Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 19, 2007
The Next Jeter

Gerry Fraley at the Rocky Mountain News compares Troy Tulowitzki favorably to a young Derek Jeter:

In one aspect, Tulowitzki has outdone what Jeter accomplished as a rookie.

Jeter joined an experienced club. He watched and learned from esteemed veterans such as Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez and Bernie Williams. It was not until several seasons later that Jeter took the mantle of team leader.

By force of personality, Tulowitzki took on that role almost from the start of this season.

Whether the target was an inexperienced player or a veteran, Tulowitzki has agitated, poked, prodded and anything else needed to help motivate the club.

Hurdle described Tulowitzki as the piece that made the rest of the puzzle come together.

When the Rockies were at their low point at nine games under .500 in late May, it was Tulowitzki who stood up and delivered an impassioned "enough is enough" message.

He'll be the first rookie shortstop in a World Series since Jeter in 1996.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:38 AM | Players | TrackBack (0)
Comments

re: tuliwitzski

the guy can flat out hit, and the rockies turned a large number of double plays in the post season, and I suspect, during the regular season, between him and matsui. if you want to overcome your hitters favorable ballpark, one way to do it is to turn a boatload of double plays and be strong up the middle defensively.

this worked for the phils this year and the rockies had the same formula.

what i really liked was seeing this kid with atkins matsui and Helton, Helton probably going to the HOF. that's a good infield, offensively and defensively, and then you add holliday and hawpe in the corners and you've got a lot of offensive production there.

this team won on merit and swept seven games in the post season on merit. i really liked the way they played and the way they won.

they beat a very good phillies team that was red hot and swept them out. that was very hard. the dbacks didn't give them as much of a battle.

--art k, philly

Posted by: art kyriazis at October 19, 2007 12:27 PM

He also made an unassisted triple play.

Posted by: soccer dad at October 19, 2007 12:49 PM

Where Tulo really compares more than favorably with Jeter is in fielding.

Jeter was a poor fielder when he came up -- 95 RATE2 from BP for his 96 season -- and he actually got worse over the next 5 years (he did get better in 05/6 only to really regress this year, perhaps b/c he played hurt).

Tulo is a fine fielder it seems, though I haven't seen him play much -- 119 RATE2 from BP this season.

I turn away now when the ball is hit to Jeter btw. Which is one of the reasons Torre had to go. The next manager will probably have to move Jeter off ss in the next few years, preferably sooner rather than later. Was Joe going to be the guy to do that?

Posted by: Yankee Fan in Chicago at October 19, 2007 12:51 PM

Yea, Jeter is a premium offensive player, but on defense, he's a liability. According to this year's Runs Created Above Average, Tulowitski was the best defensive shortstop in baseball, while Jeter was the worst.

Posted by: Blastings Thrilledge at October 19, 2007 01:24 PM

Art, you see Helton as a Hall of Famer?

Posted by: mikeski at October 19, 2007 02:19 PM
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