Kuzul

The American League East is the most competitive division in baseball. From this division, the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles made the playoffs last October. The Tampa Bay Rays came up just short in their playoff push, but have competed for the division crown in each of the past five seasons. With the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox improving their rosters dramatically this offseason, there’s an argument that any of these five teams can win the division this season. 

The Yankees enter the 2013 MLB season with a bunch of question marks. Amazingly, it’s not just their pitching that should make them worried. It’s the bottom of the lineup. Derek Jeter, Ichiro Suzuki, Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson taking up the first five spots in the lineup is still an elite top of the order. After that, it gets ugly rather quickly. 

Their biggest offseason acquisition, Kevin Youkilis, is expected to bat sixth. Sure, everyone remembers Youk’s abysmal start to last season with the Red Sox that got him traded. However, people don’t realize that he wasn’t much better with the Chicago White Sox. His batting average improved by three points (.236 from .233 as a member of the Red Sox) during his time in Chicago. His on-base percentage last season was .336 (.346 with the White Sox), which was by far Youk’s worst output in his career. Let’s also not forget that he hasn’t played more than 125 games in a season since 2009. 

Infielder Eduardo Nunez, rookie catcher Austin Romine and left fielder Brett Gardner are the final three spots in the lineup. Nunez and Gardner are good for steals, but those three guys will not intimidate pitchers at all. And Nunez is the Yankees designated hitter! I don’t think the Yanks will be able to win the AL East this season with a bottom of the lineup as inexperienced and offensively limited as this one. 

So what should the Yankees do? The smart and obvious answer is to acquire Michael Morse from the Washington Nationals.

After signing Adam LaRoche to a two-year deal, the Nationals have a logjam of position players. They have LaRoche as their starting first baseman, along with Bryce Harper, Denard Span and Jason Werth roaming the outfield. This means that they have no room for Morse in the lineup. 

Morse is a great fit for the Yankees for several reasons. One of them is because of his weak glove. Teams love Morse’s bat, but they will shy away because of his fielding. Morse is not a strong outfielder, as proven by his advanced defensive stats. 

However, he would be a huge improvement over Nunez as the Yankees designated hitter. The past three seasons, Morse has accumulated 1,194 at-bats for the Nationals. His .296 batting average, .516 slugging percentage and .861 on-base plus slugging percentage would give the Yankees a huge boost in their lineup. This guy has a plethora of natural power, and he would give the Yankees another offensive threat that they really could use. 

Another reason why Morse makes sense for the Yankees is his contract. As evidenced by their lack of spending this offseason, the Yankees have made it a priority to be under the luxury tax by the start of next season. Morse is a free agent after the 2013 season, so he would actually would not hurt the Yankees’ monetary restrictions.

Now, how can the Yankees acquire Morse? The Nationals lineup and starting rotation is loaded, so they won’t have any interest there. But, their bullpen is lacking left-handed relievers. The Nationals lost three of them this offseason, including late-inning lefty Sean Burnett and long reliever Tom Gorzelanny. In fact, the only lefty reliever they currently have on their roster is Zach Duke. Not the guy I would want to face left-handed batters in tight situations.

The Yankees have two lefties in their bullpen, Boone Logan and Clay Rapada. Now, I doubt the Nationals would accept either of these guys straight up for Morse in a trade. But, if the Yankees add a middle-tier prospect, I think the Nationals pull the trigger. Washington will not re-sign Morse after this season, so why not get value for him that will help the team in the short-term and long-term? 

Trading for Morse is the type of move that could enhance the Yankees’ playoff hopes significantly. It helps the bottom of the Yankees order and it gives them a legitimate designated hitter. He can even play first base whenever Mark Teixeira needs a day off. All I know is, Morse is probably the lowest valued impact bat that the Yankees can acquire. But that bat would make the Yankees the favorites in the AL East again. 

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The five-time Atlantic League Champion Somerset Patriots have hired Shane Spencer as their hitting and third base coach. For those who don’t remember, Shane Spencer was in large part responsible for one of the greatest playoff moments in the history of the game.

In Game 3 of the 2001 American League Division series, Terrance Long hit a lined shot down the right-field line. With Jeremy Giambi rounding third, right fielder Spencer overthrew the cut-off man, resulting in Derek Jeter—completely out of place—picking up the errant throw. With a backhand flip to catcher Jorge Posada, he tagged out Giambi at home, turning the tide of the series.

Shane Spencer spent parts of seven seasons in the Bigs, five of those with the New York Yankees.

Never the main attraction, Spencer was one of those irreplaceable pieces of the Yankee’s dynasty in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In nearly 1,700 career at-bats, Spencer collected 84 doubles, belted 59 home runs and knocked in 242. He batted .262 with an OPS of .754.

According to The Messenger-Gazette, Spencer will be replacing Travis Anderson, who has served as the hitting/third base coach since 2010. Anderson will continue to stay on with the team in other capacities.

According to Brett Jodie, manager of the Patriots who spoke with the Gazette, Spencer’s knowledge and experience will be of great value.

“Shane brings a wealth of knowledge to our staff. His experiences as a player and coach will be extremely valuable in helping us produce a championship caliber team. I very much look forward to working with him towards our common goal.”

The Patriots begin play at home on April 18. If you are looking for more information on Spencer and the Patriots, please visit their website.

Devon is a manager at a financial institution in Northern Ontario, Canada, and he can be reached at devon@thegmsperspective.com. You can follow the GM’s Perspective on Twitter and Facebook. His full bio can be seen here.

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What a bad time for the New York Yankees to decide they don’t want to fall off their own fiscal cliff. To avoid a luxury tax in 2014, which may cost them $50 million, the Steinbrenner family is insisting that general manager Brian Cashman bring payroll down into the $189 million range.

That would be great if the Yankees had a core of players just reaching their peak or a farm system ready to shuttle three or four Major League-ready players to the Bronx. Instead, the Yankees keep getting older and breaking down like an old car.

Instead of Yankee Stadium, they might want to change their home field to Jurassic Park.

The news about Alex Rodriguez‘ impending hip surgery ends any expectation that he would be on a mission in 2013 to prove he isn’t washed up as the postseason indicated. Blaming his ineptness at the plate on his hip shouldn’t make Yankee fans feel better either; the surgery and recuperation is supposed to take from four to six months and ultimately diminish A-Rod’s power even more.

The Yankees gave him that ridiculous 10-year contract extension because they factored in a marketing bonanza when A-Rod eclipsed the all-time home run record. Well, that isn’t going to happen now. Instead, the Yankees are saddled with a one-time superstar who is now a shell of what he used to be, but who will be getting paid for what he was.

The five years and $114 million owed to the 37-year-old Rodriguez and the four years and $88 million owed to Mark Teixeira, who may also be prematurely in decline, are responsible for the lack of payroll flexibility. Losing catcher Russell Martin to free agency and potentially outfielder Nick Swisher and closer Rafael Soriano as well has created holes in the lineup and bullpen that could be fixed with some old-time George Steinbrenner spending.

That seems unlikely, however, as the Yankees have become more cash-conscious. They recently agreed to sell 49 percent of their YES Network to News Corp., which will net them more than $270 million initially, but Hal Steinbrenner is not expected to invest any of that in player acquisition or to pay luxury taxes.

In fact, it gives more credibility to the notion that in a few years’ time, when the A-Rod and Teixeira salaries come off the books or those players reach a compensation settlement, the Steinbrenner family might sell the franchise. Hal Steinbrenner, the managing partner, is not his father’s son when it comes to bombast and grandiose moves.

Hank Steinbrenner is a chip off the old block, but he was quickly moved into the background after George died.

In the highly competitive American League East, the Yankees are now facing an uphill battle to make the playoffs. Signing 40-year-old Andy Pettitte to a one-year deal and bringing back Mariano Rivera after his 2012 season ended abruptly with a torn ACL demonstrates there are no heir apparents in the minor league system that can help immediately.

With Derek Jeter returning from a broken ankle and those previously mentioned holes to fill in right field and behind the plate, the Yankees may be going with low-cost options such as Cody Ross or relying on re-signing more older players such as Raul Ibanez, Eric Chavez and the Ancient Mariner Ichiro Suzuki.

Perhaps these grumpy old men have one more season left and then the Yankees promising farmhands will be ready for that big step up to the Bronx. Perhaps Michael Pineda will be ready to step into the rotation by middle of next summer.

But one thing is clear: A team that always measures success by whether they win the World Series might be grateful just to get to the postseason in 2013.

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When the 2013 Yankee season begins, Derek Jeter‘s magic number to break Pete Rose’s all-time hit record will be at 953. Following Jeter’s league-leading 216-hit 2012 season, suddenly Pete’s hit record is within vision of the Yankee captain—at triple digits. At 3,304 hits, Derek Jeter is 77.6 percent of the way home to setting a new all-time hit record.

No doubt about it, 953 hits is still a long way to go for Derek Jeter. When the season begins, Derek will be 38 years of age. The sceptics will bring the proverbial clock into play, when scoffing at Jeter’s chances. But, is that clock really moving too fast for Derek, given his tireless work ethic and proven track record?

Pete Rose, at approximately the same age as Jeter is now, played another seven seasons to get his final 884 hits.  To Rose’s advantage, as manager later in his career, he had the option of inserting himself into the lineup as he saw fit. To Derek’s advantage, only in two of Roses final seven seasons did he obtain over 170 hits.  In three of them, Pete had 107 or fewer.  

That bodes well for Jeter, where there has been no indication of the Yankees utilizing him in a platoon role (in the foreseeable future). For his career, Derek averages 193 hits per season. Granted, no one is expecting him to continue at that pace for another five-plus seasons.

However, even if Derek’s hit production dropped considerably, he can still be well within range of the hit record by the age of 44 (if playing is still an option or possibility). 

On the other hand, we are talking about Derek Jeter here. What happens if Derek hammers out close to 400 hits over the next two seasons? Contract negotiations could become especially juicy, with the all-time hit record within the Yankees’ grasp.

Before jumping too far ahead, there are questions to be answered regarding Jeter’s ankle, entering the season. The good news is, Derek’s rehab is going according to plan and he is expected back for Opening Day, as reported by Mark Feinsand on Blogging the Bombers for the Daily News.

From the consistent high level of productivity Derek Jeter has displayed over the course of his career, I believe the all-time hit record is his for the taking—if he wants it. That, is the big question.

If he does, and avoids serious injuries during the coming seasons, Derek Jeter becoming the all-time hit leader may be inevitable.

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The New York Yankees and the Detroit Tigers are exposing the MLB playoffs, and the game of baseball in general, for what they really are.

In baseball, a single pitch in a hitter’s hot zone could be the deciding factor between a World Series appearance or historical insignificance. More often than not, a confident team feeding off of recent success is better-suited for October than a team that appears to be superior on paper.

In the case of the 2012 American League Championship Series, the Tigers are playing the role of the team that’s on fire, and the Yankees are starring as the team that can’t remember how good it was in the regular season.

The series is not over, of course. The Yankees have a huge hurdle to clear tonight against Justin Verlander, but the playing field will be more even if New York can avoid the 3-0 hole.

In order to do so, there are a few things the Bronx Bombers must accomplish tonight. If they don’t, it’s going to be a long offseason in the Big Apple.

Stop striking out and get some hits.

We knew coming into October that the Yankees live and die by the long ball. Strikeouts are part of loading the batting order with power hitters, but the prevailing notion was that New York had enough big bats in the lineup to make up for all the strikeouts. 

Turns out that this was an incorrect diagnosis. The Yankees have given new life to the term “free-swinging,” averaging 9.6 strikeouts per outing in their seven playoff games. They’ve struck out 20 times (against just five walks) in two games against Detroit, which has contributed heavily to their going 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position.

The biggest offender has been Robinson Cano. The graceful second baseman has forgotten how to hit, batting 2-for-22 with four strikeouts in the playoffs. That’s a .091 clip for a guy that hit .313 in the regular season. With Justin Verlander taking the mound tonight, the Yankees have to find a way to get good wood on the ball fast, or their season will be for naught. 

Keep the lineup steady.

The big story throughout the playoffs has been whether or not manager Joe Girardi should drop Alex Rodriguez from third in the batting order. Girardi did eventually drop A-Rod—but he switched up a lot more in the process. 

Even before Derek Jeter got injured, Girardi had made questionable decisions. Raul Ibanez had played the hero against Baltimore in the late innings, but that didn’t justify putting him in the cleanup spot. Russell Martin hit .211 during the season and shouldn’t be hitting in the five-hole, and Curtis Granderson, while he does strike out a lot, still shouldn’t be hitting seventh. 

The Yankees need to go back to what made them successful—batting the right guys in the right spots and letting them do their jobs. I understand that the bats have been silenced, but it only takes one good game to awaken a lineup. Hitters are creatures of habit, and constantly shifting them around, in addition to the pressure they face in the playoffs, is the worst strategy to try and shake things up.

Regain that New York swagger—before it’s gone for a while.

Part of the reason the Yankees had such a great regular season is because they scared teams with their power and versatility. Few teams can match the Yankees’ lineup from top to bottom, and New York finished second in the majors in scoring.

They seem to have lost all semblance of that confident team in this postseason. The shocking thing is, it’s not like the Yankees have young players who have little experience. This is the oldest roster in baseball, and it’s wilting under the bright lights like its never been on a big stage before.

In order for the Yankees to beat Verlander, they need to remember how good they really are.

Jeter’s injury is a huge blow, but that doesn’t mean guys like Cano, Granderson, Mark Teixeira, and Nick Swisher should be struggling as well. It’s impossible to fathom how far the Yanks have fallen. It seems like literally every player has hit a cold streak at the exact same time, and there’s no way to return to form without gaining back that good old Yankee swagger.

This brings another issue into play: the Yankees’ age.

The roster has an average age of 31.7 years, by far the oldest in the majors. If the Yankees don’t wake up now, they’ll soon see that their amazing run of playoff successes in the last decade will be a distant memory. It’s time to put up or shut up.

The window is closing on the New York Yankees.

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Collectively as a professional fraternity, sports journalists seem to think they are an extremely bright and witty bunch. Whether engaging in snarky Twitter wars with perceived imbecile readers or not allowing comments on their pristine works of art (looking in your direction, Mike Lupica), they seem to sit high atop their soapbox completely invulnerable of public criticism and immersed in their superior infallibility.

However, Derek Jeter seems to have them scrambling for bold font letters whenever he says something outside of his stale vanilla routine. Yet he always ends up playing them like a fiddle.

Self-absorbed jerk and Lance Armstrong fanboy Rick Reilly recently sat down with the Yankee shortstop for a hokey segment titled “Hit and Miss” for ESPN.  It’s basically a rapid-fire question-answer game of Reilly’s that’s supposed to conjure up revealing and unexpected responses.

Reilly zapped out the normal fluff that Jeter is used to, swatting it away until one question-and-answer exchange shook the world.

Reilly relayed to Jeter that “Peyton Manning changed teams this season after 14 seasons with one team. Could you see yourself doing that?”

“Well, if I wanted to keep playing, yes,” Jeter replied. “It’s a business. People forget that.”

Of course, he’s right.  Baseball, like every professional sport, is a ruthless business that circulates around cash money.  But, we’re supposed to actually believe that Mr. Yankee is going to play for another team?

First of all, Peyton Manning is a football player who controls a team’s entire offense. Jeter is one of eight other daily starters who bring different attributes to the game. Yet in Reilly’s defense, I see the correlation revolving around the veteran star with one lone solitary tenure angle.

Two years ago when Jeter was a “free agent,” he said he was looking at other options if he and the Yanks couldn’t come to contract agreement. To no one’s surprise, it was all a ruse and Jeter signed again with the only home he’s ever known. And to make the fabrication more solid, it was reported that no teams contacted Jeter. Even he revealed he never even picked up the phone.

But the media has a short memory in certain aspects and decided to dangle a tempting morsel in our faces, hoping for blind bites.

All in all, Jeter knows what he’s doing.  At the end of next season, he’ll be right back at the bargaining table with Brian Cashman and his money purveyors angling for a new deal. If Derek declares his undying and eternal commitment to the Bombers, the front office has him right where they want him: With absolutely no wiggle room. 

Can’t you just imagine the Cheshire cat grin on Cashman‘s face after hearing Jeter’s undying love for everything with the Yankee brand from here to eternity?

It appears the delicate geniuses with their “Press” hats tried to pull the wool over our eyes as if we were dense.  But in the end, all of us (minus the mouth-breathers) realize the sensational headlines about him wearing another uniform are a joke, including Jeter.

On Friday when hearing about the hoopla regarding his statement, Jeter once again captivated the media with words of wisdom.

“Man, you guys must be bored”

Derek, you would be too if you knew EVERYTHING.

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The image of Derek Jeter playing for a team other than the New York Yankees is difficult to visualize. 

Jeter wearing a different uniform (and likely playing a position other than shortstop) would seemingly cause a rip in the fabric of the universe. This is the sort of thing that just isn’t supposed to happen.

He’s “The Captain.” He has played for the Yankees for 18 seasons. For many of us, he is the New York Yankees even though their rich history obviously says otherwise. 

Yet Jeter apparently doesn’t feel the same romance about his playing career that the rest of us might. When ESPN’s Rick Reilly asked him if he could see himself playing for a new team, as Peyton Manning is this year with the Denver Broncos, Jeter said he could.

Actually, here are his exact words: “Well, if I wanted to keep playing, yes. It’s a business. People forget that.”

Jeter is right. We do forget that, even though we’ve been reminded time and time again that professional athletes and sports teams don’t have the same sentimentality that we do as fans. 

But still, this is Derek Jeter we’re talking about. Do we really want to see him end his career playing for a team other than the Yankees? 

It’s not so much an aesthetic thing. Plenty of baseball teams have simple, clean, classic-looking uniforms that would suit Jeter just fine. 

Well, maybe the Miami Marlins‘ new togs wouldn’t look so good on Jeter. And would we really want to see him wearing the Colorado Rockies‘ sleeveless vest? Fortunately, both of those teams already have shortstops. 

(Regardless of what happens, we wouldn’t see Jeter in anything like the American flag jersey he had to wear while on a rehab assignment with the Double-A Trenton Thunder last year.) 

What makes Jeter playing for another team particularly unimaginable is that he’s not really chasing a milestone at this point of his career. He’s not short of 3,000 hits. He wouldn’t have to find a team willing to give him the at-bats necessary to reach that big number. 

Does Jeter have his eye on 4,000 hits? If he got there, he would be only the third player in the history of baseball to collect that many hits. 

Jeter will likely end the 2012 season with more than 3,300 hits. To get to 4,000, he would probably have to play at least four more years. Jeter probably thinks he has that many seasons left in him, but would any MLB team agree with him? 

The guess here is that Jeter reached this cold, business-like stance while coming to terms on his current contract with the Yankees in 2010.

It was a tough, surprisingly bitter negotiation with general manager Brian Cashman essentially challenging Jeter to shop himself around to find a deal better than the three-year, $45 million contract the Yankees offered him. 

That led to some entertaining speculation that the Boston Red Sox might try to sign Jeter to be their shortstop. But that was always more about sticking it to the Yankees than giving Jeter what he thought he was worth on the open market. 

Jeter and the Yankees eventually agreed to a three-year, $51 million contract, but according to ESPN New York’s Ian O’Connor, hard feelings developed from the negotiation. Jeter’s answer to Reilly’s question about playing for another team seemed to indicate that those sentiments still existed. 

Realistically, however, we’re not going to see Jeter in another uniform. He’s under contract with the Yankees through 2014, including a player option. By the time that deal expires, he’ll be 40 years old.

If he gets another 350 to 400 hits over the next two seasons, Jeter will probably pass Stan Musial for fourth on the all-time hits list. Ranking below Pete Rose, Ty Cobb and Hank Aaron is hardly a bad place to end one’s career. What more can Jeter really accomplish at that point? 

In a follow-up with the New York Daily News‘ Mark Feinsand, Jeter insisted that he wasn’t talking about himself so much as putting himself in Peyton Manning’s shoes. Manning wanted to keep playing and the Indianapolis Colts no longer wanted him, so he moved on to the Broncos. It’s a business. 

Would playing for another team tarnish Jeter’s legacy? Perhaps in the short term because it would be so strange seeing him in another uniform and it would appear that he’s hanging on to achieve another milestone (presumably 4,000 hits). 

But would one or two years with another team take anything away from Jeter’s career? No, Jeter wouldn’t be Cal Ripken, Ozzie Smith or Tony Gwynn, and that would be kind of sad. 

Yet for all the wincing and lamenting about how Willie Mays ended his career, misplaying balls and falling down in center field, we still remember him as one of the all-time greats in baseball history. Jeter presumably holds his legacy and image in high enough esteem that he wouldn’t put himself in that position. 

No other group of fans besides Yankees fans should get to call Jeter their shortstop. He knows that, the Yankees know it and the discussion should really end there. 

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Pete Rose sees you, Derek Jeter.

Jeter isn’t looking like a 38-year-old player this season. Typically, 38-year-olds don’t hit .326, and they certainly don’t lead the league in hits. The New York Yankees‘ ageless shortstop is doing both at the moment.

Jeter already has more hits this season than he had in all of 2011, a year in which he finally crossed the 3,000-hit plateau. That now feels like ancient history, as Jeter is sitting on 3,255 career hits and is quickly moving up the rankings on the list of players with the most hits in baseball history.

The man at the top is watching Jeter’s ascent very closely.

Rose, whose 4,256 career hits still top the charts, told The New York Times recently that he never misses a chance to watch Jeter.

“I’ll watch him tonight,” he said. “I watch him every night.”

He should be. Jeter is only 1,001 hits away from tying Rose’s all-time mark, and what’s another 1,001 hits to a guy who already has well over 3,000 and is hitting .326 at the age of 38?

That’s the million-dollar question. While Rose is certainly within sight from where Jeter is standing, it’s very much debatable whether he is in reach.

And you know what that means. 

Yup, it’s time for an immediate discussion. 

If All Goes Well This Season…

If ESPN.com is to be believed, Jeter is on pace to finish this season with 222 hits.

That, for the record, would be a new career high. The most hits Jeter has ever recorded in a season was 219 back in 1999.

So is 222 hits too good to be true?

Yeah, probably.

ESPN.com’s projection assumes two things. One is that Jeter will maintain his .326 batting average through the end of the season. The other is that he’ll finish the season with 681 at-bats.

It’s not hard to imagine him finishing the season with a .326 average, but the 681 ABs are problematic because that would be nearly 20 more ABs than Jeter’s career high of 663 in a single season back in 2010. 

According to Baseball-Reference.com, Jeter’s 162-game average for ABs is 661. That’s a more reasonable expectation for this season than 681.

If he does finish the season hitting .326, that means we can expect him to finish the season with roughly 215 hits.

The tricky part is that Jeter is much hotter now than he was in the first half of the season. He’s hitting .366 in the second half after hitting a mere (tongue firmly in cheek) .308 before the All-Star break.

Let’s assume he stays on this pace and that he ends up logging 282 ABs in the second half (the average amount of ABs he logged in the second half of the season between 2009 and 2011). If so, he’ll finish with 103 hits in the second half.

Add those to his 111 hits in the first half, and you get 214 total hits.

So once again, roughly 215 hits comes off as a reasonable expectation for this season. It’s not 222, mind you, but 215 hits would still be a single-season record for a 38-year-old hitter.

If Jeter does end up with 215 hits this season, he’ll be sitting on 3,303 career hits heading into 2013, 953 hits away from Rose.

So That Means…

There’s no question that Jeter has a legit shot at finishing the season with 215 hits. The dilemma, as it pertains to his pursuit of Rose, is that he’s finished with 215 hits only once before this season. It’s not something Jeter has a habit of doing.

Combine the rarity of a 215-hit season for Jeter with the fact that he’s getting up there in age, and it’s highly unlikely that he’ll be able to gather 215 hits in a single season again after 2012.

And that’s a problem because he could string together four straight 215-hit seasons after this year and he would still be short of Rose’s hit record by 93 hits.

This doesn’t mean Jeter can’t catch Rose, mind you. It just means that he’s not going to be able to do so quickly. Jeter’s pursuit of Rose is likely to be a long, drawn-out affair if he decides to see it through to the end.

Jeter may have one more 200-hit season in him after this year. Maybe two if he’s really lucky and he continues to keep himself in impeccable physical shape. 

Even still, two more 200-hit seasons would only put him at 3,703 hits for his career, over 550 away from Rose.

Jeter will turn 40 in 2014. He’ll know by then that it’s going to take a few more seasons’ worth of everyday playing time in order to catch Rose, and he could very well decide that the pursuit just isn’t worth it.

Complicating matters is the fact that the choice to pursue Rose isn’t entirely Jeter’s.

Will the Yankees Invest in Jeter’s Pursuit of Rose?

Jeter has been a Yankee his whole career, but at this point in time, the Yankees are not committed to him for the long haul.

Jeter has one more guaranteed year left on his contract, one that will pay him $17 million in 2013. He then has an $8 million player option for 2014 that could increase to $17 million based on various incentives.

He’ll probably choose to exercise that option, and the Yankees probably won’t try to talk him out of it. 

Once 2014 is over, however, it’s far from a given that the Yankees will look to bring Jeter back.

It surely would have been a given if George Steinbrenner was still running the show, but Hal Steinbrenner is more practical than his old man ever was. He’s looking to lower payroll in the future, and the rich long-term contracts of Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez are going to force the Yankees into hunting for bargain players like they never have before.

Keep in mind that payroll space will be even tighter if the Yankees choose to sign Curtis Granderson and/or Robinson Cano to extensions, bridges that the Yankees are going to have to cross (or not cross) in the very near future.

Jeter is still a very good hitter. The issue is that he’s lacking in terms of overall value, and thus not much of a bargain player.

According to FanGraphs, there are five shortstops across MLB with higher WARs than Jeter at the moment. This is thanks largely to his sagging defense, which takes away from the value of his offensive contributions.

His defense is not going to get any better. And indeed, it’s perfectly fair to argue that his bat isn’t going to get any better despite all this talk of potential 200-hit seasons at the ages of 39 and 40.

When the 2014 offseason rolls around, the Yankees could very well finally part ways with Jeter, leaving him to continue his pursuit of Rose with another team.

Here’s another million-dollar question: Would he be willing to keep playing on another team for the sole purpose of chasing Rose?

Rose hinted that he doesn’t think Jeter will be up for something like that, saying of Jeter: “He’s not the kind of guy who’s going to play for another team.”

He has a point. Jeter has only known winning his whole career, and the Yankees have always done everything in their power to keep him happy (e.g. not moving him from shortstop a long time ago, as they should have). Needless to say, he’s had it pretty good during his career.

If Jeter were to leave the Yankees and join another team following the 2014 season, he’d have to resign himself to the fact that things would be very, very different. The chance to pursue championships may not be there, his new team could play him at a position other than his beloved shortstop, and it could also bat him lower in the order.

If it comes to this, Jeter would then have to resign himself to the fact that he’d still be playing to satisfy his vanity and little else.

He’s better than that.

Or at least, that’s what we’ve been led to believe over the last 18 years.

The Grand Conclusion

Could Jeter eventually catch Rose and become MLB’s all-time hits king?

Sure he could. This is baseball. Anything can happen.

But will he?

No. 

Even if Jeter does finish this season with 215 hits to bring his total for his career to 3,303, he’ll still be well off Rose’s pace. He was 38 in 1979, a year in which he finished with 207 hits to push his career total to 3,372. 

He then went on to play seven more seasons in the major leagues after that, collecting 884 hits while hitting .274. Right now, Jeter is only locked up for two more seasons, and whether or not he’ll continue his career beyond these two seasons is the great unknown.

Even if he does, he’ll still have a long way to go to catch Rose. The only way he’s going to quicken the process is by playing every day and continuing to hit over .300.

Players over the age of 40 don’t tend to do such things. 

Jeter could finish his career in the Top Five on MLB’s all-time hit list, maybe even within the Top Three if he’s lucky.

But No. 1? 

Nah.

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Derek Jeter has been writing his name in the history books for a while now, and after a RBI ground-rule double today against the Blue Jays, he found himself there once again. 

The two-bagger was The Captain’s second hit of the game, and it put him at exactly 150 on the year. This was the 17th straight season in which Jeter has reached the 150-hit plateau, tying him with Hall of Famer Hank Aaron for the most all time. 

Jeter’s streak started in 1996, in which he brought home Rookie of the Year honors and the first of his many World Series titles. He is currently signed through the 2013 season with a player option for ’14, which gives him the chance to break the tie between him and Aaron. 

Aaron’s streak started in his second professional year, 1955 and ended in 1971—five years before he retired. 

The 38-year-old was thought to have been slowing down after a “down” year in the previous season. As of right now, he needs only 13 more hits to surpass his season total from 2011. With the way Jeter has been hitting this year, he could get there within the week. 

He is on pace to exceed 200 hits this year, a feat he hasn’t accomplished since 2009. It would be the eighth time Jeter has reached the mark. 

After today’s 2-for-5 performance, Jeter’s all-time hit number sits at 3,238. That is good enough for 14th in the history of Major League Baseball and puts him five base knocks away from No. 13. If Jeter does make it to 200 by season’s end, he will find himself moving past Willie Mays in the 11 spot. 

And not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but if Jeter does in fact break the record next season between him and Hammerin’ Hank, he will be sitting pretty at No. 6 all time and only 700 hits or less away from being the top dog. 

*Stats are from ESPN.com and Baseball-Reference.com. 

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Entering play on Saturday, July 21st, the New York Yankees have the best record in baseball, surging of late, winning nine of their previous 13 games. The Bronx Bombers lead Major League Baseball in home runs, are eighth in team batting average and first in OPS (on base + slugging percentage).

However, the Yankees are second to last in the American League while batting with runners in scoring position (RISP). Huh?

Of all the major sports, baseball is the simplest to quantify and to project team and individual performance. It’s a sport that is eminently easy to follow statistically, given its large sample sizes and isolated moments of game action.

Baseball’s statistical projections and prognostications are mostly based on past performance and studying trends. In certain respects, this differs very little from the methods behind predicting stock market successes or failures.

These trends project whether a player or team will perform at certain levels given their age, health and the aforementioned past performance. Most teams now employ personnel that help them to gain a statistical advantage that they hope translates to success on the field.

Just like a Wall Street brokerage firm, any general manager or front office person in Major League Baseball can tell you that having all of the best statistical information and algorithms at your disposal does not always guarantee future success.

How else can one explain the Yankees strong overall offensive performance and simultaneous ineptitude while hitting with men on second and/or third base? Manager Joe Girardi is at a loss. Following their victory in Atlanta last month, the Yankees skipper said “Let’s not (talk about it) and let’s see if it changes,” he said. “Let’s try a different way, and let’s see if it changes.”

Something may need to change sooner rather than later; otherwise, the Yankees could be looking at another disappointing October. Given the increasingly competitive battle within their division this season, the Yankees no longer have any “gimme” games.

The Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays have significantly stepped up their hitting this season and each team has batters that can rake on a nightly basis. While none of these three teams match the offensive prowess of the Bombers, two of the three (Toronto and Tampa Bay) are ahead while hitting with RISP. But does it matter?

The two teams which represented their leagues in the Fall Classic last season were the two best hitting teams with RISP during the 2011 regular season. Yet, if you go back to the 2010 season, you find that the San Francisco Giants finished last in the National League in batting average with RISP. In case you forgot, those same Giants won the World Series.

In 2009, when the Yankees won their 27th World Series title, they finished eighth in the majors batting with RISP. The NL champions, Philadelphia, were 23rd. In 2008, the Rays and Phillies won the AL and NL pennants. Tampa finished last in the AL while hitting with RISP and Philly were right smack in the middle of all major league teams in the same category.

The Yankees have enjoyed tremendous success in the regular season during their incredible, sustained run of dominance since the start of the 1994 season. The Yanks have reached the postseason every year but one since the 1995 season, winning five World Series titles and capturing seven American League pennants.

In the Yankees’ past two postseasons, the lack of big hits in big spots have ruined the Bombers’ chances of reaching the World Series. There’s no question that these hitting woes are under greater scrutiny given the magnitude of October baseball.

Baseball players, especially those in New York, understand that all too well. Though the answer that no one seems to have is how to improve in that area—in those moments.

It may give fans no comfort, there simply does not appear to be a consistently proven correlation, over the course of a season, between a superior batting average with men in scoring position and winning championships.

Though it sure couldn’t hurt for the Yankees to improve in that category.

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