Yesterday it was Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman: "Multiple Gold Glover Derek Jeter is still oddly slow to his left (balls up the middle) for someone who's so quick to his right, coming in or going out. It's like he has a blind spot."
Today it's the New York Post's Joel Sherman: "The Yankees' defense is a worry. While the bullpen will probably generate a lot of strikeouts, the rotation is going to need its fielders. Pavano, Andy Pettitte and Chien-Ming Wang are big-time groundball pitchers. If Derek Jeter is not going to get to many balls up the middle, that is going to be a problem."
No need for me to pile on here, as I've written many thousands of words about Jeter's defense over the years, and the only apparent results have been abuse (for me) and Gold Gloves (for him). Two notes on this, though. First, it's odd to read these things from mainstream writers about somebody's who won three straight Gold Gloves. Encouraging. But odd. And second, while Jeter's defense probably is a "problem," it's always been a problem and that hasn't stopped Wang, or the Yankees, from winning an awful lot of games. And as long as they're winning, all the singles up the middle in the world won't lead to a position switch for Cap'n Jetes.
Rob Neyer
