Sabermetricians are often told to get their heads out of their spreadsheets and to watch some baseball. The people who say that sort of thing often defer to their own eyes or the eyes of scouts when it comes to analysis. Then you read stuff like this story from Andrew Marchand at ESPN New York in which scouts are said to prefer Derek Jeter over Jose Reyes -- and in one case Hanley Ramirez -- at shortstop right now and you wonder what they’re smoking.
I’ll give Jeter durability over Reyes right now. But that’s all I’d give him. In no way, however, would I select Derek Jeter over Jose Reyes if I had to put together a team for the rest of 2011. And apart from the scout that Marchand spoke to, I’m not sure who would.