Jorge Posada says Derek Jeter is our real leader – MLB News
The New York Yankees won nine of their last twelve games, their leadoff hitters Brett Gardner and Nick Swisher combined to bat .311 and their winning streak moved to 46 games in 2011. However, their bull-pen is in wait of their all time best short-stop Derek
Jeter.
Jeter’s Championship brother Jorge Posada, who was also the part of the Yankees when they snatched their 27th World Series championship in 2009, missed him most of all. Posada said Jeter is a kind of person the whole team tried to follow the way he used
to play.
Without Jeter it would be difficult for us to carry our stinging form to the World Series victory stand, commented Posada.
“I don’t see that. Nobody in this organization sees that,” Posada said. “Derek Jeter belongs in this organization, and they need him to be here. He is the guy that we look up to and the leader of this team.”
Before Jeter went to the disabled list on June 14 due to strained right calf, the Yankees were having less than .500 batting averages in their first 50 games of the season. Once he went to this list, the Yankees batting performance moved drastically high,
which provided many a chance to say the Yankees, could win this series even without Jeter.
Drastic change in our batting presentation after our skipper moved to 15-day disabled list allowed some people to make such arguments, stated Curtis Granderson.
Posada further highlighted Granderson’s opinion and made the following statement.
“He’s the guy that keeps doing and he’s going to keep doing what he needs to do to bring winning baseball to this organization.” He further added. “You know what? But for him, it’s probably the toughest thing to be away from the team and not be able to play.”
Jeter is aware of the speculations that opponents making about his presence, so he kept on expressing his full strength in practice session in his first three days. He made more than 30 swings, more than 20 grounders at the infield position on Monday and
stretched his legs to maximum strength on Tuesday at the Yankees’ Minor League complex in Tampa.
His return to the team is still not confirmed but there are chances that he will make his next game against the Cleveland Indians on July where he will try to achieve his 3000th career-hit. He is just six short of this mark.
It will be interesting to see when Jeter makes it back into the Yankees line-up. The team are desperate to get their leader back into the team. Although the Yankees did well without him, they know that with Jeter, they are a more dynamic team.
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