Letter to the Editor: "Yes, I am a Yankees... hater"

Buffalo News (New York)
July 31, 2011 Sunday

Dear Editors,

Full disclosure: Yes, I am a Yankees Empire/franchise hater. But I don't hate their players. I actually like some of them.

I greatly respect Derek Jeter think he's one of the top five shortstops of all time. You could make a case that he's the best. But not if A-Rod had continued to play shortstop, regardless of for whom he played. For the sake of argument, let's say the two were equally good defensively. How could anyone vote for Jeter -- with maybe 250 or 275 career home runs -- over A-Rod with 700 or more, perhaps even the most ever?.

Comparing them defensively requires an objective analysis of their play; not the opinion of voters. Heck, the fans elected Jeter to be the starting All-Star shortstop for the AL this year, despite the fact that Asdrubal Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta were having much stronger seasons.

Jeter is deservedly one of the most popular players in the world -- not just because of his performance on the field, but also for the classy way he has conducted himself off the field. But being popular for past performance does not mean he is -- today -- a great shortstop. The Sabremetrics people who evaluate shortstops objectively by balls reached and plays made have often rated Jeter as a below-average shortstop.

He is still a good one, goes back on popups better than anyone else, makes the jump throw from the hole as well as anyone, and is very smart -- making outstanding plays because his thinking is so sharp, putting him in the right place at the right time. But his range is less than average now, especially to his left. At his best, he was never on a par defensively with guys like Luis Aparicio, Ozzie Smith, or Omar Vizquel.

Regardless of the fact that he is the very face of the Yankees, he should not have dictated that A-Rod move to third base. A-Rod is also a Yankee -- from the day he got there.

And the FACTS are that Jeter did insist that the Yankees not pay A-Rod

more than he was making when A-Rod came to New York. Yes, the CBA states that a player may not reduce the value of his contract in order to be traded to another team, even though A-Rod had volunteered to do so in order to join the Red Sox. But the players union wouldn't allow that to happen. So the Yankees -- awakened by the Red Sox that Texas would trade A-Rod -- stepped in.

But because of Jeter's insistence that the Yankees not pay A-Rod more than they were paying him, Texas had to agree to continue to pay enough of A-Rod's $25 million salary that the amount the Yankees paid him would be less than they were paying their captain.

Richard F. Teetsel
Tonawanda