The New York Yankees are set to be a destructive offense again in 2010.
However, some of the stars of this offense will begin to age and likely soon. A good chance one of these players will be: Derek Jeter.
Derek Jeter had a career-low 66 RBIs last year. Jeter stole 30 bases, which is more than the last two years combined and hit his fourth best career batting average at age-35. Jeter hit his most home runs since 2005 in the New Yankee Stadium.
Jeter hit better in the second half than in the first half, but that was aided by a .400 Batting Average on Balls in Play. Jeter will be entering his age-36 season and could be expected to decline. Another problem with Jeter? The shortstop position this year looks to be a little deeper than usual. You could, theoretically, grab a 5th outfielder who hits for average and power and get Everth Cabrera and you'll likely get a similar production line to Jeter and another outfielder you draft. Jeter's average draft position is 50th according to MockDraftCentral.com. Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, Jimmy Rollins and Troy Tulowitzki are the only four shortstops going ahead of Jeter in drafts. I could make the argument that Jason Bartlett's .320 BA, 14 HR and 30 SB in only 567 Plate Appearances last year would be worth taking a better flyer on at age-30 than Jeter at 36 who produced 18 HR and 31 SB in 716 PA.
However consider Shortstop as a very deep position. People, not me, are still in love with Stephen Drew! Miguel Tejada will be shortstop, and likely, third base eligible during the 2010 season but his value will come better at short. Everth Cabrera hung in there as a rule-5 pick to produce a great one-dimensional fantasy season. Erick Aybar is a fantasy sleeper and he had an .807 OPS over the second half of the season. That and I didn't even mention Alexei Ramirez's chance to break out, Elvis Andrus' awesome speed and Yunel Escobar's quiet but impressive 2009 step forward.
Orlando Cabrera is still a free agent who could help someone and teams will take flyers on Jose Reyes and, less so, JJ Hardy to rebound off poor years.
