Jeter's First Week Back Not Pretty

(Courtesy of Texas Leaguers)

That's Derek Jeter's spray chart since returning to action on Monday.  Needless to say, it doesn't look good.  Jeter has just 3 hits in 21 plate appearances this week, with 5 strikeouts and 3 GIDPs, and only 1 went for extra bases.  That was a line drive double down the right field line, the only real solid contact Jeter has made in his 5 games back.  Of all the other balls he's put in play, all except 1 have been ground balls.  Even his 2 singles up the middle were on groundballs, and that extreme GB split is indicative of Jeter still not being anywhere near ideal game shape.

The good news is that Jeter has been able to play a week's worth of games without suffering another leg injury.  The bad is that there hasn't been much in his performance at the plate to suggest there is a lot of strength in those legs.  Jeter isn't hitting the ball with any kind of authority and his high whiff rate against offspeed stuff suggests he might be cheating heavy on the fastball just to make that contact.  A turnaround would give hope that Jeter can get back to 100% for next season, but it doesn't seem like a very likely outcome given what we've seen this week.