Since his name will come up this off-season in Yankeeland, I decided to take a look at Mark Teixeira.
First, I looked at his career statistics, to date, and then punched the following into the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia:
CAREER STATS, where AGE <= 28, and, PLATE APPEARANCES BETWEEN 3800 AND 4200, and RCAA BETWEEN 190 AND 205, and OWP >= .625 with OPS >= .150 vs. the league average.
And, it gave me this list:
PLAYER PA RCAA OWP OPSvLg Tony Oliva 3896 204 .669 .161 Mark Teixeira 3931 199 .649 .152 Mike Schmidt 3831 197 .660 .154 Ernie Banks 3954 193 .645 .157
Wow. Teixeira. Two Hall-of-Famers. And, a near Hall-of-Famer if not for injury. Pretty nice company for “Tex.”
But, let’s look closer at the careers of Oliva, Schmidt and Banks.
Oliva was a stud from ages 23 through 30 – before injuries did him in. Schmidt was great from ages 24 through 28 – and just as good, if not better, from ages 29 through 37. Lastly, Banks was an All-Star performer from ages 24 through 30 – but, a below average performer from ages 31 through 37.
I believe you have to look at all this when considering Teixeira and signing him to a six- or seven-year deal. There’s always the injury factor, like with Oliva, or the factor that he would fall off a cliff, performance-wise, like Banks, when he reaches the other side of thirty. Or, he very well could go on to have a wonderful career, like Schmidt, well into his late thirties.
Which will it be? You just can’t be sure…right?
17 Responses to “Who Is Mark Teixeira?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I guess all those double headers caught up to Banks….but seriously it’s possible that his breakdown was due to him playing SS, which is a tougher position to play physically day in and day out than 1B. I mean he was moved off of SS by the time he was 30, so I’m guessing he couldn’t handle the position anymore.
Tony Oliva in all his greatness, never had the power that Teixeira has. He hit 32 as a 25 year old rookie and then never hit more than 25 in a season the rest of his career. I don’t think he is a good comparison in that sense.
You can’t worry about him getting injured, when he has no injury history, and it’s impossible to predict who will get hurt. If you start not signing players because you don’t want to give lengthy contracts then you risk missing out on the best talent and also put a lot of pressure on the GM to keep finding productive players on 3-4 year contracts year after year, which sometimes is not even possible because you can only sign what is available.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
The only reason the Yankees shouldn’t go after Teixeira is if they determine that they have to keep first base open as the future Way Station For Decrepit Former Stars.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Or, if they want Jesús Montero to play 1B around 2012…
October 7th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Are you saying that your dream GM would think that saving a spot for someone who may or may not be a successful major leaguer in 4 YEARS is a legitimate reason not to have one of the best players in the game in his age 32 season?
October 7th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
That Montero looks like a beast tho..
October 7th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
So to recap, you vote no on the two biggest free agent prizes this offseason?
Never invest money in anyone! There’s too much risk! And also, we’ve given out poor contracts in the past! But also, don’t depend on The Kids, they’re also too risky! Risk is bad!
October 7th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Or, if they want Jesús Montero to play 1B around 2012…
———————–
I can’t imagine it will take Montero three more years to make the big leagues. I figure we’ll see him in September 2010 and he’ll be here by 2011. He’s young (turning 19 in seven weeks) but the boy can hit.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Counting on Montero at the cost of adding Teixeira is nothing short of insane. If Montero turns out to be so great, he should be worth quite a lot on the trade market.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Counting on Montero at the cost of adding Teixeira is nothing short of insane. If Montero turns out to be so great, he should be worth quite a lot on the trade market.
———————–
I’m not counting on Montero at the cost of adding Teixeira. The decision to pursue Teixeira is separate and apart from Montero’s arrival in the 2-4 year time horizon.
Teixeira at an average of 6Y/17.5M with a few team options I’d do. The numbers Boras is talking about (10/20M), I’d say hell no and take my chances with Giambi/Posada/Damon/Matsui/Nady/Miranda for the next few years until Montero is ready to be given his chance.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Counting on Montero at the cost of adding Teixeira is nothing short of insane. If Montero turns out to be so great, he should be worth quite a lot on the trade market.
———————————–
noone said they were counting on him, my whole prob in all this is the fact that we are assuming montero to be a 1B. He’s currently playing catcher and if the yanks think hes the 1B of the future, don’t u think they’d have put him there?
October 7th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
~~So to recap, you vote no on the two biggest free agent prizes this offseason?Never invest money in anyone! There’s too much risk! And also, we’ve given out poor contracts in the past! But also, don’t depend on The Kids, they’re also too risky! Risk is bad!~~
Did I say “no” here? I just said that no one knows, for sure, how it will work out if you long-term him. That’s not a yes or a no…
Risk? Yes, there’s risk in every call. There’s also reward. And, that’s the job of the smart GM – to look at the risk/reward ratio and see if it’s in his favor…and, as in the case of the Yankees who have resources, have a sound back-up plan in case the risk happens.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
~~I can’t imagine it will take Montero three more years to make the big leagues. ~~
He played “low A” this season – which means he still has to master “A,” “AA,” and “AAA” before getting a shot at the bigs. That’s three years, to get it done, in my book – and that’s thinking positive.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:15 am
He played “low A” this season – which means he still has to master “A,” “AA,” and “AAA” before getting a shot at the bigs. That’s three years, to get it done, in my book – and that’s thinking positive.
——————————
Not true. He registered 525 AB’s at Single-A Charleston and hit a healthy .326/.376/.491 as an 18 year old. I would assume that earned him a promotion to High-A Tampa with an eye towards moving him to Double-A Trenton towards the middle to end of 2009. At that point, assuming he is still raking, he’d be a AA/AAA prospect in 2010 and thus on the big club radar for some time in 2011, as I said initially.
Further, I don’t think all prospects progress at the same rate through the minors. Age notwithstanding, if you can hit, you can hit. Jay Bruce was promoted three times (from A+ to AAA) as a 20 year old in 2007. Not saying Montero is Jay Bruce, merely pointing out that you don’t have to go pigeonhole Montero.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Or, if they want Jesús Montero to play 1B around 2012…
———-
There’s always a corner OF spot, as well as DH. The Yanks found a way to play both Nick Johnson & Giambi, I’m sure they’ll find a way to play these two, if Tex is signed, and Montero actually makes it.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:57 am
The risk is minimal in the context of their outrageous revenue. Adding an all-star, in his prime, who can help the pitchers with his glove is well worth the risk. The track record at first since Tino left (the 1st time)speaks for itself.
The Yes network lost 10% of it’s viewership last year. New star faces who can play have to be in the mix.
Regarding the 6-7 years, Boras is thinking 10 and he may have A-Rod inspired vengenance on his plate. It will not be boring.
December 6th, 2008 at 10:56 am
[...] would think that anyone could see the risk in signing Tex to a ten-year deal. Besides, come 2012, the Yankees are most likely going to have to move Alex [...]
December 23rd, 2008 at 9:21 pm
[...] we have that third part – the long-term future. Back on October 7, 2008, I took a look at Mark Teixeira to see if the stats suggested that he was a lock to keep producing, [...]