Jeter's Yankees Hits Record Impressive, But Don't Get Carried Away

Baseball has two types of milestones. In 2004, Randy Johnson recorded his 4,000th strikeout. Less than three months later, Johnson got strikeout No. 4,137 to pass Steve Carlton for most ever by a left-hander.

Which got more recognition? No. 4,000 -- because we like our round numbers.

But I always thought the latter was more impressive because to pass someone seems, to me, more significant.

That said, what do we make of Derek Jeter's breaking Lou Gehrig's record for career hits in a Yankees uniform?

More: Steinbrenner Reflects on Jeter's Record

In New York, it has been quite celebrated, to the point where the Daily News ran at least six stories in Monday's paper related to the impending Jeter achievement.

Derek and Lou
How the hit totals of Derek Jeter and Lou Gehrig break down:
Cat.	Gehrig	Jeter
Hits	2,721	2,723
1B	1,531	2,005
2B	534	437
3B	163	58
HR	493	223
R	1,888	1,564
RBI	1,995	1,064
Source: MLB.com

But somehow, it doesn't seem all that meaningful.

Don't get me wrong, passing Lou Gehrig in almost anything means something (although, as Keith Olbermann pointed out, how many hits would Gehrig have had were it not for ALS?) And owning a Yankees career record is no small matter.

But Jeter was already considered an all-time Yankees great, so he didn't need this record to validate his status.

In fact, this mark means little more than exactly what it is: most hits. There is no way to consider Jeter the best hitter, or the best offensive player, in Yankees history.

Consider the all-time Yankees leaders in various categories, according to baseball-reference.com. Jeter is fifth in batting average but 14th in on-base percentage, 35th in slugging percentage and 24th in OPS.

His "adjusted OPS+" -- OPS weighted for his ballpark and era -- is 34th in team history. His "offensive winning percentage" -- what kind of record would a lineup of nine Derek Jeters have -- is 29th.

Jeter has far fewer doubles, triples and home runs than Gehrig had. And batting at the top of the order most of the time, Jeter has even scored fewer runs than Gehrig did.

Now, considering he has played shortstop his entire career, even if some of that play has been below average, Jeter's offense has been well above average.

But putting him in the sphere of Yankees hitters, what Jeter has done is hit. Hit very well. Not for power. Not with a lot of walks in addition. But just plain hit.

More often than anyone else to wear pinstripes.