I wasn't claiming that Jeter was the worst SS overall, just defensively. Obviously, he's a very good offensive shortstop.

But to limit any statistical discussion to MLB stats makes no sense whatsoever when there are much better stats out there. Who cares what MLB has decided to recognize? At one point, everyone thought the world was flat. I'm sure there was a long period after discovering it was round when most people still thought it was flat. It doesn't make them right. Just because most baseball fans are still ignorant and look at the old school stats, doesn't mean it's right. Judging a player's worth based on Avg, RBI, and fielding % is almost as ignorant as believing that the world is flat.
If you're doing something scientific, you go to the stat that has been scientifically proven to be better, and people have done many many studies to test what stats are highly correlated to helping your offense score runs, which is obviously the goal for an offense.

And, yes, Jeter ranks well at those, too.

And to dismiss Bill James based on what the Red Sox did last year is ridiculous because they had a very good year. The cheap additions of Millar, Ortiz, Mueller, and Walker had a lot to do with their success. Obviously, we don't know who came up with those ideas, but the front office clearly takes sabermetrics into account on all their moves. In fact, at this point, I'd be shocked if there's any team that doesn't at least look at OPS.

And Sparky Anderson's quote doesn't pass muster either. Bill James is not a "little fat guy." I believe he's 6'3". Sparky Anderson is 5'9".