Much has been made of the ever-increasing frequency of Derek Jeter’s ABs ending in a grounder to short or second.
I decided to take a look at this via Baseball Reference. Here is Jeter’s year-by-year games, ABs that ended in a ball to the infield, total ABs for the year, and the percentage of total ABs that ended in the infield.
| Year | G | Infield AB | Infield/G | Tot AB | Inf AB/ Tot |
| 1995 | 15 | 20 | 1.33 | 48 | 42% |
| 1996 | 157 | 196 | 1.25 | 582 | 34% |
| 1997 | 159 | 287 | 1.81 | 654 | 44% |
| 1998 | 149 | 259 | 1.74 | 626 | 41% |
| 1999 | 158 | 214 | 1.35 | 627 | 34% |
| 2000 | 148 | 217 | 1.47 | 593 | 37% |
| 2001 | 150 | 243 | 1.62 | 614 | 40% |
| 2002 | 157 | 268 | 1.71 | 644 | 42% |
| 2003 | 119 | 188 | 1.58 | 482 | 39% |
| 2004 | 154 | 248 | 1.61 | 643 | 39% |
| 2005 | 159 | 272 | 1.71 | 654 | 42% |
| 2006 | 154 | 268 | 1.74 | 623 | 43% |
| 2007 | 156 | 263 | 1.69 | 639 | 41% |
| 2008 | 150 | 266 | 1.77 | 596 | 45% |
| 2009 | 153 | 278 | 1.82 | 634 | 44% |
| 2010 | 157 | 333 | 2.12 | 663 | 50% |
| 2011 | 9 | 23 | 2.56 | 34 | 68% |
Verdict: Many more worms are dying at the hands of the Captain.
Thanks for putting this together Alex. However, with regard to the Captain, I am going to discount 2011 given the small sample size, and not draw too many conclusions from this on statistic. Most notably because in 2009, with Jeter finishing third in AL-MLP voting, he had the same percentage of ground ball outs as 1997, another great year for him.
I think, and admittedly hope, that all the banter surrounding Jeter's believed demise is nothing more than the ratings whoring we should be accustomed to. I actually heard "Is Jeter hurting the Yankees? We'll ask Nick Swisher at 45 after the hour" on ESPN this morning. Of course the human contradiction machine that is Colin Cowherd didn't ask him that because, well, there would be no more Yankee interviews in 2011 if he did.
But then again he also had Schilling on who had Jeter's back, so maybe the universe is upside down.
Jeter swings a flat bat threw the zone. He has always hit that way. He may have lost some of his quickness. That is always possible at his age. Manny and Bonds seemed to have some help in their later years. Jeter appears to be a pure player. Maybe he should bat 5 or 6 in the order and get more fast balls to hit. Certainly Cano is ready to move up to #2.
[2] Maybe he should just PH when they are up by 10? Not like they couldn't just play Chavez at 3B and ARod at SS. You know play your best players?
[1] Excellent, stormer, I completely agree, except for one thing: Alex didn't write this post. It's Diane. So, thanks, Diane.
The small sample size I worry about is the one Jeter gave his new stance. If I'm Joe Girardi I say all the right things ("He's the fifth-leading hitter of our everyday hitters") for 150ABs and then tell Jeter in private that having an OPS of .535 actually makes him close to the worst hitter on the team and definitely the worst player of the regulars when you factor in his fielding. Jeter's ratio of GO to FO is 19 to 1. The next highest on the team is Russell Martin at 4 to 1.
[4] Oy! My apologies Diane.