing down.  It has also been said that he is the worst infielder in baseball.

Let's take a look at the statistics and try to determine if either one of those statements is true.

In 2008 Jeter played in 148 games, had 347 assists and only 12 errors.  His fielding percentage was .979, slightly higher than his career fielding percentage of .975.  Has he slowed down?

Jeter's best year for fielding percentage was 1998 when he had a .986 percentage.  That year he had 393 assists and only committed nine errors.  In 2004 his percentage was .981 with 392 assists and 13 errors. 

Statistically he is down very little from his best years.  And to say that he has lost a step is to use very subjective criteria.  A similar subjective standard would be to say that he has suffered in the last two years because he has been injured with both leg and hand injuries which would affect his fielding.

So is Jeter one of the worst infielders in baseball?  If one looks at the current shortstops who have played at least 500 games, how many are better than Jeter? 

If you look at fielding percentage alone you come up with the following:

Craig Counsell         .986 FP

Omar Vizquel          .984 FP

Jimmy Rollins          .984 FP

David Eckstein         .978 FP

Orlando Cabrera       .978 FP

Michael Young        .977 FP

Khalil Greene           .976 FP

But there are also as many shortstops who are below Jeter in fielding percentage. They include Miguel Tejada, Angel Berroa, Yuniesky Betancourt, Bobby Crosby, Edgar Renteria, Juan Castro and Julio Lugo.

If fielding percentages are considered, some highly praised young shortstops are no better than Jeter.  Jose Reyes has exactly the same FP as Derek and Hanley Ramirez is slightly lower.  And both have a higher percentage of errors per games played than Jeter.

What about comparisons to some all time greats:

Luis Aparicio, the great White Sox shortstop of the 50s and 60s finished his career with a .977 fielding percentage barely above Jeter.

Phil Rizzuto, beloved to all Yankee fans, finished lower at .972.

Cal Ripken, Jr., the archetype of modern shortstops finished at .979.

Peewee Reese, who led the great Dodger teams of the 50s was lower at .962.

Tony Kubek of the great Yankee teams of the 60s finished at .967.

Finally how did A-Rod compare when he was playing shortstop?  In the 1272 games A-Rod played at short, he had 3604 assists and 131 errors and compiled a fielding percentage of .977. A little better than Derek.

A-Rod also averaged slightly higher per games played in assists and a little lower in errors per game.

In any of this analysis, one can look at bare statistics.  One can run the numbers from daylight to dark.  But what cannot be determined by these numbers alone is how many balls a particular player caught that another could never touch. 

How many times did one shortstop knock a ball down and prevent a run at the plate, even though there was no out or assist involved?  How many times did a player keep his team in a game with a play that no-one could have imagined?

These are all the reasons that this is such a great game; The reasons we can argue with our granddad over whether Honus Wagner was a better shortstop than Cal Ripken.

The intangibles are such a big part of the game that mere statistics will never tell the whole story. 

But having said that, the statistics would indicate that Jeter has not slowed down much, if at all.  And they would certainly indicate that he is not the worst infielder in baseball.