Say Goodbye To The Captain – Derek Jeter’s Final Game In The Bronx This Week

On Thursday of this week, in what will more than likely be a meaningless game in terms of the race for the playoffs, New York Yankees’ captain Derek Jeter will play his final game in the Bronx against the Baltimore Orioles. If Jeter chooses to play out his final season in the same fashion as fellow core four member Mariano Rivera last year and not take the field in the final road series at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox, Thursday will also be the final game of his illustrious career.

Baseball fans across the country have been inundated by announcers’ endless accolades of Jeter’s accomplishments whenever they have turned on the television to watch a Yankees game this season. And some of the highest attended games for many teams, including the Seattle Mariners, have been when Jeter and the Yankees came to town on the farewell tour.

Jeter has been for this generation of Yankees fans what Mickey Mantle must have been to their father’s generation and what Joe DiMaggio must have been to their grandfather’s generation – a true baseball hero.

But, sometimes lost in all the rhetoric of Jeter “playing the game the right way” is that for the past 20 seasons, fans of baseball truly have had the privilege of watching one of the greatest baseball players of all time, and quite possibly the greatest shortstop of all time.

On an all-time list of shortstops, ranked by WAR, Jeter comes in 6^th behind Honus Wagner, Alex Rodriguez, Cal Ripken, George Davis, and Bill Dahlen. Wagner, Davis, and Dahlen all played a good chunk of their careers in the late 19^th century when the game was substantially different from the one played today, so we’ll tip our hats to them but focus on the modern game of baseball. And at this point, having played the majority of his career at 3B (a move to accommodate Jeter), Alex Rodriguez can be taken out of the conversation. That leaves Ripken to challenge Jeter all time.

In 3001 games, Cal Ripken accumulated 111.0 WAR, while Jeter has played in 2741 games and gained 77.5 WAR.

Since Ripken was a very good defensive shortstop while, to put it politely, Jeter was not; the comparison in WAR is not exactly fair with regard to their respective offensive abilities. Nevertheless, had Jeter played as many games as Ripken, his career WAR would have been somewhere around 84.85, closer but still well behind Ripken.

A closer inspection shows that Jeter and Ripken were two very different types of hitters, but similar in terms of value.

Ripken’s lifetime batting average was .276 while Jeter’s is .310. Jeter has a higher on base percentage at .377 compared to Ripken with .340. And surprisingly, given the perception of Ripken as a power hitter and Jeter as a finesse hitter, their slugging percentages are very similar – Ripken at .447 and Jeter at .440.

Ripken beats Jeter in home runs – 431 to 260 – and runs batted in – 1695 to 1304. But Jeter scored more runs than Ripken – 1921 to 1647 – and stole more bases – 358 to just 36.

Two advanced offensive metrics give a slight nod to Jeter.

Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) measures a player’s total offensive value in runs and compares the league average after controlling for park effects. League average is 100.

Using wRC+, Jeter is about 7% better than Ripken at the plate with a lifetime 119 mark, compared to 112. However, given that Ripken played most of his career during a more robust offensive period, one might argue that 12% better than league average then is about the same as 19% better than league average post-steroid era. But then Jeter did play some of his best seasons in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. So, the argument could go either way.

Then we have Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA), which is predicated on the idea that not all hits are created equal. It attempts to measure a hitter’s offensive value based on the relative values of each offensive event.

Jeter leads in this category also – .360 to .346. With wOBA, one would expect the opposite argument from wRC+. The greater offensive environment would be expected to produce the higher wOBA and yet Jeter has the slight edge.

As always, it’s fun to look at the different numbers and make the arguments for whose better, but it’s safe to say that MLB is seeing the close of one of the all-time great careers when Derek Jeter takes that final at-bat at Yankee Stadium on Thursday. I know I’ll be watching.