Biggio vs. Jeter: A Brief Comparison of Stats, Perception, and a Third Thing to Complete the Rule of Three

His look says "focused," while everything about the card screams "It's MLB in the 1980's!"

Craig Biggio retired following the 2007 season, after making the announcement he would do so during Spring Training.  A seven time All-Star, his last appearance in the Mid-Summer Classic was in 1999. He did not make the All-Star team in 2007, and he did not deserve to in the midst of posting a .251/.281/.285, with a 71 OPS+. He did, however, finish the year with 10 HR and 31 doubles, which is pretty impressive for a 41 year old second baseman.

Derek Jeter, through the first 94 games of 2014, is posting a .272/.324/.322, with an 81 OPS+. He is on pace to finish his final season with 3 HR and 15 doubles. Not only did he make the 2014 AL All-Star team, but he was triple-teamed by FOX’s broadcast booth in a 3.5 hour aggressive verbal orgy.

Joe Buck told Jeter “It was an honor to cover you.” Like a true gentleman, Buck stopped before saying with what he would like to cover Jeter.

Harold Reynolds began lobbying for Jeter to win the MVP in the second inning.

Tom Verducci said Mike Trout, who has more than 1/3 of Jeter’s career oWAR in 2.5 seasons, “might someday be the next Derek Jeter.”

"Yeah, Jeets!"

I mention the All-Star game, because it highlighted how out of whack the Jeter-love is with many in the mainstream media. He is retiring as a top 5-10 all-time shortstop, and a deserving first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. However, in the past decade, we have seen the retirement of several players who are top 5-10 all-time at their respective positions. The list includes: Greg Maddux, Mariano Rivera, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Ivan Rodriguez, Mike Piazza, Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Chipper Jones, Larry Walker, Edgar Martinez, and Biggio. With the exception of Rivera in 2013, none of these deserving players received anything that resembled the over-the-top sendoff Jeter received on Tuesday night. And even Rivera did not receive this love, and he was the greatest of all-time at his position.

I mention Biggio, though, because they are players similar in terms of skills and numbers, but far, far off in terms of public and media perception and praise. One plays in NYC for a team with 27 World Series championships. The other played in Houston for a team that still exists. Jeter will go into the Hall-of-Fame damn near unanimously on the first ballot. Biggio missed induction by two votes in his second year of eligibility. Two. Fucking. Votes.

For their careers, Jeter will finish with more plate appearances, hits, runs scored, runs batted in, triples, a higher batting average, a higher OPS, and a higher OPS+ by the slimmest of margins. He is at 3,408 hits and still going. His current career WAR is 72.1.

Biggio will have played played more games, hit more doubles, home runs, and extra base hits, drew more walks, stole more bases, hit by more pitches. In fact, with 285 career hit by pitches, Biggio ranks second all-time. He finished with 3,060 hits. Biggio’s final career WAR is 65.1.

We called this play "The Biggio."

If you break it down by their respective best season, best five year stretch, and their 162 game average, you will find two very similar players…with the bonus of being spared my obviously biased analysis! You know what? Let’s do just that. Follow me to the fun!

Best Season:

	Jeter, 1999	Biggio, 1997
WAR	8.0	9.4
Games	158	162
Plate Appearances	739 (Led AL)	744
At-Bats	627	619
Runs	134	146  (Led NL)
Hits	219 (Led AL)	191
Doubles	37	37
Triples	9	8
Home Runs	24	22
RBI	102	81
Stolen Bases	19	47
Walks	91	84
HBP	12	34  (Led NL)
Batting Average	.349	.309
On-Base Percentage	.438	.415
Slugging Percentage	.552	.501
On-Base Plus Slugging	.990	.916
Total Bases	346	310
OPS+	153	143

 Best Five Season Stretch:

	Jeter, 1998-2002	Biggio,  1995-1999
WAR	28.8	32.6
Games	762	785
Plate Appearances	3,528	3,627
At-Bats	3,104	3,062
Runs	614	628
Hits	1,005	930
Doubles	154	198
Triples	24	16
Home Runs	97	95
RBI	408	394
Stolen Bases	130	183
Walks	345	391
HBP	46	117
Batting Average	.324	.304
On-Base Percentage	.398	.399
Slugging Percentage	.483	.472
On-Base Plus Slugging	.880	.871
Total Bases	1,498	1,445
OPS+	130	131

 Career 162-game average:

	Jeter	Biggio
Plate Appearances	744	711
At-Bats	661	618
Runs	115	105
Hits	206	174
Doubles	32	38
Triples	4	3
Home Runs	16	17
RBI	78	67
Stolen Bases	21	24
Walks	65	66
HBP	10	16
Batting Average	.311	.281
On-Base Percentage	.379	.363
Slugging Percentage	.443	.433
On-Base Plus Slugging	.822	.796
Total Bases	293	268
OPS+	116	112

 You have to admit, that was pretty fun. A strong argument can be made Biggio had the superior peak. Overall, though, I can recognize(begrudingly) that, Jeter was superior to Biggio, at least offensively.

Defensively, however, Biggio had a pretty clear edge.

Jeter has won five Gold Gloves, and a sixth could very likely be on the way in 2014. Psssh, you know it could happen He has played more than 2,600 games at a shortstop, while compiling a dWAR of -9.4. His best season came in 1998 when he posted a 1.1 dWAR, the only positive year of his career.
Biggio won four Gold Gloves in 1,989 games as a second baseman. He also played the first 400 games of his career as catcher, and just short of 400 more as an outfielder at the end of his career. He posted a career -3.9 dWAR, with his best season being a 2.2 in 1997.

In the end, Jeter has pinstripes, the Yankees mythologizing, and the payroll and supporting cast to appear in 16 postseasons and counting.

Meanwhile, Biggio had the pinstripes the Astros began wearing in the early 2000’s, two oddly put-together home ballparks in Houston, and Morgan Ensberg.

However, despite his clear advantages and support, the over-fawning (a real word?) of Jeter should not take away from his greatness. By comparing him to Biggio I merely wanted to highlight that many other deserving, comparable, and better, in some cases, players receive considerable less fanfare and adulation. I hope that came through, despite the snark, bitterness, and Buck-Reynolds-Verducci-Jeter verbal gangbang imagery.
Thanks for your time.

P.S.

Biggio and Bagwell, aka “The Killer B’s”, teamed up for 14 seasons to form maybe the greatest, certainly the most underrated, right-side of the infield in MLB history. That has to count for something. After the Astros made the playoffs twice in the organization’s first 32 seasons, Biggio and Bagwell formed the core of the team that reached the postseason six times in nine seasons, winning a pennant in 2005 and losing a game 7 in the NLCS in 2004. Together, they posted a combined career WAR of 144.7.

By comparison, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, who spent a half-decade as the gold standard on the right-side of the infield, have a combined career WAR of 79.4.

Killer B’s all day, yo.

 

Bagwell preparing to destroy the other team's world. My all-time favorite player.