Thank god our national nightmare of being force fed Jeter worship is over. Now we can go back to just overrating him as usual.

Jeter should have offered to move to 2nd to allow ARod to play SS when they traded for him. Jeter is a sham as a "leader" he is a self centered twat and is deified for qualities he does not posses.

he is overrated nowadays, but he was underrated TWICE (imo) when he had MVP seasons


eter has finished tenth or better in the MVP voting seven times, including a third in 1998, a sixth in 1999, a second in 2006 and a third in 2009. Do any of those MVP awards justly belong on Jeter’s mantle? Let’s go under the hood at his four closest runs at the trophy.

1998: This might have been Jeter’s strongest case for the hardware – he was second in WAR (wins above replacement) that season, just an eyelash behind Alex Rodriguez. And the voters really couldn’t reward A-Rod that year, given that he was toiling for a losing Mariners club. Jeter led the AL in runs and was the definitive star on a 114-victory Yankee team, but this unfortunately came smack-dab in the middle of the manufactured homer explosion – Juan Gonzalez’s 45 homers and 157 RBIs weren’t going to be ignored. Jeter barely had half of Gonzalez’s point total, while Nomar Garciaparra finished second.

1999: It’s laughable that Jeter finished sixth in this vote given that he had the best WAR among AL position players, but we knew so much less about stat analysis 12 years ago. And to be fair Jeter wasn’t the man most jobbed in this vote – the 1999 MVP truly belongs on Pedro Martinez’s mantle. Pudge Rodriguez walked home with the award, another Arlington special (pretty good place to hit, podner). Possible enhancers Manny Ramirez and Rafael Palmeiro also finished ahead of Jeter.

2006: There are two ways to look at Jeter’s oh-so-close second-place finish in this vote; it’s unfair that he lagged behind Justin Morneau when he clearly had the better year (6.3 WAR to 3.8 WAR), but then again, Morneau was in truth the third best player on his own team – Joe Mauer and Johan Santana had more legitimate MVP cases.

2009: The stats under the hood suggest that Jeter should have finished ahead of second-place Mark Teixeira, but it’s all window dressing; Joe Mauer was, deservingly, the runaway winner this season (a silly 1.031 OPS, plus a Gold Glove behind the plate).

So how do we spin all this? Jeter should have won in 1998, and he deserved to win in 2006 *if* you judge him solely against the guy who did win, Morneau. Jeter’s bad luck with the award voting is simple – he played in an era where offense was king and he played in front of voters who love to reward big RBI seasons (the historical sweet tooth of the MVP electorate). Jeter also didn’t play in a park that gave him a significant offensive float, something that the Texas Twins got rich from in the pinball-scoring 1990s.

source: http://www.snywhyguys.com/2011/04/23/recount-derek-jeters-mvp-snubs/

1998 yes, 2006 no.

Easy first ballot HoFer but he will always be overrated since he plays for the Yankees.

agree with you; 1998 and 1999 possibly...2006 no shot

In 1998 Jeter struck out twice as often as he walked (57/119), his on base percentage didn't eclipse .400, his slugging percentage didn't eclipse .500, which left his OPS below .900. He only had 25 doubles and 19 homeruns in the middle of the live ball/steroid era. His stats were weak compared to a lot of players that season. His runs scored were so high because HE PLAYS FOR THE FUCKING YANKEES. He actually has people in the lineup behind him that drive him in. The fact that he led the league that season in runs scored despite his .384 OBP is a testament to his teammates driving him in.

Think about it, he reached base 266 times and scored 127 times. He was driven in 47.7% of the time he reached base. That has less to do with Jeter and more to do with Paul O'neill, Bernie Williams, Scott Brosius, and Tino Martinez, all of which had more RBI's than Jeter ON HIS OWN TEAM.

In fact, the only stats he led his TEAM (not the AL) in that season was runs, hits, and STRIKEOUTS.

He is a media darling, as is proofed with his phantom gold gloves that he owns. If he were anyone OTHER THAN Derek Jeter, he would have finished even lower in the MVP races for those seasons.

However, I do congratulate him on getting to 3,000 hits. That is quite the accomplishment. But he isn't even one of the top 5 short stops of all-time. Besides, he should have been playing 2nd base ever since A-Rod came to the Yanks.

Just as a contrast for runs scored, Jose Offerman that season had an OBP of .403 and reached base safely 286 times (20 more than Jeter); however, he only scored 102 runs despite stealing 15 more bases than Jeter that season.

Offerman's team that year? The Kansas City Royals.

Boy, it sure helps your stats playing with a bunch of all-stars and hall-of-famers.

Pretty funny find there Sam...

ok ok ok thrax...but what i'm saying is that at least for 1998, you can say that he was underrated that year. he got snubbed for an MVP, then as he got older and his play declined, managers started giving him gold gloves and all-star nods for no reason. i'm just trying to argue that it goes both ways.

and, you're right. 3,000 is a helluvan accomplishment. UMMM, WHY IS HELLUVAN NOT SPELL CHECKED? check out this amazing article if you have 10 minutes of free time.

http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2011/07/3000-words-about-derek-jeter.html

he's a stellar writer. and he's not a jeter/yankees fan either