Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Has Anyone Seen Mark Teixeira?


Extra! Extra! Read all about it. Yankees first baseman missing offensively for weeks now and no one has taken notice. If you’ve seen this man return him to Yankee Stadium and/or call Brian Cashman at 1-800-GoYanks1.

In all seriousness though while much of the attention has been on Alex Rodriguez, until recently, Chase Headley and guys like Jacoby Ellsbury and Aaron Hicks the real question that Yankees fans need to be asking themselves is where has Mark Teixeira been for the past couple of weeks?

The Yankees don’t have Greg Bird to fall back on if Teixeira cannot perform or gets hurt and the team is really banking on a huge contract season from their first baseman for a plethora of reasons. One being that the team wants to compete in 2016 and the other being the presumable qualifying offer coming his way after this season. If he has a huge season it’s unlikely, even as he inches towards 37-years old, that he accepts it where as if he struggles or has a mediocre season he may be back in the Bronx for one more go around to give Bird all the time he needs after offseason shoulder surgery.

I can tell you one thing though, Teixeira’s stats to date have been neither mediocre nor have they shown any inkling of a monster season. Sure Teixeira has three home runs and 11 RBI as he entered Camden Yards last night for the series with the Baltimore Orioles but one must remember the old adage of “what have you done for me lately?” Remember that Teixeira hit two of those three home runs in the opening series of the season against the Houston Astros and his third home run came on April 14th of this year. Since that home run Teixeira has had just one extra-base hit and a whopping three RBI. This is not middle of the lineup caliber and this is not a great trending sign for a free agent to be whom wants to play for “four or five more years.”


Sure Teixeira is historically bad in April and he may just be priming up for a huge May, June, July etc. but until it happens I just can’t see it. The Yankees pitching staff has been inconsistent and horrible outside of the bullpen and Masahiro Tanaka for the most part and the pressure of being behind in almost every single game is spilling over to the offense. It’s obvious and it’s going to take a village to raise this child and at the head of that village has to be Mark Teixeira or the Yankees are in serious, serious trouble. 

1 comment:

  1. Maybe he should go back to sugar. Tex was a great hitter when he got to the Yanks and I believe he hit around 290 his first year. He sprayed the ball all over the field. He fell in love with the short right porch and started to try and hit homeruns every pitch instead of hitting the ball where it is pitched.

    Tex in my opinion has become a selfish ball player. Do let me explain! I can't stand Ortiz the guy that has done juice and has been implicated on the list yet he gets a free pass, why is that? Getting off track here. Anyway Sunday night against the shift he hit the ball against the shift taking what he was given. I saw Adrian Gonzalez a few years back do the same thing. Tex would rather hit into the shift. If he starts laying some bunts down or hitting it down third I believe the shifting would ease up.

    Headley last night had the shift on him and instead of dropping a few down third and building his BA up and gaining confidence he tried to pull everything as well. These ball players are not doing the team a service by being selfish. Take what is given you and I would tell Tex when the trade deadline comes if you don't waive your no trade clause you will sit the rest of the season. Its time for him and a few others to leave the building.

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