Tulo/Rollins/Reyes/Hanley vs. Jeter/Nomar/Tejada/ARod
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Published by Tyson Whipple on October 31, 2007 03:16 pm
Baseball’s greatest strength from a fan’s standpoint is the ability to discuss players and how they stack up against other players currently and historically.
My friend and frequent contributor to the Metro Daily West, Peter Jones, and I have noticed a surplus of good young shortstops in the National League, of those being Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins, Jose Reyes and Troy Tulowitzki. With such a stable of talent to fill All Star rosters in the NL for years to come, a question was asked between two friends: “Are these guys as good as A Rod, Jeter, Tejada and Nommmah a couple years back?”
Being from the Boston area, I loved watching those guys play. I thought they were great. A combination of speed and power – the best MLB had to offer. When my friend asked me the question, I really didn’t want to admit that the shortstops of today in the NL could compare to the guys who changed the way we look at shortstops.
Times are certainly changing and youth and speed are refreshing the entire league with guys like Reyes and Ramirez. Well actually Ramirez could again change the way we look at shortstops; the kid is an absolute freak of nature.
But before we get into this, let me make it perfectly clear. I have not done the neutral stats of all these players, nor considered the Park Factor. I have not taken into account defense in any way shape or form in this discussion. I also understand that the NL SS in question have FAR less product to go by than that of the AL SS. Still, I thought it would be fun to take a peek at some BASIC stats and see how they stacked up to each other – a “good ol’ boy” discussion.
Jeter has won championships and is the face of the current Yankees. Alex Rodriguez may break the all time home run record when he calls it quits. He may also assemble the greatest offensive career the game has ever seen. Nomar flirted with .400 in 2000 and was a fine hitter and run producer for many years in Boston. Tejada has been a very productive player in Oakland and Baltimore; he can bring his 2002 MVP award to any discussion pertaining to the “big three”.
Amongst the masses of All Star selections, batting titles, MVP awards and all around great run production, could it be said that this fine group of players could be challenged for best in history? Let’s take a look.
1998
- H 2B HR RBI SB BA OBP
- 203 25 19 84 30. 324 .384 Derek Jeter
- 195 37 35 122 12 .323 .362 Nomar
- 85 20 11 45 5 .233 .298 Tejeda ( only 105 games)
- 213 35 42 124 46 .310 .360 A Rod
1999
- 219 37 24 102 19 .349 .438 Jeter
- 190 42 27 104 14 .357 .418 Nomar
- 149 33 21 84 8 .251 .325 Tejeda
- 143 25 42 111 21 . 285 .357 A Rod
2000
- 201 31 15 73 22 .339 .416 Jeter
- 197 51 21 96 5 .372 .434 Nomar
- 167 32 30 115 6 .275 .349 Tejeda
- 175 34 41 132 15 .316 .420 A Rod
2002
- 191 26 18 75 32 .297 .373 Jeter
- 197 56 24 120 5 .310 .352 Nomar
- 204 30 34 131 7 .308 .354 Tejeda
- 187 27 57 142 9 .300 .392 A Rod
2003
- 156 25 10 52 11 .324 .393 Jeter 2003 (119 games)
- 198 37 28 105 19 .301 .345 Nomar
- 177 42 27 106 10 .278 .336 Tejeda
- 181 30 47 118 17 .298 .396 A Rod
Average for the four players during those five years
- 181 34 29 102 16 .307 .375
(I’m sure you can notice that I left out 2001, Nomar was hurt and I couldn’t put his season in because there just wasn’t enough AB’s to be fair to the rest of the group).
Now for the young NL shortstops of today.
2007
- H 2B HR RBI SB BA OBP
- 177 33 24 99 7 .291 .359 Troy Tulowitzki
- 212 38 30 94 41 .296 .344 Jimmy Rollins
- 191 36 12 57 78 .280 .354 Jose Reyes
- 212 48 29 81 51 .332 .386 Hanley Ramirez
Average for these four players in 2007
- 198 39 24 83 44 .300 .360
Based solely on some of these BASIC statistics, you can make a good argument that the SS of today are comparable to the SS of a couple of years ago. HR numbers and RBI’s are down, but the speed is certainly in the NL SS favor. BA and OBP are very similar and the doubles have to go to the NL side.
I do realize that this is only one year from Tulo, Rollins, Reyes and Ramirez, but I don’t see any of these guys slowing down on the field offensively. If anything you could make an argument that with time, this group of players HR numbers could start to increase with bigger, stronger bodies. And the batting average and OBP has a chance to go up as well with time and experience. It’s awfully tough going off one year from this group, and I’m not saying they are going to win multiple MVP’s and WS championships. But I also don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibilities with continued production like this.
I would love to hear from anyone about how they feel both sides of players stack up and any other comments regarding the future of the NL shortstops in question. This wasn’t really meant to be an all out fact based piece, but more to stir up some thoughts and ideas from everyone else.
