In this ever changing world in which we live in, it’s delightful when science and technology can step up and provide us with definitive answers. And as much as I love the annual debate over Derek Jeter’s fielding skills as Jeter hagiographers and apologists take issue with the opinions of people with eyes and brains, science and technology may just end that debate over the course of the 2010 baseball season.

The final definitive word on Jeter’s fielding ineptitude might very well come from Sportsvision’s FieldFX camera system. Basically they throw up cameras on light towers along the foul lines, and have fancy computers track the ball’s trajectory and every movement of every player.

“After an amazing catch by an outfielder, we can compare his speed and route to the ball with our database and show the TV audience that this player performed so well that 80 percent of the league couldn’t have made that catch,” says Ryan Zander, Sportvision’s manager of baseball products.

Or to put that in Jeterian terms, after a base hit goes into left field past Jeter’s flailing arms, we’ll be able to show the TV audience that every single shortstop in the league would have gotten to that ball.  What’s even more exciting is that in 20 years, we’ll be able to see that every shortstop for twenty years would have gotten to the ball Jeter barely got close to.

But don’t take my word for it, listen to Wharton School statistician Shane Jensen, who writes models for fielding stats: “We’ll certainly be able to settle who’s the best shortstop.” And therefore, also, who’s the worst shortstop.

Sportsvision is also said to be working on infrared cameras that will be able to measure heart, scrappyness and clutchivity.

Coming soon, science to prove Alex Rodriguez is socially awkward.