On Friday night Derek Jeter became the all time Yankees hit leader.
The immediate significance of this is obvious when scanning the list of Yankee greats and realizing that Jeter now – if he wasn’t before – deserves to be considered in the class with greatest players that have passed through the most storied franchise in baseball history. But like Pete Rose, who stands atop the all time MLB hit list and yet is rarely mentioned when considering the greatest hitters of all time, what does Jeter’s franchise-leading hit total mean for him among the greatest Pinstripers of all time?
Obviously the answer holds a certain level of subjectivity to it but the statistics seem to show that Derek belongs in the top five, hence our list; the Top 5 greatest Yankees of all time. This was understandably not a hard list to compile or justify so the idea here is to examine these players’ merits always considering Jeter (and the greater pantheon of Yankee players) in a comparative sense.
1. Babe Ruth (1914-1931): Placing Ruth at the top of this list is the easiest pick as he is unquestionably the greatest ball player off all-time period. The man’s .342 life time average (9th all time and 25 points higher than Derek’s) and .474 OBP (2nd all time, and far better than Jeter’s .387) show he was a phenomenal contact hitter and his 714 home runs (second all time, screw you Bonds), 2217 RBIs (2nd all time), and 1.164 OPS (1st all time) paint him as the greatest power hitter that ever lived. Ruth is like The Beatles; you acknowledge the axiom that nothing compares and move on to the other considerations from there.
Jeter does have 13 more doubles and 290 more stolen bases than the Bambino but that's probably more attributable to hot dogs than any skill advantage for Derek.
2. Lou Gehrig (1923-1939): The player Jeter just passed for the all time lead in hits by a Yankee, Gehrig held the record for 70 years before the new Yankee captain surpassed him. Lou is not only a top five Yankee but likely a top five hitter in baseball history, especially when placing a high value on completeness. Although Jeter tops Gehrig in hits, his .340/493/1995 traditional stats all best Jeter as does his .447/.632/1.080 peripheral stat line. Gehrig did have the luxury of hitting behind Ruth a large portion of his career but when considering that he was likely sick almost two years before he retired from the illness that killed him shortly after, his stats are all the more astounding.
Article comments