from the New York Times

August 12, 1998

By BUSTER OLNEY

His face cemetery serious, Derek Jeter briefly watched Joe Torre answer questions from reporters at Yankee Stadium Tuesday before announcing that he could handle Torre's job as the Yankees' manager. Jeter walked away, a sliver of a grin giving away his true feelings.

Jeter already has responsibilities that he is tending to with great success, as the shortstop and No. 2 hitter on the Yankees, perhaps the best team of his generation. Jeter, 24, "is getting better in all aspects of his game," Brian Cashman, the Yankees' general manager, said.

"It's scary how good he can become," he added.

Jeter's offensive production has exploded as he has got stronger and come to know himself and the American League pitchers. His batting average has increased more than 30 points from last season, to .325.. He is on a pace to surpass 200 hits and approach a total of 200 runs scored and runs batted in. Learning how to read pitchers better, Jeter has 24 stolen bases in 29 attempts, after stealing 23 in 35 attempts last year.

"I still need to cut down on my strikeouts," he said. He has 84 strikeouts and 37 walks.

More subtle is his defensive improvement. When Jeter became the Yankees' everyday shortstop in 1996, he relied on the fundamentals he established in years of practice with his father -- who also played shortstop -- and on his extraordinary physical ability.

Experience has honed those skills. It's too simplistic, as the veteran infielder Luis Sojo pointed out, to say Jeter is concentrating better than he did as a rookie or as a second-year player.

Jeter plays hard, he wants to get better and he loves to play, and refining his offensive and defensive ability is a natural result of those three factors. Early in the 1997 season, Sojo approached Jeter's best friend on the team, Jorge Posada, explaining that he had been with the team in parts of two seasons, before asking, "Do you think Jeter would mind if I make a few suggestions about his defense?"

Posada encouraged him to do so, and Sojo approached Jeter and mentioned some possible improvements, probably repeating some suggestions that the Yankee coach Willie Randolph had made before. Randolph and Sojo feel Jeter's defense has improved, with some specific alterations.

Jeter is much better at making plays in the shortstop hole, on ground balls hit to his right. He is in better position to catch the ball, Randolph said, because he is moving his feet more. "And that's extremely important," Randolph said. In the past, Jeter might have reached a ball hit to his right, but then he would be off balance and unable to throw the runner out.

When Jeter catches a ground ball in the hole, either backhanding the ball or reaching it with the glove facing forward, Jeter will set his body, planting his right foot in the dirt and powering a throw across the infield with his exceptional arm. Formerly, Jeter liked to reach a ball, jump into the air and fire the ball acrobatically -- a more spectacular approach that is less reliable, particularly as Jeter ages and gradually loses his arm strength.

Scouts chatting before games will sometimes mention Jeter's progress as a shortstop, his increased range, and one statistic supports this. For each player, STATS Inc. tracks a number called a zone rating, a somewhat subjective analysis of how successful a player is at reaching balls within or outside a standard range for his position. No number can define range precisely; even so, Jeter's zone rating has increased from .914 last year to .964, far above the major league average of .927.

Jeter preferred leaping over runners as he turned double plays, stomping on the bag and jumping toward first base. Sojo told him: sure, you can do that now when you're young. What happens when you can't jump so high? "You can get into a lot of trouble doing that," Sojo said.

So Sojo explained to Jeter that the safest place to hide from the runner in turning a double play is behind the base; no runner slides hard across second base, which serves as breastwork for the middle infielder turning a double play. Stay behind the base as you prepare to take the throw, Sojo showed Jeter, then hit the back corner of the bag with your right foot and push away, toward the outfield. This is what Jeter does now, for the most part.

Jeter makes the routine play better than he used to, Randolph said. Jeter has only 7 errors in 103 games, and he didn't make his first throwing error until June 20, in the Yankees' 67th game. His fielding percentage entering last night's game was .984, or 10 points higher than the major league average for shortstops last year.

Randolph remembered when Jeter first arrived in the majors, in the middle of expectations that he would take years to reduce the great number of errors he committed in the minors. "He's really surprised even me a little bit," Randolph said, "making a lot of routine plays and dispelling doubt he could keep that error total down."

Jeter still has a lot to learn, he knows -- "You can always get better defensively," he said. In particular, Randolph wants him to concentrate from pitch to pitch better, to anticipate that he is going to get the ball, to be in position on every pitch. Sometimes, Randolph said, Jeter gets surprised. But he will get better, the Yankees are sure. He is always trying to get better.