Shawn Green is better than Derek Jeter
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by Annadrome
Derek Jeter is the most overrated player in baseball. He is consistently called one of the best players in baseball and annually finishes in the top 10 in MVP voting. But in reality, he is no better than a mediocre bum, such as Shawn Green. Seriously, everyone thinks Jeter is so amazing because 1) he happened to be on the Yankees when they won world series after world series, and 2) the gross overemphasis on how important batting average is.
To prove my point, I just picked some random mediocre player who gets constant scrutiny for being awful and useless to their team. The first person I thought of was Shawn Green.
Here are their stats:
Derek Jeter Stats
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
1995 21 NYY AL 15 48 5 12 4 1 0 7 0 0 3 11 .250 .294 .375 75 18 0 0 0 0 0
1996 22 NYY AL 157 582 104 183 25 6 10 78 14 7 48 102 .314 .370 .430 101 250 6 9 1 9 13 RoY-1
1997 23 NYY AL 159 654 116 190 31 7 10 70 23 12 74 125 .291 .370 .405 104 265 8 2 0 10 14 MVP-24
1998 24 NYY AL 149 626 127 203 25 8 19 84 30 6 57 119 .324 .384 .481 126 301 3 3 1 5 13 MVP-3,AS
1999 25 NYY AL 158 627 134 219 37 9 24 102 19 8 91 116 .349 .438 .552 161 346 3 6 5 12 12 MVP-6,AS
2000 26 NYY AL 148 593 119 201 31 4 15 73 22 4 68 99 .339 .416 .481 123 285 3 3 4 12 14 MVP-10,AS
2001 27 NYY AL 150 614 110 191 35 3 21 74 27 3 56 99 .311 .377 .480 125 295 5 1 3 10 13 MVP-10,AS
2002 28 NYY AL 157 644 124 191 26 0 18 75 32 3 73 114 .297 .373 .421 113 271 3 3 2 7 14 AS
2003 29 NYY AL 119 482 87 156 25 3 10 52 11 5 43 88 .324 .393 .450 127 217 3 1 2 13 10 MVP-21
2004 30 NYY AL 154 643 111 188 44 1 23 78 23 4 46 99 .292 .352 .471 116 303 16 2 1 14 19 MVP-13,AS
2005 31 NYY AL 159 654 122 202 25 5 19 70 14 5 77 117 .309 .389 .450 121 294 7 3 3 11 15 MVP-10
2006 32 NYY AL 154 623 118 214 39 3 14 97 34 5 69 102 .343 .417 .483 138 301 7 4 4 12 13 SS,MVP-2,AS
2007 33 NYY AL 156 639 102 206 39 4 12 73 15 8 56 100 .322 .388 .452 126 289 3 2 3 14 21 AS
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
13 Seasons 7429 2356 54 933 70 1291 .317 .388 .462 123 67 39 29 129 171
1835 1379 386 195 264 761 3435
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
162 Game Avg 656 122 208 34 5 17 82 23 6 67 114 .317 .388 .462 123 303 6 3 3 11 15
Career High 159 654 134 219 44 9 24 102 34 12 91 125 .349 .438 .552 161 346 16 9 5 14 21
Shawn Green Stats
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
1993 20 TOR AL 3 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 -100 0 0 0 0 0 0
1994 21 TOR AL 14 33 1 3 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 8 .091 .118 .121 -38 4 0 0 0 0 1
1995 22 TOR AL 121 379 52 109 31 4 15 54 1 2 20 68 .288 .326 .509 114 193 0 3 3 3 4 RoY-5
1996 23 TOR AL 132 422 52 118 32 3 11 45 5 1 33 75 .280 .342 .448 94 189 0 2 3 8 9
1997 24 TOR AL 135 429 57 123 22 4 16 53 14 3 36 99 .287 .340 .469 108 201 1 4 4 1 4
1998 25 TOR AL 158 630 106 175 33 4 35 100 35 12 50 142 .278 .334 .510 116 321 1 3 2 5 6
1999 26 TOR AL 153 614 134 190 45 0 42 123 20 7 66 117 .309 .384 .588 143 361 0 5 4 11 12 SS,MVP-9,AS
2000 27 LAD NL 162 610 98 164 44 4 24 99 24 5 90 121 .269 .367 .472 118 288 0 6 9 8 18
2001 28 LAD NL 161 619 121 184 31 4 49 125 20 4 72 107 .297 .372 .598 157 370 0 5 10 5 10 MVP-6
2002 29 LAD NL 158 582 110 166 31 1 42 114 8 5 93 112 .285 .385 .558 155 325 0 5 22 5 26 MVP-5,AS
2003 30 LAD NL 160 611 84 171 49 2 19 85 6 2 68 112 .280 .355 .460 117 281 0 6 2 6 18
2004 31 LAD NL 157 590 92 157 28 1 28 86 5 2 71 114 .266 .352 .459 113 271 0 2 6 8 17
2005 32 ARI NL 158 581 87 166 37 4 22 73 8 4 62 95 .286 .355 .477 113 277 0 8 6 5 18
2006 33 TOT NL 149 530 73 147 31 3 15 66 4 4 45 82 .277 .344 .432 94 229 0 3 5 10 17
ARI NL 115 417 59 118 22 3 11 51 4 4 37 64 .283 .348 .429 93 179 0 2 4 6 9
NYM NL 34 113 14 29 9 0 4 15 0 0 8 18 .257 .325 .442 99 50 0 1 1 4 8
2007 34 NYM NL 130 446 62 130 30 1 10 46 11 1 37 62 .291 .352 .430 106 192 1 1 4 5 14
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
15 Seasons 7082 2003 35 1070 52 1315 .283 .355 .494 120 3 53 80 80 174
1951 1129 445 328 162 744 3502
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
162 Game Avg 588 94 166 37 3 27 89 13 4 62 109 .283 .355 .494 120 291 0 4 7 7 14
Career High 162 630 134 190 49 4 49 125 35 12 93 142 .309 .385 .598 157 370 1 8 22 11 26
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
Over the course of 13 full seasons, Shawn Green averaged 25 homers a year, 82 RBI's, 86 runs, 12 SBs. a .283 BA, and a .355 OBP.
Meanwhile, over the course of 13 full seasons, Derek Jeter has averaged 15 homers, 71 RBI's, 106 runs, 20 SBs, a .317 BA, and a 388 OBP.
So in other words, over the course of his career, what has Derek Jeter actually done that is better than Shawn Green? Pretty much nothing.
Shawn Green hits 10 more homers a year, and drives in 11 more runs.
Jeter on the other hand has a better BA ,OBP, and runs scored. But what exactly does that mean really? Over the course of every 100 at bats, Derek Jeter gets 3 more base hits than Shawn Green (.317 BA vs. .283) and gets on base a total of 3 more times (.388 OBP vs. .355 OBP) every 100 plate appearances. Does that really help a team win? Getting on base 3 more times every 100 at bats? That comes out to getting on base 1 more time every 7 games (assuming 5 plate appearances a game), and around 20 more times an entire year.
So would you rather take a guy that gets on base 20 more times a year, or a guy that will hit 10 more homers and drive in 11 more runs?
I know you will bring up Jeter is a leader, and plays a tougher position, and has won World Series rings, blah blah blah. But that's all ridiculous. The Yankees would have won all those rings regardless of who played shortstop. The yankees won because they had great teams. They had guys like Tino and Paul and Mariano and Pettitte and on and on. Jeter was just another mediocre player on that team.
I'm not really arguing that Shawn Green is better than Derek Jeter. I'm just saying that Jeter is the most overrated player in baseball, and the fact that you can even make a plausible argument that Shawn freakin Green is better proves this.
