Outside the Box

ESPN.com - Major League Baseball - Rumblings and Grumblings

"That throw in Game 1 of the World Series (to nail Timo Perez at the plate) -- that was the play of the Series," says an AL scout. "I said in my reports: 'This guy is better at taking relays and turning them into outs than anyone in the game.' He takes bad throws and turns them into good throws because of his athleticism and his feel for the game. And that throw was the perfect example of it."

Bmark, you aren't the only one to notice this. I'm not going to belittle the play. It was a good play, but how often does this sort of thing come up in a season. How often does this skill translate into an out that another player doesn't make. Three? four? five? There were several times during the postseason where a ball went up the middle or into the hole and got through and I wondered, "Where was Jeter positioned that he didn't get to that ball?" Poor range is impossible to quantify other than through the numbers.

Look at Ozzie Smith. He averaged nearly an out per game more than the league. Now he didn't make a diving stop a game. He made a lot of them over the course of a season, but not one a game. He just reached more balls in more ways than anybody else. Jeter reaches fewer balls than most everyone else in the league. Some of that may be his staff, maybe some of it is Brosius (though Ozzie was still Ozzie with Terry Pendleton playing next to him), but Jeter just isn't a good defensive player. He looks good doing it, but the results are poor.

Now please do not misconstrue these statements. He is a fantastic player, very valuable and worth a lot of money. He is also a cash cow for the Yankees. I'm just curious to see if his Free Agency value will rise much above $189m for ten years. You can argue that his price has already risen from $115m for 7 years, but we don't know that. We only know what one team is willing to pay him. How high will the price go if he is a free agent next year? Will he pass A-Rod?