The all-time games played leaders at SS are Omar Vizquel and Luis Aparicio, both of them 5-9, 165. Jeter is 6-3, 200. That’s a ways to get down for ground balls for 13 years at short. Hopefully one day Jeter will volunteer to be a Pete Rose type player and play all over the field. I remember Johnny Damon telling Torre he could play 1st base even though he hadn’t done it since high school. That’s the attitude the kind of attitude you like to see from your captain.

The difference between Abreu and Manny last year was about 80 bases. Does Jeter give up 80 more hits (one every other game) than the average SS? Maybe.

The difference between a passable Melky in 2007 and a horrid Melky in 2008 was about 50 bases. Does Jeter give up 50 more hits – like the difference with Cano – than the average SS?

So if you’re really interested in improving the team, moving Jeter, and getting a decent SS, could easily be priority #2 after the pitching.

As for actual solutions, Furcal is an above average defensive shortstop and, at worst, and average shortstop. Getting him on a four-year deal seems very reasonable and would make the team probably as better as signing Teixieira. The difference between Jeter’s bat and Teixeira’s in 2008 was about 80 bases. Assuming that they’d be no different defensively – since Teixeira is about average – could an above average defensive shortstop, with an average stick, make up that difference? I think so.

Not to mention, finding someone to play CF, RF and 1B. (Gardner, Nady and Swisher might one answer, but they are not the best answer… so, I’d keep looking).

Moving Jeter could be addressed (although I doubt they ever look at it), but not before they fix the things that are more pressing…

Player—-: 04 05 06 07 08 Tot
CMWang: xx 07 17 16 07 47 (3.5 years)
Beckett:: 09 14 12 19 11 65
Halladay: 09 16 21 18 23 87
Sabathia: 12 13 14 24 25 88
Br. Webb: 12 19 22 22 22 97
R.Oswalt: 19 22 21 18 18 98
Santana:: 27 23 25 18 21 114

Teixeira:: 24 32 21 26 30 133
Ramirez:: 27 34 29 15 34 139
A-Rod::: 30 37 25 39 25 156
A.Pujols:: 40 38 39 32 35 184

Then you, like the Yankees, would be missing a big part of why the team missed the playoffs. I have no idea how to measure the comparison, but I’d be willing to bet, given the defensive importance of the SS position, that his defense, relative to an average SS, is about equivalent to Cano’s lost offense. Cano “lost” 56 bases between his production in 2007 and 2008. Does Jeter give up 56 more hits than the average SS – or 1 hit every three games? I’d say so. But how many stories have we read about Cano this off-season? And about Jeter’s defense?

The NY press is a bunch of lap dogs for Jeter. Woof!

Alex, you’ve been watching too many Ford commercials…
(I wonder if Ford will drop Jeter, like GM dropped Tiger?)

Also, I’m not that worried about Jeter playing short for the next few years. When it comes to my list of Yankee priorities, moving Jeter might be at the top of the page, it’s just not the first page…

Right now the option is to move him to 1B and acquire an all-glove SS. Or they could try to move pitching for a guy like Hardy. At 1B, he be an average glove at worst and with less wear and tear I could see him producing an .800-850 OPS for a year or two. That’s an average 1B.

My point is that he really has gotten a free ride his entire career from the NY media especially considering he hasn’t been a quote-machine. I can’t think of another NY star to get the same length of rope. Can anyone? I guess it would have to do with the four rings immediately upon his arrival, so they only other comparisons are historical Yankees – Mantle, DiMaggio, etc. But they arrived on winning teams and so it was harder to see what they brought uniquely to the table.

And I’d guess that’s the combination that gives him so much Teflon – a) Homegrown; b) Arrived at a time of great need; c) Doesn’t say or do anything stupid; d) Produced big-time. Take any of those away and the NY press would be all over him. Now, picking on his defense seems almost beneath him no matter how bad it is hurting the team. I just wonder how bad it will have to get for him to swallow his pride and volunteer to move. Last year was pitiful.

I would have too. Then again, I don’t know if that topic was ever brought up in a back office somewhere.

Having said that, IIRC before the trade was made, Rodriguez was asked if he was willing to play 3b, so I don’t think Jeter moving off short was even an option.

I agree with the general sentiment that Jeter isn’t going to move off short until he’s good and ready, even if he has the range of a basset hound.

They acquired Alex Rodriguez, a slightly younger and clearly superior SS inbetween 2003 & 2004. Jeter was 29 going on 30. At this point they could have moved Jeter to:

CF – Bernie only started 93 games there in 2004 and this is the same age Robin Yount made a similar and sucessful transition. By 2005, CF was a gaping hole for the Yanks – one that has yet to be adequately filled. This is the ideal move and also the one least likely to have worked as we have no idea if Jeter could what Yount did.

3B – Problematic from a PR/ego perspective, and was a more short term solution since Arod probably would have to move off short at some point and Jeter would be blocking his spot again. But in the short term, it probably would have worked and made the Yanks defense a bit better. Can’t really know if he could have hacked 3B though.

Making the decision in 2004 to keep Jeter @ SS was not terrible and they’ve won a lot of games with this alignment. But they’ll pay the price for that call from this point forward as it’s even less lilkely Jeter can make a move to an important defensive position at this age and doesn’t hit enough to play an un-important one.

If the Yankees understood all of this and chose this path as the best way possible to win lots of games and keep the face of the franchise in place, I can accept the consequences now. If the Yankees were somehow unaware Jeter is a bad defensive SS, and are surprised to find themselves in this situation, then they really screwed up.

I would have rolled the dice on CF – I think he could have handled it.

Instead folks worry about defense at a trivial defensive position (1B)…