by Brian on April 2, 2008 at 12:55PM
I'm sure you've all read about Derek Jeter's ineptitude with the glove several times during the offseason. I'm not going to refute that statistical study with "trust your eyes" logic, because I saw his limited range with my own eyes.What I will say, however, is that the Derek Jeter I saw last night got to two balls he would not have gotten to last year. One up the middle and one in the hole. It's early, there's plenty of time for Jeter's age to catch up to him and/or injures to take hold in his legs, but this was a good sign. Last year I wasn't sure how much of his deplorable range was due to his knee injury and how much was due to 11 years of wear and tear. The first game has me leaning toward the former, which is good news for the Yanks. He's probably still below average, but if he's a step up from where he was at the end of last year, that has to be a positive.
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He definitely looked better last night than he did almost all of last season. Last season he was noticeably limping at times and was clearly playing through pain, but never complained or asked to sit a couple of games out, and still put up numbers better than most any other shortstop in the league.