What Would YOU Pay Jeter to Join the Mets?

Over on Amazin Avenue, the epicenter of rational thought in the Mets blogosphere, they had a poll this morning [1]asking readers the following:

Would you sign Derek Jeter to play for the Mets? To my surprise, the responses were overwhelmingly negative. By a margin of 76% to 23%, respondents voted no.[2]


I would most certainly sign Jeter if he was willing to play second base rather than shortstop. The real question, as far as I'm concerned, is "how much would you be willing to pay him?" I imagine that most of the people that voted "no" in the above poll did so because they took ancillary factors into account, such as price.

As far as I can tell, the question breaks down into two parts. One, what is Jeter's on-field value likely to be? And two, what is his off-the-field value to the Mets?

Ew, a Yankee Post

Very interesting article over at the Times today at their Bats Blog. They used WAR, or wins above replacement, to determine who the greatest Yankee was during the Steinbrenner years. The result should come as no surprise:

Neither Henderson nor Rodriguez, however, has enough longevity with the team to come close to Derek Jeter, the greatest Yankee during the Steinbrenner era. With 69.9 wins above replacement, Jeter has been by far the most valuable Yankee since 1973, more than the second-place Mariano Rivera, who has 51.7. Jeter is also one of the most consistent, posting a WAR of at least 4.0 in 10 of his 13 full seasons so far despite negative contributions from his below-average defense.

I'm glad to see that people are giving the Boss the respect he deserved at his passing. Despite all the tumultuous stuff in the early years, he truly was a lion of a man. And there won't ever be another like him.

Also nice to see the Times do such a good job using, and explaining, an advanced statistic and putting it to use in such an accessible way.