Quote:
Originally Posted by the 'stache
I would say in his prime that he was one of the ten best pure hitters in baseball. Hitting .324, .339, .349..no matter what era you are in, those averages are excellent. Not Tony Gwynn excellent, but very, very good. Jeter did what New York needed him to do. He got on base. He stole bases. He scored runs. He played solid defense. He helped a team that was laden with talent win multiple World Series.
I just can't get past the comment about Jeter being one of the five greatest players of the modern era. I don't know if I'd even put him in the Yankee top 5 from the modern era.
These players, in their prime, I would take over Derek Jeter in his prime, or would likely take over Derek Jeter in his prime:
Don Mattingly
Mickey Mantle
Joe DiMaggio
Rickey Henderson
Yogi Berra
Reggie Jackson
Dave Winfield
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If you're evaluating players solely on a few years in their prime then there are a bunch of players better than Jeter. Roger Maris is better than all those players in that case, he had a three year span where he hit 133 home runs and had 353 RBI with two MVPs and a gold glove award.