What ails the Yankees? Many things, at the moment; among others, they remain next to last in Major League Baseball (to the woebegotten Rangers defense) in converting balls in play into outs. But since I’ve raised this issue before, I thought I’d ask again: what is Derek Jeter’s glove worth?
Through 5/27/03:
Yankees with Derek Jeter in and out of the lineup:
OUT: 3.53 ERA, 0.30 URA, 9.02 H/9, 0.55 HR/9, 2.32 BB/9, 7.68 K/9, .305 BIP%
IN: 5.05 ERA, 0.42 URA, 10.21 H/9, 0.84 HR/9, 3.00 BB/9, 6.79 K/9, .317 BIP%
(URA=Unearned Run Average)
Here are the raw totals:
OUT: 23-10, 295.1 IP, 296 H, 18 HR, 76 BB, 252 K, 126 R, 116 ER, 278/912 BIP
IN: 7-12, 171 IP, 194 H, 16 HR, 57 BB, 129 K, 104 R, 96 ER, 178/562 BIP
CONCLUSION: Well, you can’t blame Jeter for the dropoff in strikeouts and the rise in walks and homers by Yankee pitchers. And the sample size is still fairly small; the Yankee offense has dropped off from 5.93 R/G to 5.16 R/G in the same period, and nobody would argue that Jeter is bad for the offense. But with Jeter in the lineup instead of raw, error-prone rookie Erick Almonte, the Yanks have given up a noticeably higher percentage of hits on balls in play (.317 to .305) and allowed 40% more unearned runs. Clearly, Jeter’s return has not been part of the solution.