Derek Jeter or Cal Ripken Jr? Had this argument last night at a party. I am 100% sure Jeter is better and everyone there (most O's fans) say Ripken is better no question. Now I know I am a Yankees homer and they are clearly O's homers, so who is better? Derek Jeter: Career Batting Average: .312 Career Hits: 3,018 Career Homeruns: 238 12 Time All-Star 5 Time World Champion 17 Seasons (So Far) Cal Ripken Jr.: Career Batting Average: .276 Career Hits: 3,184 Career Homeruns: 431 19 Time All-Star 1 Time World Champion 2 Time MVP Played 21 seasons, including 2,632 straight games. Both are great, but Jeter is better right?
i dont think you can make the comparison until jeter is done. He could easily get to 15 all-stars and bypass Ripken's # of hits. Or he might blow out his knee tomorrow and never step on a field again. If he ends up with more hits than Ripken and plays 20 years, gets to 15 allstars and maybe another ring, its a slamdunk in my opinion. But for now, its a toss up...
Makes sense. But I also factor the spotlight in NY, Jeter's clutch hits and championships giving him the edge.
Ripken also won a World Series. Sure, he doesn't have five like Jeter, but he also didn't play on a juggernaut his entire career. Ripken won multiple MVPs. Jeter never came close to that. Also, Ripken had true class. This guy didn't blow off All Star Games. You can also rest assured that he would have given Christian Lopez money.
Actually, Ripken was kind of known around baseball to be a jerk. Most everyone who has met him agrees that Jeter really is a nice dude. Not that any of that should matter for an on the field comparison. It's hard to make this comparison, though... crossing eras a bit, and two different styles of ballplayer. Jeter's been a bit better offensively compared to his peers (using OPS+), and a bit more consistent, it seems. Ripken had significantly more HRs, but he was also a #3 hitter for the O's. Jeter was never that kind of hitter. If you use wOBA (or any metric except SLG/ISO in Fangraphs compare player feature) and compare their performances at the same age, Jeter outperformed Ripken from age 24 to age 35 in every year except one... and it looks like any year of Jeter's in that range, except for his age 34 season, would have been better than all of Ripken's over the same range, minus one additional season. The difference is that Ripken was better than Jeter at age 21-22, and also had a freakish outlier at age 38. Check it out: Fangraphs comparison
I have followed baseball since 1984 and never remember hearing anyone say Ripken was a jerk. If he did have any bad moments I simply never heard about it. To be fair, yeah, I know Jeter is a good guy. I was very disappointed in his actions this month, though. He should have attended the ASG. It wasn't only Yankees fans who voted him into that game as a starter. It would have been a nice moment to have a little 3-minute show for Jeter at that game since he had just gotten his 3,000th hit. Also, the dumbass who caught the 3,000 hit ball should have been compensated by Jeter.
Jeter. I've always felt Ripken's career gets a little overdone because of the consecutive games streak.
Thing was, he was a top flight SS in the mid-80s long before he was anywhere close to catching Gehrig.
Jeter has a better career OPS+ and had a better peak than Ripken. Jeter had four seasons with over a .400 OBP. Ripken's career high OBP was .374. The defense for Ripken was that he was alone as a top SS while Jeter was second best to A-Rod, and other SSs have been pretty good during his career. The All Star thing should be thrown out, because both of them got voted in while clearly not elite players anymore (Jeter's 2011 one should be expunged, too). I don't really care about the number of titles, because that's mostly a product of the team you play for.
Lots of shortstops have power now. During Ripken's days it was rare for SSs to put up good power numbers. Also, he played very good defense. As far as comparing players is concerned, I think I gave up on caring about ASG selections when Scott Cooper made the ASG one year. Jose Canseco being voted a starter after either not playing at all or only playing a handful of games one season was the next-to-last straw. My problem with Jeter is not that he got voted in. That is something different. My problem was that once he got voted in, he snubbed baseball and the fans. Very fair opinion to have when comparing baseball players. If Jeter spent his entire career with the Royals would he have won any WS? No. He would not be known as a winner.
I obviously agree regarding the ASG thing. I just was referring to TDK's post where he mentions the number of ASGs each one made.
Ooh two of the most overrated great players in the game. I give the slight edge to Jeter, better hitter even with less power. Ripken was the better fielder but that isn't saying much.
I know it sounds paradoxical, but I think Jeter is both overrated and underrated. I mean, Joe Buck (to name one media member) talks about Jeter as though he was the most amazing player ever to play the game, which is obviously not true, no matter how much weight you want to give to these "intangibles." (barf) At the same time, a lot of people react to that fluffing and overlook the fact that - despite his defensive shortcomings and/or falloff due to age - he is still probably one of the top three shortstops of all time. Definitely top five. Who else has done what he has done at the position? Honus Wagner, definitely. A-Rod? Maybe... but he's a 3B now. Ripken? That's what this thread is about. Yount? Half Cf-er. Ozzie Smith? Far more glove than bat. And look at the best shortstops in the game today. Jeter's career OPS+ is 117 (or 120 if you remove the past two years as decline years). Tulo's is 115. Reyes' is 108. Ramirez is the only one who tops him at 132, but his defense is even worse than Jeter's and he'd need to do it for about seven more years to get into the all-time best conversation... right now he's having a worse year than Jeter ever had in his prime. For all of his overrated-ness (and there is plenty), he's still been - perhaps shockingly to those sick of hearing about how great he is - one of the all-time best at his position. Granted, a lot of that is due to longevity and consistency as opposed to all-worldliness, but still... his career is nothing to sneeze at, to say the least.
I think his clutch playoff hits in the past should be factored in too. There was a time during that run when if the Yankees needed a hit, you knew Jeter would get it.
A-Rod was better than Jeter both offensively and defensively. When we're talking about all time great shortstops, I rank A-Rod ahead of Jeter, regardless of how A-Rod was forced to move to third. I also would rank Jeter as a top 5 SS, but Ripken was right there as well. These are clearly two of the greats at the position.
postseason batting average Ripken .336 Jeter .309 OPS Ripken .866 Jeter .850 Granted, Jeter had more postseason appearances. Then again, if a Royal, Jeter's postseason lines would all be 0s and horizontal lines.
This is the kind of unsupported comment that gets Jeter tagged with the overrated label. .312/.383/.449 /.832 .291/.382/.415/.797 .309/.377/.472/.850 One of the above lines is Jeter's career regular season slash stat line. The others are his career postseason slash line and his career close and late (regular season) slash line. (I couldn't find a close and late postseason slash line.) Guess which is which? (Answer below.) Regular season > Close and Late > Postseason So for his career, Jeter has been about the same in postseason or regular season, and slightly worse in close and late situations. Now, did Jeter get some big hits for the Yanks in the postseason? I'm sure. Was it somehow out of line with what you'd expect from a good ballplayer? Not at all. But a handful of hits take on mythic proportions, and all of a sudden people are calling him Captain Clutch while others (rightfully) roll their eyes.
