He's never hit 25 home runs in a season. He's driven in 100 runs once.
He had a lower OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) last year than Jorge Posada or Brad Fullmer.
So is Derek Jeter worth 189 million of George Steinbrenner's hard-earned dollar bills?
|  | | Jeter hit .339 last year and owns a career average of .322. |
You bet he is.
OK, you could make a case that nobody is worth $189 million. Not Michael Jordan. Not Julia Roberts. Not Bill Gates. Not anybody.
But if we're going to assume the current baseball pay scales are reality -- as opposed to insanity -- then we'd rather see Derek Jeter get a 10-year, $189-million contract than, say, Izzy Alcantara.
"It's like buying stock in Coca-Cola," says one AL front-office man.
"He's a solid stock. He's not some dot-com where you don't know where he
came from or where he's going. He's got a good background. He's laid a good
foundation. You know Derek Jeter is a good buy, if anyone is."
He may not make as many home run trots as A-Rod or Nomar. But he's a
hit machine. And he's a run-scoring machine. And he's a walking instructional
film on how to play shortstop.
|
Triviality
|
|
Whether or not Dave Winfield wears his Padres cap into the Hall of Fame, he's still only the fourth player to be elected to the Hall
who was a Padre at any time in his career. Can you name the other three?
(Answer at bottom.)
|
But he's more.
Derek Jeter is The Man on The Team that has won four World Series in the last five years. And that counts for more than the total of any of his
numbers.
"You can sum him up in six words," says another AL executive. "He's the
heart of the Yankees."
Had this contract crept up there into the range of $22 million or $23
million a year, everyone would have had a right to shake their heads and
say, "That Steinbrenner has gone off the deep end again."
But at just under $19 million a year, this is a contract that actually
seems relatively sane -- as long as you can accept the premise that anyone in sports deserves 10 guaranteed years to do anything more taxing than wiping down the hot-dog stand.
"He's 26," says Exec. No. 2. "He's in perfect shape. He's not a guy who
is ever going to give you trouble. So if ever you could say a 10-year deal
is safe, this would be the guy."
|
|
Derek Jeter is The Man on The Team that
has won four World Series in the last five years. And that counts for more than the total
of any of his numbers. |
When you compare this contract to the rest of this winter's big
signings, you measure it against two sets of factors.
One, obviously, is the A-Rod deal. But that wasn't a baseball contract.
That was a corporate acquisition. No contract can be stacked up next to that one, because Rangers cash disseminator Tom Hicks was a guy going way beyond the bounds of common
economic sense to put his franchise on the map.
So while A-Rod's contract framed the Jeter negotiations, the more
reasonable comparison in this case is to the deals signed by Jeff Bagwell
and Carlos Delgado -- the other two megastars who stayed with their current
teams.
Those two got contracts averaging $17 million a year. Jeter, meanwhile,
will average nearly $19 million.
True, Bagwell and Delgado are monstrous middle-of-the-order
run producers. But Jeter is younger. His contract is twice the length. He
gets a premium for doing what he's done in New York. (That's the way this
works, folks.) And he gets a premium for being the leader and marquee
attraction of the four-time champs.
So he's a man getting paid what he's earned. It's that simple.
"He's the cornerstone of that franchise," said Exec. No. 1. "Of all of
them, he's the guy they can't afford to lose. If they lose Derek Jeter, how
do they replace him? They can't. He plays a premium position, at a young
age.
They can afford to lose almost anyone else on that team. But they can't lose
him.
"There are only a handful of guys who you know the money won't ever
change. And he's one of them. So if you're going to put big money into
anybody, he's it. Look at how he's evolved. Look at how he's expanded his
talent and his responsibility over the last four or five years. Not a lot of kids could go into New York at his age and do what he's done. But he can handle it, from a mental and physical standpoint. And that makes him a rare kind of guy."
Oh, A-Rod's numbers might be more photogenic. But Derek Jeter just rolls those big-time seasons off his assembly line, year after year, as the bright lines follow his every step.
Who is the only player in baseball to top 200 hits in each of the last
three seasons? Derek Jeter.
Who is the only player in baseball to top 110 runs scored in each of the last four seasons? Derek Jeter.
He has averaged 203 hits a year and 124 runs a year in the four seasons
since he established himself as a premier player. No one has more hits in
that time. Only Jeff Bagwell (132 a year) has scored more runs.
And then there's the defensive portion of the proceedings. Statistically,
A-Rod and Nomar look better on paper. But statistics can't measure Jeter's
instinctive feel for his position -- and all it entails.
"That throw in Game 1 of the World Series (to nail Timo Perez at the
plate) -- that was the play of the Series," says an AL scout. "I said in my
reports: 'This guy is better at taking relays and turning them into outs
than anyone in the game.' He takes bad throws and turns them into good throws
because of his athleticism and his feel for the game. And that throw was the perfect example of it."
No one can read the future, of course. No one knows where the highway
will lead Derek Jeter five or eight or 10 years from today. But it's amazing how few people are questioning the length of this commitment to this special player.
"It's like buying a house," says Exec. No. 1. "You want to buy something that looks like it's going to last, something where 10 or 20 years from now, you'll still feel good about what you bought. And he's it. If Derek Jeter turns into a knucklehead, there's no hope for the game. I think he's as sure a thing as there is."
He's so sure a thing, in fact, the Yankees are betting 189 million bucks on him. And the incredible thing is: It's hard to find anyone who even thinks they're crazy.
Miscellaneous Rumblings
We can debate for the next 10 years which of the three shortstops in the
old Holy Trinity is best. But here's how they rank over the last four years
in five major offensive categories -- hits, runs, home runs, RBI and stolen bases:
Hits
Jeter 813
Garciaparra 791
Rodriguez 707
Runs
Jeter 496
Rodriguez 467
Garciaparra 440
Home runs
Rodriguez 148
Garciaparra 113
Jeter 68
RBI
Rodriguez 451
Garciaparra 420
Jeter 329
Stolen bases
Rodriguez 111
Jeter 94
Garciaparra 53
Among all players, the leaders in hits over the last four years:
Jeter 813
Garciaparra 791
Cirillo 754
Bichette 738
Sosa 732
Belle 712
Glanville 710
E. Martinez 707
A. Rodriguez 707
And among all players, the leaders in runs scored over the last four
years:
Bagwell 528
Jeter 496
Griffey 468
A. Rodriguez 467
Durham 462
Bonds 463
Biggio 459
C. Jones 457
Sosa 444
As spring training dawns, you no doubt will be hearing the usual talk that only teams with big payrolls have a chance to make the playoffs. Well, this
just in: Of the 10 teams with the highest opening-day payrolls last season,
seven didn't make it to the postseason: the Dodgers, Orioles, Diamondbacks,
Red Sox, Indians, Rangers and Devil Rays.
So as many teams from the bottom six clubs in opening-day payroll (A's,
White sox) made it as made it from the top five (Yankees, Mets).
Sammy Sosa said all the right things at his appearance in Chicago over the weekend. But privately, Sosa has been telling people that if he can't work
out a long-term deal with the Cubs, he would prefer to be traded to a team
that will sign him.
Contrary to reports that he wants a $100-million extension, a five-year
deal in the neighborhood of $90 million (or around $18 million a year) would probably get it done. It's been widely reported that the Cubs' last offer was four years, $68 million ($17 million a year).
Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett may be working on their speeches, but the Hall of Fame drama isn't over yet. The rest of this year's Hall induction
class will be deterrmined over the next several weeks.
First up, later this month, the Ford Frick Award committee has to elect
a candidate to the broadcasters' wing. The favorites: dulcet Phillies voice
Harry Kalas or legendary Brewers broadcast-wit Bob Uecker.
Then, on March 6, the Veterans Committee has some fascinating choices.
Bill Mazeroski reportedly missed election by one vote last year. So he would seem the most likely choice. But Gil Hodges continues to get support. And Tony Oliva and Ron Santo are up for the first time after failing to be elected by the writers.
Also on the agenda in a separate category is the name of Marvin Miller,
whose leadership of the union in its early days make him one of the most
influential baseball people in the 20th century. But the committee can
choose only one executive, manager or umpire. So Miller could get edged out by Dick
Williams, who had been viewed as a favorite for election last year until an
embarrassing public incident and the Sparky Anderson groundswell did him in.
Gus Dominguez, the agent for Cuban third baseman Andy Morales, continues
to claim that four teams are pursuing Morales. But one baseball official calls
that talk "complete bull." The only team that appears to be still in the
hunt for Morales is the Yankees.
The Red Sox and Expos also had interest at one time. But apparently
they've now dropped out. Dominguez is asking for $6 million and a
major-league contract for Morales, whom one team's director of international scouting says "might end up just being a utility infielder" because "he's not going to give you the power you'd like at the corners."
The Diamondbacks are talking to Randy Johnson about reworking his
contract. The Unit is already deferring $6 million a year of his $12.35 million salary in each of the next two years. But the club has asked if he would be willing to defer even more of that salary in 2001-02 in exchange for having his option picked up for 2003. That option is worth $15 million a year if the
Unit wins the Cy Young in 2002, $13.5 million if he finishes in the top five in the voting and $12 million if neither of the above happens.
It's a week and a half until spring training, and Rickey Henderson still
doesn't have a serious offer. Rickey needs 86 hits to get to 3,000. And if
he never gets another, he'll be one of only five players whose careers started
after 1900 to get within 100 hits of 3,000 but never get there. The others:
Sam Rice (2,987), Frank Robinson (2,943), Rogers Hornsby (2,930) and Al
Simmons (2,927).
Useless information dept.
The Braves are clearly counting on big things from John Smoltz. But
history (speaking through its interpreter, the Elias Sports Bureau) tells us that in the last 25 seasons, only two pitchers came back to win 15 games or more, a year after missing an entire season in the big leagues for any reason.
And even more bad news for the Smoltz Fan Club: They were both knuckleballers. According to Elias' Rob Tracy and Kevin Hines, the last was
Tim Wakefield in 1995. But he wasn't hurt. He'd just been exiled to Triple-A by the Pirates. The other was Tom Candiotti in 1986. (Ditto, by the Brewers).
The only others in the last 40 years: Gary Nolan in 1975 (after missing
most of the previous two seasons with shoulder trouble) and Jim Palmer in
1969 (after battling shoulder and back problems for two years).
The numbers for those four in their comeback seasons:
|
Year
|
Pitcher
|
Team
|
W-L
|
ERA
|
|
1995
|
Tim Wakefield
|
Red Sox
|
16-8
|
2.95
|
|
1986
|
Tom Candiotti
|
Indians
|
16-12
|
3.57
|
|
1975
|
Gary Nolan
|
Reds
|
15-9
|
3.16
|
|
1969
|
Jim Palmer
|
Orioles
|
16-4
|
2.34
|
Who are the best set-up men in baseball? Lowest batting averages against
NL set-up men last year (50 appearances or more):
Mike Myers, Col. .160
Byung-Hyun Kim, Ari. .200
Mike Fetters, L.A. .205
Kevin Walker, S.D. .206
Turk Wendell, NYM .206
Lowest against AL set-up men (and Mariners opponents should be taking
notes):
Jeff Nelson, NYY .183
Arthur Rhodes, Sea. .205
Bobby Howry, Chi. .216
Paul Shuey, Cle. .219
Kelly Wunsch, Chi. .229
Another reason for Cal Ripken to try to make it through the year: If
he can play in 127 more games, he'll become only the fourth player in history
to play 3,000 games with one team -- and just the third to do so for only one
team.
The others:
Carl Yastrzemski: 3,308 games, Red Sox
Stan Musial: 3,026, Cardinals
Hank Aaron: 3,076, Braves (plus 222 with the Brewers)
Ripken also leads all active players in most home runs hit for his
original team (417). The only other players with 200 or more career homers who are
still playing for their original teams (without leaving and then returning):
Frank Thomas 344
Jeff Bagwell 310
Eric Karros 242
Jim Thome 233
Tim Salmon 230
Ray Lankford 207
Another year, another spring-training site for Jim Leyritz (this time Port St. Lucie). But where will he end the season? That's always the question for the King.
The New York Times' Tyler Kepner points out that Leyritz has changed
teams in midseason four straight years. And according to Elias' Rob Tracy
and Kevin Hines, that's the longest current streak by an active player.
Active players with a streak of three or more consecutive mid-year
address changes at any point in their careers:
|
Streak
|
Player
|
Years
|
|
4
|
Jim Leyritz
|
1997-2000
|
|
4
|
Rick Wilkins
|
1995-1998
|
|
3
|
Rich Becker
|
1998-2000
|
|
3
|
Jason Bere
|
1998-2000
|
|
3
|
Shawon Dunston
|
1997-1999
|
|
3
|
Jorge Fabregas
|
1997-1999
|
|
3
|
Lenny Harris
|
1998-2000
|
|
3
|
Gregg Olson
|
1995-1997
|
|
3
|
Ruben Sierra
|
1995-1997
|
|
3
|
David Weathers
|
1996-1998
|
Finally, if you missed the coaching hire of the year, the Atlantic City
Surf (Atlantic League) named the one and only Mitch Williams as pitching
coach last week.
This wouldn't quite be the equivalent of the Dolphins hiring Garo
Yepremian as quarterbacks coach. But you might recall that the Wild Thing
wasn't known for his Tom Seaver-esque delivery.
And if he ever preaches, "Throw strikes," he might get bigger laughs
than Letterman. (He walked 7.1 per nine innings in his career -- and loaded the
bases, all by himself, in 14 of his saves.)
So we asked his buddy and former teammate Larry Andersen to compile
the Top Five Unique Things Mitch Can Teach His Pitchers. Here goes:
5) How to pitch like their hair's on fire
4) How to cover home on a wild pitch with a man on third
3) How to land on your glove hand after follow-through
2) How to walk the bases loaded and then strike out the side
And No. 1) How to make the manager start smoking (or start again)
Trivia answer
Gaylord Perry, Roland G. Fingers, Willie McCovey.
Jayson Stark is a Senior Writer at ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | |
ALSO SEE
Rivera, Yankees close to four-year deal
Neyer: Jeter's no A-Rod or Nomar
Klapisch: It's now Jeter's team
Jayson Stark archive
|
