The Curious Case of Derek Jeter

October 2010 Taken from St. John's Stormfront Student Newspaper

If you've watched any Yankee game in the month of September, you would clearly see that they haven't been the same team as they were all season. All year, the Yanks and Tampa Bay Rays have been neck-and-neck for first place in the AL East. For the most part, the Yankees have had the best record in the entire league but on September 24th, the Rays knocked them out of first place.

After losing two in a row to the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees had the chance to gain some ground on the Rays. The Rays lost on Sunday, so the Yankees could get within a half game of them with a win Sunday night. Going into the 9th inning, they were up by one run with the great Mariano Rivera closing. Mariano blew the save and almost lost the game for his team. But, a walk-off walk in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Yankees a crucial win. This game was extremely crucial for two reasons. The first is that the Rays keep winning and if the Yanks want to win the division, they need to win every one of their final seven games. The secondf reason is that the Red Sox were still mathematically alive coming into Sunday night. After leading the MLB in wins most of the season, there was a chance the Yankees could have missed the playoffs if they lost the rest of their games. But, with Sunday night's win, the Yankees guaranteed themselves a tie for the Wild Card at worst. You still have to be concerned with this team with the way they have recently played. But who can you blame for this month? There has to be a reason. Rookies like Colin Curtis and Ramiro Pena starting games every few days show that the Yankees are lacking in depth. They miss guys like Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, and Melky Cabrera. A weak bench makes it tough to rest your players and limits your options in regards to pinch hitters and runners. Brett Gardner has his moments of making things happen, but hasn't produced enough. Andy Pettite has been hurt and gave up seven runs in his second start back from the disabled list. Even Yankees' ace C.C. Sabathia got knocked around in his last start. Javier Vasquez has been coming out of the bullpen and recently hit three batters in a row. I won't even get started with A.J. Burnett's recent performances. Phil Hughes has been inconsistent, but shows glimpses of greatness.

There has actually been some great play from a select few in the last few weeks. Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and Curtis Granderson have all been hot at the plate. And what can you say about Robinson Cano that hasn't already been said? He's been hitting excellent all seasons and is definitely an MVP candidate. But, the most unusual part of the Yankees season, by far, has been the play of Derek Jeter. In Jeter's fourteen seasons, he has never batted below .292 and has never hit less than 10 home runs. With seven games left in the season, Derek is batting .267 with 10 home runs. Not only are his statistics "O.K.", but he has been anything other than the clutch guy we've grown to love. It has become routine for Jeter to groundout in big situations as he is leading the league with most groundout double plays. Many thought that his fielding abilities would diminish sooner than his hitting, but he has actually been pretty good at shortstop this season. Sure, his range isn't what it used to be. But, Jeter only has 6 errors this year, which would be a career best if the season ended today. It truly is puzzling as to why Derek is struggling so much this year. After the season, he will be a free agent and it will be interesting to see how much longer he wants to play. All you could hope for, as a Yankee fan, is that Jeter forgets his regular season and comes to life in the postseason.

The Yankees have a lot of things to smooth-out before the playoffs start. Their pitching needs to be more consistent and they need their bench to play better when needed. If the Yankees can get hot at the right time, they can still be the best team in the league. So just sit back, relax, and enjoy October baseball.