In Jeter’s case, I don’t think it’s luck necessarily, or at least it’s luck that’s letting him have a very good year, but it’s also combined with something else significant. It’s what makes him an interesting case. What he is at this point is a guy who makes a ton of contact but not hard contact. He used to do both. His contact rate has actually gone up, but the quality’s way down. He’s hitting way more balls out of the zone than he used to, and as was noted he’s not walking much or hitting for power anymore. So basically, since he’s retained the ability to get the bat on the ball, and lost everything else, he’s sacrificed the rest in order to keep hitting singles.
And what’s interesting about that is that it’s what he needs to do if he wants to get to some crazy number like 4,000 hits. It’ll make him a pretty lousy player and a shadow of his former self, but hey, 4,000.