Derek Jeter was voted the most overrated player in baseball in a Sports Illustrated poll of over 495 major leaguers. Not surprisingly, both the Yankees captain and his manager could not care less.
“I ain’t talking about that,” Jeter said after helping lead his Bombers to a 2-1 victory over the Padres, the seventh straight for the Yankees. “I ain’t talking about it. You guys can have fun with it.”
In the survey to be released in the June 23 issue, the Yankee shortstop got 10 percent of the vote. Teammate Alex Rodriguez was tied with Boston outfielder J.D. Drew for third with 7 percent.
But in a clear case of opinions-are-like-you-know-what, when Sports Illustrated did a survey of “Whom would you pick to build your team around” just a week earlier, Rodriguez finished first and Jeter second. Make up your minds, fellas.
“I don’t really have a comment about it. I love our guys, and I’ll keep them,” Joe Girardi said, with a smirk that barely hid his contempt for the topic. “I’m not going to comment on it. I worry about beating the Cincinnati Reds (tonight), not what’s in the papers.”
The players can’t claim Jeter isn’t a winner, with the highest winning percentage of any active player. And yesterday the Bombers captain helped keep his team on a roll, going 2-for-3 with a walk, a stolen base and a run scored.
With the game tied 1-1 in the sixth inning, Jeter worked a full-count against starter Josh Banks and eventually singled to left-center. Then he swiped second, his fifth steal of the year, and took third on Bobby Abreu’s groundout. He scored on Rodriguez’ clean single to left, and it turned out to be the game-winner.
Jeter has hit safely in 16 of 18 games this month and is batting .276 with 38 runs scored. His .600 winning percentage (1,140-759-2) is the best among all players (min. 1,000 games) according to Elias Sports Bureau.