Jose Reyes Vs Derek Jeter

With the signings of Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez and the rise of great young talent like David Wright and Jose Reyes, the New York Mets are poised to be the favorite in the National League this season and possibly for several seasons to come. Due to the New York Mets rise there has been a debate brought up all season. Who has the better left side of the infield? The New York Yankees or the New York Mets? Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez or Jose Reyes and David Wright? I'm as big a fan of David Wright as anyone, but personally I think comparing him to Alex Rodriguez is nuts, A-Rod and Pujols are hands down the best all around players in baseball. But is it crazy to say Jose Reyes is better than Derek Jeter? I don't think so.

No offense to Derek Jeter, he's obviously a great player and is one of the most clutch players in the league and might even be the MVP in the American League this year. But, Jose Reyes could probably just as easily be a MVP candidate if a bunch of players had been injured this season and the Mets still kept winning. Derek Jeter is a great hitter, but Jose Reyes brings so much more to the table. Jose Reyes can hit, he's a terror on the base paths, he hits in big situations, he's a future Gold Glove and he's even a surprisingly good power hitter. Let's say the New York Yankees and New York Mets are both completely healthy until Jose Reyes and Derek Jeter go down with injuries. Who does it hurt more? It hurts the New York Mets more hands down. You can plug Cano in at Jeter's spot and Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, and Hideki Matsui and all the rest will knock in Robinson Cano all day long. But if Jose Reyes is gone, the Mets suddenly lose the one factor that makes them better than every other team in the National League. Nobody has a Jose Reyes; nobody is as electrifying at the bat, on the bases and in the field like Jose Reyes.

Whenever I mention that Jose Reyes is better than Derek Jeter someone always points out "yeah, but Jeter has the better OBP". OBP of course stands for on base percentage and is one of the new hip ways of judging if a player is any good. It no longer matters how many times you score, or how many times you knock in a run, all that matters now is how often you get on base even if you get stranded there. I guess they're also going to start scoring games by hits instead of runs. Really it's a totally overrated stat. While talking about this very same topic ESPN.com writer David Schoenfield argues

"There's a little something called on-base percentage where Reyes still has a lot of growing up to do - Jeter owns a 60-point advantage there. That's not a minor thing; it's what makes Jeter an MVP candidate and Reyes merely a very good player at this point. (And, no, Reyes' unique "first player to have this many runs, hits, homers and steals" does not make him a superstar, either. It merely makes him unique.) He's not yet in the class of Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines or Craig Biggio as a leadoff hitter. If he was, he would have scored 150 runs in that Mets lineup instead of the 122 he has scored."

That's it. Schoenfield, like many people, are basing the whole "Jeter is better than Reyes" argument on OBP. Weak! Let me ask you something, before the Yankees signed Johnny Damon who was their leadoff hitter? Derek Jeter. So last year Derek Jeter was the Yankees leadoff hitter. The New York Yankees have an even better offense than the New York Mets and Derek Jeter has an AMAZING OBP. How many runs did Derek Jeter score last year? 122. The same amount that Jose Reyes has this year. So if Reyes is expected to score 150 runs in the New York Mets lineup then shouldn't Derek Jeter who plays in a better lineup and has such a wonderful OBP score like 170 runs? And yet Jose Reyes is going to end up with the same amount of runs, possibly more. In fact, why don't we take a look at Derek Jeter's year in the leadoff spot for the New York Yankees last year compared to Jose Reyes this year. But before I give you the numbers, why don't you think in your head which stats you think Jose Reyes is better in and what stats you think Derek Jeter will have better numbers.

Jeter
122 runs 202 hits 25 doubles 5 triples 19 homeruns 70 RBI 77 walks 117 strikeouts 32 stolen bases .309 average .389 OBP .450 SLG .839 OPS

Reyes
122 runs 194 hits 30 doubles 17 triples 19 homeruns 81 RBI 52 walks 80 strikeouts 64 stolen bases .301 average .354 OB .489 SLG .843 OPS

I'm sure it's no surprise that Jose Reyes is the faster player, doubles, triples, and stolen bases are a given and we already mentioned the even runs. But did you realize Jose Reyes is actually a better power hitter than Derek Jeter? Jose Reyes has the same amount of homeruns as Derek Jeter and 11 more RBI despite having a pitcher bat in front of him instead of having a DH in his lineup. Slugging Percentage is also in favor of Jose Reyes by 39 points and Jose Reyes has the higher OPS so his lead in slugging makes up for the lead that Derek Jeter has in on base percentage. A lot of people would also be quick to point out how much Jose Reyes swings at everything but the truth is he struck out 37 less times. So basically Derek Jeter has an edge in walks, OBP and a slight advantage in hits and average. But Jose Reyes Is better in doubles, triples, RBI, strikeouts, stolen bases, slugging and OPS. Like I said earlier OBP is a trendy stat that everyone looks at, but it's only one half of the more popular OPS. Most people these days will tell you that OPS is THE stat, if you have the highest OPS, you're the best player. Well Jose Reyes had better OPS than Derek Jeter, doesn't that make him better?

If you want to argue that Derek Jeter is better than Jose Reyes, I'm not going to look at you like you're a moron. It certainly is a close enough argument that neither person is necessarily wrong, but if your argument is based on Derek Jeter having a higher OBP, you're going to have to come up with more than that and so far I haven't heard it. I think at this point Jose Reyes is already better than Derek Jeter but one thing is for sure. If an argument between in his prime Derek Jeter and 23 year old Jose Reyes is this close, then Jose Reyes in his prime is going to be a much better player than Derek Jeter.