Derek Jeter v. Álex Rodríguez

Derek Jeter Height: 6' 3", Weight: 195 lb. Born: June 26, 1974

Álex Rodríguez Height: 6' 3", Weight: 230 lb. Born: July 27, 1975

As a Yankee fan I'm hearing ad nauseam from Yankee announcers that Jeter is about to become the first player to get his 3,000th hit as a Yankee and that all 3,000 will be as a Yankee.

Jeter is getting more attention from media and fans here in New York than teammate Álex Rodríguez got for hitting his 500th home run as a Yankee.  More than Rodríguez got for hitting his 600th home run as a Yankee, becoming only the seventh player to reach 600 home runs.  Rodríguez has 624 home runs, six behind number 5 on the list, Ken Griffey, Jr.  Jeter: 236 (230th).

To date 46% of the plate appearances by Rodríguez have been as a Yankee.  Two of his three AL MVP awards have been as a Yankee.  Jeter has none.

Recently Yankee announcers mentioned that Rodríguez had passed Mel Ott on the all time RBI list to move into tenth place: currently 1,856.  Jeter has 1,152 RBI (168th).

Derek Jeter and Álex Rodríguez started at about the same time and have similar numbers of plate appearances:

Jeter 10,818
Rodríguez 10,444

So comparing their totals is not unreasonable.

Runs:
Jeter 1,720 (24th)
Rodríguez 1,793 (18th)

Hits:
Jeter 2,989 (28th)
Rodríguez 2,731 (55th)

Doubles:
Jeter 476 (74th)
Rodríguez 485 (67th)

Walks:
Jeter 970 (124th)
Rodríguez 1,141 (67th)

Strike Outs:
Jeter 1,600 (32nd)
Rodríguez 1,884 (7th)

Stolen Bases:
Jeter 328 (127th)
Rodríguez 304 (153rd)

Double Plays Grounded Into:

Jeter 241 (35th)

Rodríguez 218 (66th)

Runs Created:  Note: invented by Bill James to estimate the number of runs a hitter contributes to his team. I could not determine which version baseball-reference.com uses.
Jeter 1,697 (47th)
Rodríguez 2,037 (19th)

How about some averages:

Batting Average:
Jeter .313 (83rd)
Rodríguez .302 (182nd)

On-Base%:
Jeter .383 (151st)
Rodríguez .386 (125th)

Slugging %:
Jeter .449 (378th)
Rodríguez .569 (12th)

On-Base Plus Slugging (OPS):
Jeter .832 (235th)
Rodríguez .955 (20th)

Adjusted OPS+:
Jeter 118 (391)
Rodríguez 145 (47th)

OK, it's pretty obvious that Álex Rodríguez is a much better player than Derek Jeter.  Even considering that Jeter has played his entire career as a Yankee and that Rodríguez has played only 46% as a Yankee, what the heck?

Imagine if Rodríguez had pulled that stunt that Jeter pulled last season, faking that he had been hit by a pitch and having the game delayed while the Yankee manager and trainer attended to his non-injury.  Rodríguez would have been killed by media and fans, even Yankee fans.

I love Jeter but all this 3,000 hit thing has got to tone down.  It's not that big a deal.  Let's pay more attention to Rodríguez.

Note: for an update, see:

Derek Jeter announces his retirement after 2014 season and the slobbering is in full force on the Selig TV Network.  Thursday, February 13, 2014