It shouldn’t take anyone more than a couple of guesses to figure out which pitcher Derek Jeter has the most of his 3,000 hits against. It is, of course, the one pitcher who has has been on a rival AL East team for the entire duration of Jeter’s career.
Here are the 12 pitchers Jeter has at least 20 hits against:
1. Tim Wakefield - 34-for-130 - .279/.315/.402
2. Pedro Martinez - 29-for-107 - .271/.350/.439
3. Sidney Ponson - 29-for-81 - .358/.402/.580
4. Rodrigo Lopez - 26-for-61 - .426/.493/.672
5. Josh Beckett - 25-for-83 - .301/.358/.422
6. Jamie Moyer - 23-for-74 - .311/.354/.432
7. Aaron Sele - 23-for-72 - .319/.367/.403
8. Roy Halladay - 22-for-94 - .234/.294/.277
9. John Lackey - 21-for-72 - .292/.378/.417
9. Derek Lowe - 21-for-73 - .288/.342/.301
9. David Wells - 21-for-67 - .313/.324/.522
12. Curt Schilling - 20-for-68 - .294/.324/.397
Nine of the 12 pitched for the Red Sox, though Moyer was with Boston only briefly, going 7-1 for the team in 1996. Most of Jeter’s hits off him came while he was with the Mariners.
Some other notables:
Cliff Lee - 19-for-47 - .404/.462/.553
Johan Santana - 19-for-43 - .442/.478/.628
CC Sabathia - 13-for-29 - .448/.484/.552
Greg Maddux - 12-for-26 - .462/.500/.462
Hideo Nomo - 12-for-20 - .600/.680/.800
Jeter has fared quite well against some terrific hurlers. It goes hand in hand with his strong postseason performance. Jeter has an approach and swing that has tended to make him just as effective against great pitchers as he is against mediocrities.
Jeter has hit 1.000 against 78 different pitchers. Most of those are in one or two at-bats, of course, but he’s 4-for-4 against Dennys Reyes, Matt Riley (with two homers) and Bob Tewksbury. He’s also 5-for-6 against longtime teammate Ramiro Mendoza and 7-for-10 against Jeremy Sowers.
The most at-bats Jeter has against anyone without picking up a hit is 14. He’s 0-for-14 against former Orioles reliever Jorge Julio, 0-for-11 against Casey Janssen and 0-for-9 against Rick Porcello.
Among pitchers he’s faced a bit more, he’s fared particular poorly against Ricky Romero (2-for-20), Jered Weaver (3-for-23), John Smoltz (2-for-18) and Scott Kazmir (7-for-45).
His worst OPS against any pitcher, min. 20 at-bats, is Travis Harper (.374), followed by Danys Baez (.382), Joaquin Benoit (.399) and Jon Garland (.442).
The best, using the same min, is Nomo (1.480) followed by Eric Milton (1.342), Ervin Santana (1.284) and the late Joe Kennedy (1.253).