HE WILL END WAY UP ON THE HIT LIST. i disagree with this article in SI:
Sports Illustrated players poll names Derek Jeter baseball's most overrated
BY MARK LELINWALLA
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Thursday, June 19th 2008, 8:48 PM
Antonelli/News Though Yankee fans would certainly disagree, Derek Jeter is baseball's most overrated player - at least according to a new SI players poll.
Antonelli/News Entering Thursday's game, Jeter's batting average is down 50 points from last season.
<!-- ARTICLE CONTENT START -->When you think about
Derek Jeter's career in pinstripes, four-time World Series champion, World Series MVP, eight-time All-Star and captain are all labels that may come to mind immediately. But when several players in the majors thought about Jeter, they slapped him with another tag: Overrated.
In a
Sports Illustrated survey of 495
Major League Baseball players in its June 23 issue, Jeter was voted the most overrated with 10% of the vote. Struggling
Giants lefthander
Barry Zito was second at 9%, while
Alex Rodriguez and
Red Sox outfielder
J.D. Drew were tied for third with 7%.
Mets third baseman David Wright and Red Sox first baseman
Kevin Youkilis tied for fourth at 4%.
Being named the most overrated player in baseball by some of his peers didn't stop Jeter from going 2-for-3 Thursday and scoring the decisive run in the
Yankees' 2-1 win over the Padres, completing a three-game sweep and extending the Bombers' winning streak to seven.
When the Daily News informed Jeter of the survey results, he shunned it altogether.
"I don't want to hear about it," Jeter told The News. "I don't want to hear about it, I don't want to talk about it. All negative stuff I don't want to talk about.
"I don't really have a comment on that,"
Joe Girardi added. "I'm worried about beating the
Cincinnati Reds (today). I love our guys."
Ironically, when SI asked MLB players in a separate survey last week, "Whom would you pick to build a team around?", A-Rod ranked first and Jeter second, perhaps offering a slight contradiction.
Padres designated hitter
Tony Clark, who was a teammate of Jeter's and Rodriguez's on the 2004 Yankees, laughed off the results, calling it a case of envy.
"The first poll I would 100% agree with," Clark said of building a team around Jeter and A-Rod. "The second poll I would suggest is more jealousy on guys' part, in respect to how talented those two guys are, the success they've had. I think it has a lot to do with that."
When the survey was brought to
Jason Giambi's attention, the slugger served up this food for thought:
"When you look at it, A-Rod is going to go down as the best player to ever play this game," Giambi said. "Just what he can do defensively, offensively - it's mind-boggling to see what he can do. Jeet's numbers speak for themselves. He has four World Series rings, plays shortstop."
Still, Jeter has been showing some signs of tapering off as he approaches his 34th birthday next week. Jeter raised his average from .272 to .276 with his two hits yesterday, but this time last year, he was hitting .341. The lowest batting average that Jeter has ever finished a season with is .291 in 1997.
But Jeter tends to heat up as the season goes on - he has a .322 career average after the All-Star break, and July is historically his best month with a .336 mark.
"He does everything you can ask of a player to win ballgames," Giambi said. "These are the guys (Jeter and Rodriguez) that make the Yankees successful. You look at your two superstars and they work hard."
