BALTIMORE - Do not tell Mark Teixeira he is in slump.
Ok, I’ll say it.
The man is in a slump!
Teixeira, a man who keeps an even keel at all times during good and bad moments at the plate sees better times ahead, but right now the numbers and performance at the plate are inescapable.
Struggling for 10, 20, even 30 games and you look that as a slump. While Teixeira has had several games where he has gotten hits and driven in runs in bunches, the totality of his season has been awful.
For a man who led the American League in homeruns and runs batted in last season in his first year as a Yankee, this is not about his inability to perform in New York.
Rather, the question becomes simply this:
“What is wrong with Mark Teixeira?”
57 games into the campaign and the Yankee first baseman finds himself hitting a pedestrian .211.
This would be understandable if he was the sole source of power on the team and they were overly dependent on him to come through.
Lucky for him, the Yankees are so talented that they have the second best record in the league (only good for second in their own division – two games behind Tampa Bay going into play Tuesday) and this issue has been nothing more than quiet fodder.
For a player known for being incredibly streaky, Teixeira does not think there should be cause for concern, as many fans patience with him has become thin.
“I’ve been through plenty of ups and downs in my career and the back of my baseball card says it all,” said Teixeira. “I’m amazed sometimes when I look at it, because it’s not an easy game.”
However, if the offense was struggling mightily and the Yankees further in the standings, this would be a serious problem.
Saturday was the low point of his season in a 3-2 loss to the Blue Jays when he went 0-for-6 with five strikeouts, mostly on changeups down and away out of the zone. The next day in a Yankee comeback win saw him at least touch the ball despite a 0-for-4 day with two flyouts and two groundouts.
The numbers showed that Teixeira had a good May and even he deluded himself to the beat writers recently by saying that he was not that bad (he does have 35 RBI). In 29 games, he did drive in 25 runs and hit six homeruns, batting .280.
Further investigation though showed a different story. At the start of the month of May after hitting only .136 in April, he was on fire, driving in 20 runs and hitting five homeruns (including three in one game) while hitting .339 in the first fifteen games.
However, since May 17, he has gone back into his early season funk, hitting only .188 with one homerun and five RBI, striking out 16 times in 20 games, appearing lost at the plate by over-swinging and excessive guessing.
There has been the notion the Yankees should move him out of the three spot in the lineup and flip-flop him with Robinson Cano, the team’s offensive MVP so far.
Why?
Such a move would cause a domino effect scenario that the team does not need to bring to themselves.
One, it would create a (drive by) media controversy with daily updates and turning this portion of the season into an episode of “Days of our Lives”.
Second, this would be to concede that there really is problem at hand rather than allowing to sink-or-swim on his own.
Third, by swapping him for Cano, you leave Alex Rodriguez with no protection in the lineup.
Why would you do that? Teams have been far more aggressive with Rodriguez at the plate knowing that Cano lurks behind him. To be struggling hitter behind him, you give Rodriguez less good pitches to hit and put even more pressure on Teixeira to come through, as teams will intentionally force him to get the job done.
Based on his performance to this point, why the hell would the Yankees even consider that?
Just all Teixeira to play this out for the foreseeable future. If he is still hitting .200 in the month of August, then we have story. He is one good week away from taking over the team lead in RBI.
Can we be a little patient here?
Time for some Yankee Random Thoughts
For as good as the Yankees have played this season, they have been a mediocre 16-15 on the road.
There is no reason as to why this is only to say that the role players hit better at Yankee Stadium than on the road. An investigation of the numbers shows an incredible discrepancy so far.
At home, the Yankees as a team are hitting .316 and OPS of .908 compared to a pedestrian .252 and OPS of .724 on the road.
Using last year’s standards, it would be the equivalent of the Yankees having nine Alex Rodriguez’s at home and nine Melky Cabrera’s on the road.
One would figure these numbers would even out as the season progresses, at least on the road.
Don’t compare this team to the old Bronx Bombers so far. The numbers show them only eighth in the league at homeruns, 35 blasts behind the Toronto Blue Jays who have 97, 18 ahead of the second best team.
Pitching is reason both Tampa Bay and the Yankees are ahead of the baseball pack right now.
The Rays and Yankees rank one and two in the AL in pitching ERA, fewest earned runs, batting average against and WHIP.
If these two meet in the ALCS, that will be the reason.
I will not concede any games to the Baltimore Orioles.
I’m sorry, but after thinking they could challenge to win 80 games this year, they officially stink.
Usually, bad teams play out the string in August and September.
Here, the Orioles are already playing out the string, and its only June!
They have numerous talented players and should not be this bad. No one really knows what the reason is.
Sure, being in a division with the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays is like death, but that’s the way it is.
Toronto projected as a last place team before the year and they have been one of the surprise teams of the league. At least they will finish a respectable fourth in the division.
Baltimore? No.
Tracking Phil Hughes’ next five starts before the All Star Break shows starts against the Orioles, Astros, Mets, Diamondbacks and Mariners. All teams with offenses that range from average to woeful.
At 7-1, unless he has a bad start, poor offensive support or the bullpen blows it, 11 wins and possibly 12 are in his future. This would put him on track to start the All Star Game in Anaheim at Angel Stadium, a place Hughes used to ride his bicycle past when he was a child.
He probably will not win 20 games because the Yankees have a plan in the second half of the year to manipulate the off days to skip his starts when needed and keep him from that all-important “innings cap”, which would appear to be around 185.
This is why the sudden emergence of Mental Patient has been vital to the roster. His great pitching of late (five starts, four wins, 2.76 ERA) allows for not only favorable matchups during the season, but also less of an onus on Hughes to produce big during his starts.
If Vazquez can perform to his yearly numbers of over 200 innings, this allows the team monitor Hughes’ innings to the degree they want.
Surely even the organization would concede that no matter how well Vazquez pitches, they want him nowhere near a mound during the postseason considering how dominating Hughes has been. Having that arm in Game 4 of a playoff series is deadly.
Right now, he is a fifth starter performing like an elite starter at minimal cost. It is the ultimate in getting bang-for-buck value.
The most unlikely rally of the Sunday came on Sunday with the Yankees trailing 2-0 to the Blue Jays on the verge of being swept.
Vazquez had a no hitter going until Vernon Wells cranked a 0-2 pitch with two outs in the sixth to give Toronto the lead.
Starter Brandon Morrow kept the Yankees off the board for the first seven innings. However, when he hit Francisco Cervelli to begin the eighth, his afternoon was over.
Scott Downs came in and hit Brett Gardner with the first pitch to put runners on first and second.
Derek Jeter would then line a double inside the first base bag down the right field line to cut the margin to 2-1.
Nick Swisher would strikeout looking for the first out and then Manager Cito Gaston would tempt his fate like the Twins and Indians before him by walking the frozen as ice Teixeira to face Rodriguez with the bases loaded in another edition of idiocy.
Jason Frasor would come into the game and his wild pitch (obviously fearful of the slugger) went far enough to allow the speedy Gardner to score to tie the game.
Rodriguez would strike out looking, but with first base open again, Toronto elected to pitch to Robinson Cano (with Jorge Posada on deck) and he lined a single into left center, scoring two runs and giving the Yankees the lead.
It started with two hit batsmen. Ending with two hits from the offense and four runs came to the plate.
Another improbably Yankee rally.
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