Topic on the premium board got deleted by staff last night. Before it did, some said Jeter was not a "great" shortstop. Another said he was the sixth or seventh greatest Yankee of all time. Lot of Yankee haters out there, but these statements are surely debateable.

If he wasn't a great shortstop, who was? Ripken, Smith, Yount, Wagner....they are the only first ballot HOF shortstops (not counting Banks or Molitor who played less than half their career at SS). If you compare Jeter to the first three, he has the highest BA at .309 (Yount is second at .285). He is first in hits at 3,463 (Ripken is second at 3,184). He is first in runs scored at 1,923 (Ripken is second with 1,647). He is second in home runs with 260 (Ripken leads with 431). Fielding percentage is extremely close with Ripken at .979, Oz at .978 and Jeter at .977. Yount is way off at .964. Not a great shortstop??

Hard to rank the greatest Yankees, however no other New York Yankee has ever collected 3,000 hits. Only Ruth scored more runs that Jeter. Only the Babe and Mantle were first ballot HOF.....I think Jeter is a lock first ballot, along with Mo. He's top five at least.

Aggie baseball related?

You cannot leave Arky Vaughn out of the discussion of all time great SS.

As far as Yankees go, there's simply no way Jeter is better than Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio or Mantle. That's just not up for discussion in my opinion. 5th at best and that's if you place him in front of Whitey Ford, Reggie Jackson and Yogi Berra. I wouldn't.

Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle & Berra are a step above the rest. I would definitely give Jeter the nod over Jackson in that Jeter's career was entirely with the Yanks while Jackson was in the Bronx for only five seasons. I'd place Jeter in the same company or slightly above Ford, Rivera, Dickey & Munson in the pantheon of Yankee greats.

Dont remember the channel involved but last night Jeter was featured in a lengthy program on his career.. Very impressive.

quote:

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Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle & Berra are a WAY above Jeter.

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FIFY

I was just curious so I looked up the Yankees WAR leaders

Rank Player WAR
1.Babe Ruth 142.7
2.Lou Gehrig 112.4
3.Mickey Mantle 109.7
4.Joe DiMaggio 78.2
5.Derek Jeter 71.8
6.Yogi Berra 59.4
7.Bill Dickey 55.8
8.Willie Randolph 53.7
9.Alex Rodriguez 52.5
10.Bernie Williams 49.4

Surprised to see Yogi that big of a gap between Jeter and Yogi.

I could chime in...



But I'm gonna leave the dead horse alone.