It all began so well for the Yankees and Mark Teixeira. Tex was the secret sauce in the 2009 season. Everyone knew the Yankees were going after pitching. But no one realized that Brian Cashman was also stealthy keeping tabs on Tex. When his contract negotiations with the Red Sox stalled the Yankees swooped in and picked him up. It was the difference maker in the 2009 Championship, adding that big bat to the lineup on top of the elite pitching.
For one season it went by the script. In 2009 Tex had a .402 wOBA and led the American League in homers with 39 and RBI with 122. Cracks began to appear in 2010. Tex’s annual season opening slump was deeper and longer than it had ever been before. He was ice cold for the entire first half of the season. He turned lava hot in July and August, which was enough to give Tex respectable season numbers, but it wasn’t enough to have him produce at the level everyone expected. In 2011 Tex saw a power resurgence, but his OBP fell to .341 and despite the extra homers his 2011 wOBA was .361, less than the .369 he put up in 2010. 2012 was Mark’s worst season in baseball. He managed career lows in games (123), homers (24) and wOBA (.345).
Yankee fans have lowered their expectations surrounding Tex’s performance. He’s no longer viewed as statue in monument park in waiting. But he’s still a valuable baseball player, especially when healthy. Mark will turn only 33 next year, and he’s got years left on his mega-deal. On a team where offense means Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson it has become easy to overlook Mark Teixeira, but if Tex comes back healthy and gives the Yankees a 30 homer season, he could be the difference maker in more than a few games, the player the opposing team didn’t prepare for. Tex has let Yankee fans down before, but simply a full year of Tex, even at last year’s diminished production, represents improved value.
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4 Responses to Is Mark Teixeira the X-factor to the 2013 season?
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TIQ IQ
I’m tired of hearing about Robinson Cano.Very over rated. I wish the management would show some moxy and set him out or fine him for lack of hustle. Many times I seen doubles turn into singles and triples turn into doubles because of his unwillingness to run. He’s an embarrassment to those trying to win.
You clearly know nothing about baseball. Please keep your ignorant analysis to yourself. Thank you.
Tex has to shorten up his swing from both sides of the plate and stop uppercutting the ball. His inability to drive breaking pitches the other way makes putting a defensive shift on him a no-brainer when he bats lefty.
His inability to read pitches that he would ordinarily meet and make good contact on for the past three years seems to be the reason for his offensive decline. Defensively, he is still one of the top 1B position players in the MLB.
Tex is definitely the X factor….he has always been the X factor since the decline started in 2010…..but he has no problem “reading” pitches……the problem lies in the idea that he has already decided to pull an inside fastball before he even gets to the on deck circle. Long teaches this and he bought into it. Thats why you see Tex take so many outer third strikes when guys like me think those outer 3rd strikes are the perfect pitches to send into the left/center gap.
Thats why it was such a joke to hear Tex proclaim…”the experiment is over” last season. I wish one of these Yankee analysts would create a spray chart of called strikes on Tex. I’d bet that the majority of called strikes were outer third fastballs…he just lets them go bye cuz they are not the pitch he wants to pull into the right field upper deck.
Change he approach, change the mind set that Long brainwashed you with and you become the new Yankee hero….and cut down that upper cut while you’re at it.