wwolfe Calling Omar "useless" as a hitter is a cheap shot, and it's just plain ridiculous. 2,600 hits is a lot by anyone, and to argue to the contrary just makes the rest of yuor column look silly by association.

I'll cop to "useless" being too strong a word. I'll go with "mostly not an asset." You play long enough, which Vizquel was able to do because of his superb fielding, and you're going to pile up some hits. Vizquel had a few years when he was an adequate hitter. But basically, what's true about Jeter's fielding is true about Vizquel's hitting, and hitting is way more important than fielding.

As far as the comparison between Omar and Ozzie's defensive skills, that boils down to your having seen a lot of Ozzie, and not much Omar. Fair enough, but don't try to pretend that saying, "Ozzie was better because Ozzie was better" is a real argument.

I don't think I saw more of Smith than I saw of Vizquel in their primes. I've always been a fan of both leagues, Vizquel spent more time in the ESPN/every game on TV era, and Vizquel played in the postseason more. I would wager I saw more of Vizquel in his prime than Smith in his prime. OK?

I don't think there is any objective measure of any reliability that doesn't put Smith head, shoulders, ass and teakettle above Vizquel as a fielder. And that's not a knock on Vizquel at all. Smith was off by himself. He was to shortstop fielding what Honus Wagner was to shortstop hitting.

The fielding reputation backlash is part of the story. For years, the mainstream picture of Jeter was "great fielder!" The sabermetric crowd was jumping up and down and screaming, "No! He's a below-average fielder! He doesn't deserve Gold Gloves! He's not that good!" 

Over time, not only did this idea start to take hold in the mainstream, it got transformed to "Derek Jeter is the worst fielding shortstop in the history of baseball! It's a joke that he even plays the position! He's historicaly awful!" 

As Bill James wrote in a famous essay comparing Jeter to the fielding genius Adam Everett -- one that concluded by saying all we could say about Jeter at the time ('05-06 offseason) was that he was below average -- it's plausible that Jeter is the worst fielding shortstop of all time. Whoever the worst fielding shortstop of all time is, James argued, he'd have to be a hell of a hitter to keep playing short: "I don't know who was the worst free throw shooter in NBA history -- but I'll guarantee you, whoever he was, he could play." 

James also concluded that for all of Everett's vast superiority afield, Jeter was goes-without-saying the better player.

But as far as I know there's no real evidence that it's true Jeter is the worst ever. In most fielding measures, Jeter tends to come up near the bottom of qualifying (enough games played) major league shortstops. But that's just the guys who are good enough to play every day. He's a poor fielder, but he's easily good enough to hold down the position given his hitting. It's, again, plausible that a team could go to the playoffs 13 years in a row with a guy at the third-most important defensive position who simply shouldn't be there, who isn't even adequate. But I don't think it's likely, and I don't think it happened. 

Jeter's not a good defensive shortstop. But the fact that he can hold down the position while hitting the way he has has been huge. There are very few players in major league history who have been able to do that. They're all either in the Hall of Fame, will be in the Hall of Fame when they're eligible or are named Alan Trammell. 

Ichiro's been mentioned a lot. If you lose Ichiro from your lineup, there are any number of corner outfielders who could hold down his job. Most of them wouldn't be as good as Ichiro. He's a great player. But plenty of them would be just fine. Lots of corner outfielders can hit and play adequate defense. You lose Jeter, the dropoff to his replacement is likely to be huge.

Jeter's having an off year at the plate this season, remember? He still has the eighth best OPS among qualifying shortstops (3.1 plate appearances per team game) in the majors. In a down year, he's still top third of the league offensively among shortstops. The eighth best RF in OPS is Vlad Guerrero.

If you could have Ichiro or Jeter at 21, you kind of couldn't go wrong with that choice. I'd take Jeter in a heartbeat, but I can see an argument for Ichiro. A much better argument if he played CF, which he's clearly capable of doing. Anyone who would have taken Omar Vizquel over Derek Jeter, all I can say is good luck with your team. (And please say hello to Mrs. Sabean for me.) As great as Vizquel was with the glove -- and, despite another popular idea, he wasn't as great as Smith, who was off in a league by himself -- Jeter more than made up for it with the bat. A good bat creates more runs than a great glove saves, even at shortstop.

Two more things about Ichiro: First, about the Japan stats. Two words: Tuffy Rhodes. Second, it's not a very compelling argument to say this player is better than that one because he has more hits. Who got on base more? Who made more outs? See the item these letters are connected to. The answers, in order, are Jeter, Ichiro.