Alex Rodriguez: The Greatest Shortstop Who Ever Lived

Today, Alex Rodriguez announced that he'll be retiring after the 2017 season. And a small minority of us, who don't buy the Bud Selig smear campaign known as "MAGIC PILLS AND NEEDLES," are left to enjoy the last of one of the all-time greats, who will never be truly appreciated by the general  public.

A-Rod is the greatest shortstop of all-time. You can argue Jeter but you'll be wrong. You can argue Ripken and be wrong.

And that's not discounting the greatness of Ripken and Jeter. Jeter's a top 5 offensive shortstop, and Ripken's in the top 3 of all-around shortstops, but none of them can hold a candle to the legend of Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez.

Alex Rodriguez could track any ball that ran through the 6 or 5.5 hole, and then he'd still have the time to stop on a dime and deliver a strike to his first baseman. He had power to all fields and even had tremendous baserunning ability that allowed him to join the 40-40 club as a 22-year-old. And he did all those things, playing the hardest position on the diamond.

He was the best all-around player in the game, and it wasn't even close. That was until the 2004 season when the Texas Rangers traded him to the New York Yankees. George Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman, and co. made the wrong decision to keep Derek Jeter at shortstop and move the greatest shortstop of all-time to third base, which would prove to cut down the value of the game's best player and cost the Yankees many wins and probably championships. It was this move that allowed the Boston Red Sox to break the Curse of the Bambino and create "Red Sox Nation."

One of these days, I'm going to write an alternate history on this event and try to dive into what would've happened if A-Rod was placed at shortstop and Derek Jeter would've moved to left field or third. That's for another day, though.

Many of you reading this are probably baffled that any one man could be better than Derek Jeter with the way the mainstream media (ESPN and that ilk) have built up Derek Jeter to an impossible standard. Well, the truth is, Derek Jeter was AT-BEST, a league average, defensive shortstop, who had below average range and an average arm to boot. Some of the defensive metrics used during the late 90s and early 2000s weren't as sophisticated as the ones we do today, but let's compare shortstop Derek Jeter vs shortstop Alex Rodriguez.

Here are the Alex Rodriguez's defensive numbers as a shortstop.

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	Pos ▾	G	GS	CG	Inn	Rtot	RF/9	lgRF9	Awards
2003	TEX	AL	27	SS	158	158	136	1369.2	8	4.54	4.54	AS,MVP-1,GG,SS
2002	TEX	AL	26	SS	162	160	139	1390.2	1	4.73	4.56	AS,MVP-2,GG,SS
2001	TEX	AL	25	SS	161	161	143	1395.1	-9	4.72	4.49	AS,MVP-6,SS
2000	SEA	AL	24	SS	148	148	134	1285.0	16	4.77	4.71	AS,MVP-3,SS
1999	SEA	AL	23	SS	129	129	113	1114.2	-5	4.80	4.73	MVP-15,SS
1998	SEA	AL	22	SS	160	160	151	1389.1	8	4.62	4.71	AS,MVP-9,SS
1997	SEA	AL	21	SS	140	140	133	1233.2	-5	4.40	4.55	AS
1996	SEA	AL	20	SS	146	145	137	1267.2	8	4.56	4.66	AS,MVP-2,SS
	12 Seasons			SS	1272	1256	1133	10938.0	18	4.62	4.62
	11 Seasons			3B	1193	1181	1020	10235.2	-42	2.48	2.69
	15 Seasons			DH	241	239
	1 Season			1B	2	1	1	9.2		15.83	9.12
	21 Seasons			TOT	2467	2438	2154	21183.1	-24	3.60	3.69

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Generated 3/23/2016.

Here are Derek Jeter's statistics up to his age 27 season.

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	Pos ▾	G	GS	CG	Inn	Rtot	RF/9	lgRF9	Awards
2001	NYY	AL	27	SS	150	150	133	1312.1	-17	3.81	4.49	AS,MVP-10
2000	NYY	AL	26	SS	148	148	136	1278.2	-23	4.12	4.71	AS,MVP-10
1999	NYY	AL	25	SS	158	158	154	1395.2	-11	4.00	4.73	AS,MVP-6
1998	NYY	AL	24	SS	148	148	140	1304.2	2	4.25	4.71	AS,MVP-3
1997	NYY	AL	23	SS	159	159	151	1417.0	-3	4.45	4.55	MVP-24
1996	NYY	AL	22	SS	157	156	149	1370.2	-14	4.52	4.66	RoY-1
	20 Seasons			SS	2674	2660	2412	23225.2	-182	4.04	4.51
	10 Seasons			DH	73	73
	20 Seasons			TOT	2674	2660	2412	23225.2	-182	4.04	4.51

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Generated 3/23/2016.

All of this may look like Russian to many of you, so I'll break it down. The main categories that you should be looking at are the three categories that read, "Rtot," "RF/9," and "lgRF9." These are a lot simpler than they appear. Rtot measures the amount of runs the player gave up or saved during that season. If an Rtot is above 0, that means the player is above average, if it's below 0, that player is below average. RF/9 measures a number of balls a player can get to, known as the range factor, quite simply this column measures the range of a player based on the sum of assists and putouts the player was able to secure. The "lgRF9," indicates the league average Range Factor in that particular season. The higher the number for range factor, the better the player's range is.

And as you can see, Alex Rodriguez not only beats Jeter quite easily but Jeter never even sniffed a league average range, not even in the prime of his career.

If many of you out there reading this are allergic to numbers or something, let me ask you something. When you saw Derek Jeter make that "jump throw," that was so overplayed by the media, did you ever think, maybe he was making the play look more difficult than it really was? The truth is, Derek Jeter was only making that play because he simply didn't have the range to be a good shortstop. While Jeter was making jump throws, Alex Rodriguez was getting to those balls relatively easily and making the out minus the theatrics that Jeter needed to add. For what it's worth, Ozzie Smith, arguably the greatest defensive shortstop of all-time, finished with a career Range Factor of 5.22.

Just for the sake of experiment, let's look at Cal Ripken Jr.'s numbers through his age 27 season.

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	Pos ▾	G	GS	CG	Inn	Rtot	RF/9	lgRF9	Awards
1988	BAL	AL	27	SS	161	161	159	1409.0	-6	4.88	4.69	AS
1987	BAL	AL	26	SS	162	162	160	1430.2	0	4.53	4.59	AS
1986	BAL	AL	25	SS	162	162	162	1436.2	16	4.52	4.53	AS,SS
1985	BAL	AL	24	SS	161	161	161	1427.1	0	4.79	4.64	AS,MVP-17,SS
1984	BAL	AL	23	SS	162	162	162	1439.1	23	5.50	4.75	AS,MVP-27,SS
1983	BAL	AL	22	SS	162	162	162	1452.1	11	4.99	4.75	AS,MVP-1,SS
	17 Seasons			SS	2302	2291	2204	20232.0	176	4.73	4.69
	8 Seasons			3B	675	667	554	5726.2	5	2.67	2.68
	3 Seasons			DH	25	24
	21 Seasons			TOT	2977	2958	2758	25958.2	181	4.27	4.25

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/23/2016.

Now these figures are much better to look at; Ripken's a much better comparison to A-Rod on the defensive side of the ball. While, A-Rod smokes both Jeter and Ripken in the batter's box and on the basepaths.

You all know about the greatness of Alex Rodriguez at the plate, and many of you are probably yelling about magic pills to the point of no return. And the same people who are blasting A-Rod because it appears to be a standard line of thought, are also the same people that want David Ortiz (who also tested positive for PED's) in the Hall of Fame. Just because the media has decided to make A-Rod the whipping boy for magic pills and not Big Papi. Stop being naive; your worldview would come crashing down if Ripken, Jeter, or Piazza admitted steroid use. The fact that Alex Rodriguez stood higher than all at his position at that time in baseball history is truly incredible, so let's just leave it at that. And honestly, steroids have been known to hamper your ability to play shortstop, yet during the years he was roiding, his defensive play was at its peak value.

Now for stuff outside the game. Sure, Alex Rodriguez has done many bad things off the field, but he's no different from the all-time greats who were far from saints themselves. And that's why I don't care about what players do off the field. As long as they stay out of prison, which A-Rod has never gone to before and by the way, currently, MLB suspends a player more for PED's than throwing a baseball at a player's head (but that's another matter). And for those of you saying that he's greedy for getting the highest paid contract in baseball history, just listen to yourselves. You're blaming a player who wants compensation for his value? You would've done the same thing. Baseball has had a history of collusion (see the 1980s and now with qualifying offers), that have done everything to keep salaries down and to maintain the owners' high ground. Isn't it funny how wages have pretty much stayed the same since A-Rod first signed that deal in 2002? Well, guess who's responsible for that.




Nobody loves the magic pill theory more than this guy. That narrative has made sure that the players never sniff any of the high revenues that MLB continues to receive each national and regional television deal they sign.

Let's not underestimate who Alex Rodriguez was. Think about the last baseball player featured in a Nike Commercial. A-Rod was in the last one I can remember. That just tells you how the marketing of baseball players has been non-existent since A-Rod. While the NBA and the NFL have successfully marketed their stars time and time again, MLB has dropped the ball.

I'll leave you with a few highlight clips.

Here's my favorite A-Rod homer. Off El Duque's eephus pitch.

Another one of my favorite A-Rod moments, where he embarrasses Ryan Dempster for his nonsense.

From 1997, where he hit for the cycle at Tiger Stadium.

Now let's hope that the last two years of A-Rod's career bring more great moments.

------ Wes


Follow me on Twitter @WesMillsRadio