Originally Posted by
C-Gold
Mike Young ( how many casual sports fans even know who he is)
2003: .306, 14 HR, 72 RBI,
2004: .313, 22 HR, 99 RBI
2005: .331, 24HR, 91 RBI
2006: .314, 14 HR, 103 RBI
2007: .315, 9HR, 94 RBI
2008: .284, 12 HR, 82 RBI
2009: .322, 22 HR, 68 RBI
2010: .284, 21 HR, 68 RBI
2011: .340 batting average as of today
So what's the major difference between Mike Young and Derek Jeter at this point? New York. One guy plays under the bright lights of New York with the 200 million dollar pay roll with the stars and celebrities and sports writers, and one guy plays in Texas on a team that hasn't done much until last year. If Mike Young played his entire career starting in 1996 under Jeter's circumstances you would have known who he is and he would have been on the commercials and bill boards.
It's very very possible that if Jeter started with the Texas Rangers in 2000 he would have received just as little hype as Mike Young has. Their stats are more similar than you'd like to admit.
My point isn't that Jeter isn't good, or Jeter is worse than Mike Young or Miguel Tejada, my point is that he's had more advantages than anybody and that he isn't nearly as good as he thinks he is or as much as he's talked about.