Note: Statistics on B-Ref have not been updated to include last night’s game. With the exception of GB/FB/LD % (fangraphs), all other stats are taken from B-Ref.

Last night, before Alex Rodriguez was Alex Rodriguez and tied the game, RAB writer Ben Kabak posed a question via Twitter:

“Remember when Derek Jeter was good?”

Indeed.

It feels like it’s been a while, doesn’t it?

Now, I know that being a Yankee fan and criticizing Derek Jeter is like Judas’ kiss, Benedict Arnold and Ephialtes (what, you don’t know your Spartan history?) rolled into one, and that there’s no more treacherous thing I could do short of donning a Jason Varitek jersey, but sometimes it’s necessary.

Thus far in the season, Jeter is batting .269/.310/.400/.710, all marks, especially the batting average, among the lowest of his career.

Players, even great players, slump. It’s not the first time that Derek Jeter has slumped, and it likely won’t be the last. It happens, and assuming it won’t is setting our expectations much too high.

That said, it is the duty and responsibility of the lead off hitter to get on base.

Let me see if I can sum up the argument I’ve read from the fine folks over at BP:

The lead off hitter, because he hits first in the line up, is guaranteed the most at bats in a game. Ideally, then, the team would hit their best hitters lead off, but since the prevailing philosophy remains, rightly or wrongly, that there should actually be runners on base for Albert and A-Rod, the lead off hitter remains the guy that gets on base, and, in an ideal world, wreaks Gardnerian havoc on the basepath.

You can reach first base in a couple of ways: the ideal way would be to get a hit, but walking (or getting hit by a pitch) also work. Case in point: Nick Johnson.

Pre-injury (2010 injury), Johnson had a batting average of just .167, but an on-base percentage of .388, meaning that he still reached base nearly four out of every ten at bats–an incredible, if not quite Bondsian, number. How does one do this?

By walking.

Okay, so Nick Johnson walks so much it’s little wonder why he earned the name OBP-Jesus. Most ballplayers aren’t going to be like him. That’s okay, but it brings me back to Jeter, and his role as a lead off hitter.

If Derek Jeter is hitting lead off and not, well, hitting, then he needs to be walking. And Derek Jeter is not walking.

Through 36 games, Jeter has walked seven times. That’s one walk every 5.14 games, or, one walk every 24 plate appearances (171 ABs).

For comparison’s sake, last year, Jeter walked at a rate of once every 9.94 (okay, 10) plate appearances. In 2008, a very not-Derek-Jeter year for the Captain, he still walked once every 12.8 plate appearances.

If Derek Jeter’s batting average is not a concern, given that hitters do slump, then perhaps his walk rate–especially as long as he is hitting lead-off, ought to be one.

It’s especially a concern because thus far, Jeter’s fly balls and line drives are down, while ground balls are up.

As much as we may want to blame the Gods of the BABIP, consistently hitting ground ball outs does not bode well for statistical correction. It’s far too early and small a sample size to tell if this is a sign that Jeter’s finally start to show his age, but a lead off hitter who isn’t walking and is hitting almost 70% ground outs is not going to do your team many favors.

Jeter has had plenty of slumps in the past, and has shown us all that he can hit his way out of them, time and again, but the question is, how long do you let the said slump go before you consider taking action? If this was Brett Gardner, and your other starting outfielders were all healthy, how long before you give him a day off?

While the Yankees keep winning, it’s easy to downplay the concerns, but the concerns are burgeoning.