Jeter doesn't have to be a star anymore
New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter warms up before the baseball game against the Detroit Tigers. (May 4, 2011) Credit: AP
No, it didn't match his two-homer splurge Sunday in Texas, yet Derek Jeter's third-inning single Tuesday night sent another message to his detractors.
Did you see it? With two outs, a full count and Brett Gardner on third base, Jeter swung at what should have been ball four -- a Kyle Davies cutter up toward his eyes.
But the Yankees' captain is in such a groove at the moment that he powered it up the middle for a ground-ball single, driving in Gardner for an early Yankees lead.
He added a soft line-drive single to center in the fifth and scored on Alex Rodriguez's two-run single as the Yankees defeated the Royals, 3-1, at Yankee Stadium.
"The more comfortable you are, the better you see the ball," Jeter, seemingly agitated about having to discuss his hitting once more, said after the game. "The better at-bats you have, the results will be better."
For those who want to know, "Is Jeter back?" I say you're asking the wrong question.
The Yankees don't need Jeter to be "back." The same goes for A-Rod. In order to make the playoffs once more, the Yankees require that both Jeter and A-Rod be merely helpful.
Let's face it: Up until this past week, Jeter hadn't been very helpful. One good week, though, and Jeter finds himself in the middle of the major-league shortstop pack.
Entering play Tuesday night, his count of 0.6 wins above replacement -- as computed by the website FanGraphs.com -- ranked 14th among shortstops. He has played defense which is graded between adequate and above average to accompany his subpar offense.
This pales in comparison with the Jeter of 1999, or even 2009. Yet the Yankees have attempted to build a roster that mitigates the necessity for such excellence from Jeter, who turns 37 next month.
Some folks, such as winning pitcher Freddy Garcia, are expected to just stand guard until June and July, when better options could emerge. Others, such as Gardner and Mark Teixeira (a single, walk and hit by pitch), represent a younger constituency of the core, and accordingly should produce like players in their primes.
A-Rod? He's somewhere in between. At 35, he's far closer to Jeter in age, yet given his contract status (signed through 2017) and his general status (one of the game's greatest players ever), the bar rests higher even in his decline phase.
"When you're the RBI guy," Joe Girardi said of A-Rod, "you find ways to drive in runs," as Rodriguez did with his seeing-eye single.
This 2011 Yankees season has been defined as much by their own performance as by that of Boston and Tampa Bay, as the two rivals started very slowly. That gap has diminished, however; the Yankees entered play Tuesday leading the Rays by one game in the loss column and the Red Sox by five.
"At no point did I say that either of those clubs would ever be in trouble," Girardi said. "You look at the talent on those teams. You knew it was just a matter of time before they started winning."
Some would say the same about Jeter, that it was a matter of time before he arose. We need more data to see how high he can climb back.
We also need perspective, though. If Jeter is just good -- maybe the issue of a lineup demotion resurfaces down the road -- as opposed to elite? The same for A-Rod, relative to his track record? Then the Yankees still should get back to where they want to go.
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