During the off-season, we're going to feature semi-regular studies using Baseball Reference's fantastic Play Index. The first one is about Derek Jeter, and where his 2010 ranks in Yankee history.
As you might know, Jeter led the club in PA (with 739) because he was (presumably) healthy and hit lead-off in all but 25 games. His OPS+ was 90 (10% below the average ML hitter, neutralized for league and home park). I wanted to find out how many Yankees had more than 700 PA in a season with a sub-100 OPS+. There weren't many (only 10), for obvious reasons, namely that any player not hitting up to snuff wouldn't see a lot of playing time. Anyway, the last Yankee to qualify was Horace Clarke way back in 1970 (68 OPS+ in 732 PA) -
| Rk | Player | PA | Year | Age | Tm | Lg | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | SH | SF | GDP | SB | CS | Pos | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frankie Crosetti | 66 | 743 | 1939 | 28 | NYY | AL | 152 | 656 | 109 | 153 | 25 | 5 | 10 | 56 | 65 | 0 | 81 | 13 | 9 | 0 | 11 | 11 | 7 | .233 | .315 | .332 | .647 | *6 |
| 2 | Bobby Richardson | 67 | 706 | 1961 | 25 | NYY | AL | 162 | 662 | 80 | 173 | 17 | 5 | 3 | 49 | 30 | 1 | 23 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 15 | 9 | 7 | .261 | .295 | .316 | .610 | *4 |
| 3 | Horace Clarke | 68 | 732 | 1970 | 30 | NYY | AL | 158 | 686 | 81 | 172 | 24 | 2 | 4 | 46 | 35 | 5 | 35 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 23 | 7 | .251 | .286 | .309 | .595 | *4 |
| 4 | Frankie Crosetti | 73 | 721 | 1937 | 26 | NYY | AL | 149 | 611 | 127 | 143 | 29 | 5 | 11 | 49 | 86 | 0 | 105 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 7 | .234 | .340 | .352 | .692 | *6 |
| 5 | Bobby Richardson | 74 | 713 | 1965 | 29 | NYY | AL | 160 | 664 | 76 | 164 | 28 | 2 | 6 | 47 | 37 | 4 | 39 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 11 | 7 | 5 | .247 | .287 | .322 | .609 | *4 |
| 6 | Bobby Richardson | 74 | 728 | 1964 | 28 | NYY | AL | 159 | 679 | 90 | 181 | 25 | 4 | 4 | 50 | 28 | 1 | 36 | 0 | 16 | 5 | 15 | 11 | 2 | .267 | .294 | .333 | .626 | *4/6 |
| 7 | Red Rolfe | 86 | 740 | 1937 | 28 | NYY | AL | 154 | 648 | 143 | 179 | 34 | 10 | 4 | 62 | 90 | 0 | 53 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | .276 | .365 | .378 | .743 | *5 |
| 8 | Phil Rizzuto | 88 | 712 | 1949 | 31 | NYY | AL | 153 | 614 | 110 | 169 | 22 | 7 | 5 | 65 | 72 | 0 | 34 | 1 | 25 | 0 | 18 | 18 | 6 | .275 | .352 | .358 | .711 | *6 |
| 9 | Frankie Crosetti | 89 | 757 | 1938 | 27 | NYY | AL | 157 | 631 | 113 | 166 | 35 | 3 | 9 | 55 | 106 | 0 | 97 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 12 | .263 | .382 | .371 | .752 | *6 |
| 10 | Derek Jeter | 90 | 739 | 2010 | 36 | NYY | AL | 157 | 663 | 111 | 179 | 30 | 3 | 10 | 67 | 63 | 4 | 106 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 22 | 18 | 5 | .270 | .340 | .370 | .710 | *6/D |
I really don't mean to bash Jeter. It's been happening a lot lately and I guess I'm still wondering why Joe Girardi stubbornly insisted on batting him lead-off night after night. This list doesn't help.