Jeter and Fantasyland

Today's post is about Derek Jeter and the book Fantasyland.

First my thoughts on Derek Jeter. Today I was reading an article on baseball prospectus about Jeter. It was about whether or not the Yankees should resign him after his contract ends in 3 years. The article came to a conclusion which I completely agree with, which was that they should not resign him. Derek Jeter has been in decline for a couple of years. His defense as he has gotten older has gotten progressively worse and is now below average for a shortstop. Was Derek Jeter a great shortstop at one point, yes, but that point has been gone for a while. The Yankees need to realize when his contract expires that they should not resign him. While many people don't know whether the Yankees will be able to get rid of Jeter I think that they will. My reason for this is because of what happened with Bernie Williams. Williams wanted to come back to play for another season with the Yankees but they knew that he was too old to be a productive player anymore so they let him go. Williams was like Jeter, was a beloved Yankee and a winner but that was outweighed by his age and declining skills. The same goes for Jeter. He has always been a beloved Yankee and a winner (4 world series rings) however his skills are now in decline and in three years he will no longer be a productive starting shortstop anymore.

The second part of my blog is about Fantasyland. Fantasyland is a book by Sam Walker about a season of fantasy baseball. He has refused to play fantasy baseball for years but is now ready to try to take on the best in the world. He joins a league called Tout Wars which is the all-star league of fantasy baseball players. This league includes players such as Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus, and Jason Grey of Rotoworld. It's the story of Walker's journey to become a fantasy superstar and the events and stories that came out of his crazy fantasy season. So far I have read the first 99 pages and can't stop reading. I'll update this when I finish the book but so far it's a must read for anyone who claims to be a baseball fan.