New York Sports Fans Live Up To Every Stereotype You Ever Thought About Them

Deadspin linked to this article in the NY Post today about Derek Jeter being named the worst fielder at any position in the majors last year by the 2008 Fielding Bible. For those not named Vinnie, I'll let Bill James explain what the Fielding Bible is:

"They watched film of every major-league game, and had recorded every ball off the bat by the direction in which it was hit [the vector], the type of hit [groundball, flyball, line-drive, popup, etc.] and by how hard the ball was hit [softly hit, medium, hard hit]," according to James.

So, yeah. According to that system (which seems about as good, if not better than any other way of measuring defensive value), Derek Jeter's defense sucks. But, if you've been listening to me, Vinne or Zuch, you knew that already. The best part of this whole thing is the comments on the Post site from New Yorkers being exactly who and what you assumed they were. Some highlights:

BIG: Anyone who watches Baseball knows that this is the most ludicrous statement every posted by the Kings of ludicrous statements the pathetic NY Post. These cockroaches will doing anything to get people to read their 3rd grade level rag. If by chance you do think Derek Jeter is the worst fielder in Baseball than you are a pathetic, envious fool.

socalbob: I'VE WATCH JETER AT SHORT FOR A GREAT NUMBER OF YEARS. I MUST HAVE MISSED SOMETHING.

Go figure: Scouting the defensive abilities of any player takes a scout's eye, not some computer geek looking at some model on his laptop. There are so many different factors that go into determining how " good " a player is on defense that these " experts " wouldn't know if it smacked them in their pocket protectors.

For more of...that, click on the link and scroll to the bottom.