If you don't know the story, a group decided to do a study on defense in baseball and came to the conclusion that Derek Jeter was the worst fielding short stop in the major leagues.
Disclaimer: there aren't many Jeter fans out there that can compete with how great I think he is overall (does that sentence even make sense? fuck it). As a kid, Don Mattingly was my favorite player and since he retired Jeter has been #1. THAT SAID...I think as a fielder he's middle of the pack and anyone who points to his Gold Gloves needs to seriously rethink about whether or not they actually know anything about the sport. It's a joke. If you make a name for yourself as being good at that position you can live off that for years. I think it was 2005 when A-Rod probably was the best defensive 3rd baseman in the game and Eric Chavez still won based on rep. Now, on the flip side, as big as I am into stats and discovering new ways to evaluate players, equations trying to value defense is usually a very inexact science. From what I've read, most "stat nerds" agree that you can get a general idea of how well a defensive player someone is, but it's tough to get any type of exact value. It's so tough to take into issue all of the variables (range, ground ball ratio, type of turf/grass/field, fly balls, defensive alignment, etc) that to try and rank players is kinda foolish. And to say you're a nerd if you like deep stats and never watch the game, well...that's what old scouts said when giving Kevin Youkilis the thumbs down. Hey, I'm no fan of the guy, but he can flat out play. These are the same people who believe in clutch, sacrifice bunts, manufacturing runs, and "clogging the basepaths" (as if getting on base is bad, no matter how fat you are). Anyway, back on tangent for my thoughts: Derek Jeter was overrated when he won the Gold Gloves, but probably unfairly bashed in the study.
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