Mark Teixeira, the Yankees’ powerful first baseman, has been horrendous this season. As he slumped last month, hitting .136 while posting an anemic .559 OPS, many attributed his poor performance to historically identifiable early season struggles. “Tex always looks bad in April,” pursed through the lips of seemingly every Yankee fan as they attempted to process the slump.
Is such a statement all that true, though?
If we exclude this season’s numbers, Teixeira, for his career, has put together a .252/.352/.437 triple slash line in April. That’s not particularly terrible – many ballplayers would kill for a .789 OPS right out of the gate – and this notion that Teixeira is, historically, a slow starter has often been overemphasized in order to justify Teixeira’s ineffectiveness this year. The same also occurred last year, his first in New York, when Teixeira hit .200/.367/.361 in the first month of the season (his ensuing offensive rebound was then connected to the return of Alex Rodriguez).
If you subtract Teixeira’s rookie year in 2003 (and this year) from his career numbers, his April line increases significantly, improving to .260/.361/.449 – that’s an .810 OPS – which is hardly indicative of a negative historical trend. Saying otherwise makes for an easy explanation, though.
In reality, as a Yankee, Teixeira has been historically awful in April, posting a .166/.332/.311 line. So, over the past two years, yes, Teixeira has been terrible in that particular period. That is, without a doubt, the case. Outside of that, though, his performance in April was never written in stone. He could have had a great April this year, just as he did in 2008 and in 2006, and it would not have been a case of trend bucking. However, the April pattern seems to be becoming a legitimate, tangible trend now that he has donned the pinstripes. Why that is, exactly, is unclear.
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5 Responses to Mark Teixeira's early season struggles
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TIQ IQ
I’ve known Teixeira wasn’t as bad historically as most MSM outlets have labeled him. Strangely enough, most yankees fans are willing to write off April b/c he’s proven to be able to come back in the succeeding months. In 2010, that has not worked out quite right. Teixeira’s May numbers (.275/.353/.484/.836) are what you’d expect at MINIMUM from an All-star 30 year old.
However, Teixeira’s last 2 weeks shows he’s back in the grip of a slump. You gotta imagine that he’d benefit the most from an off-day and enter the Minny series in a better state of mind. A start as bad as Teixeira had can’t be shrugged off by an up-and-down May. Teixeira will need to put up numbers ASAP to cure the middle-of-the-order.
TEIXIERA needs to hit to the opposite field agianst the shift or he will become Jason Giambi pretty quickly.
So he’ll average 38 HRs and 113 BBs per 162 games? That’s pretty damn awesome.
No, he’ll become a” losing “statistical player.
I have no idea what that means.