Derek Jeter Keeps on Being Jeterian

I’m going to show you two stat lines and I want you to guess who they are:

Player A: .326/.376/.493, 118 runs, 213 hits, 17 HR, 83 RBI, 20 SB, 50 BB, 52 SO, 122 OPS+

Player B: .331/.395/.471, 110 runs, 218 hits, 20 HR, 73 RBI, 28 SB, 65 BB, 88 SO, 127 OPS+,

 

Give up?

Player A is 2008 Dustin Pedroia who won the American League Most Valuable Player award.

Player B is the projected result of Derek Jeter for 2009.

Look familiar?

Derek Jeter says he isn’t about in the individual awards (and Rob Neyer wonders if we all should give a damn) which is good for him this year with Joe Mauer squarely in the lead and Mark Teixeira the favorite on Jeter’s own Yankees team. He also had a season like this in 2006 when he was the second most valuable player WAR-wise in the AL (according to FanGraphs). But that was behind Grady Sizemore (who got 6% of the vote), not Justin Mourneau (who got 82% of the vote). Yet here The Captain is again, in 2009, and he is having another phenomenal season.

*Side Note: The amazing thing is that Jeter hasn’t walked in 99 ABs. And his OBP is still almost .400. Isn’t that crazy?

Versus left handed starting pitching, the Yankees were 24-22 last season. This season, they’re already 28-14. One of the big reasons has been Derek Jeter’s unbelievable numbers vs. lefties: .434/.503/.596.

And while many Yankees favor the friendly confines of the New Yankee Stadium in their home/road splits, Jeter’s numbers are very consistent:

-Home:  41 runs, 74 hits, 19 XBH, 24 BB, 33 SO, .392 OBP

-Away: 40 runs, 87 hits, 18 XBH, 24 BB, 32 SO, .398 OBP

Rob Neyer runs through that Joe Posnanski column I linked to yesterday and says that Captain Jetes is more of an MVP candidate that Tex…but Mauer is still the king. Jeter’s contract runs out after next season but Mark Feinsand reports that Jeter’s future is a hot topic for everyone except for him. Peter Abraham points out that Jeter is 13 of 20, 16 of 29 and 22 of 40.

Not too shabby for a player a lot of people was washed up.