Wed Sep 24, 2014 2:55 pm
162 Game averages
Derek Jeter: 20 years: 15-77-.310, 21 SB, career runs better than average 306. Career OPS .817
Barry Larkin: 19 years: 15-71-.291, 28 SB, career runs better than average 420. Career OPS .815
The area I will concede that there is a substantial advantage for Jeter is that he was far more durable during his career than Larkin, and that means a great deal to the HOF, too. Jeter, despite playing only 1 more season than Larkin, played in nearly 600 more games than Larkin. Well, a second area of concession for Jeter: He has a substantial post-season "careeer" of 158 games and Larkin appeared in 17. Jeter also had much better statistics in the post-season than he put up in the regular season, over a pretty big sample. Any player who can be better in the post-season than the regular season in a sample size that big deserves to be called a star, considering he is not feasting on the 5th starter of a 62-100 team or a 21-year old September call-up in the post-season.
I will amend my comment: Barry Larkin was as good as or better than Derek Jeter as an all-around player, except that Jeter was far more durable. If I was running a real-life team, I would take Jeter over Larkin solely because I would expect 150+ games of 162 from Jeter, and Larkin would be reliable for about 120.