This Year’s October Special: Tex Mess Served Cold?

Seems like Mark Teixeira’s defensive value to the Yankees this season is a hot topic these days.

Via John Dewan -

In 2008 the Yankees were the second-worst defensive team in baseball based on Defensive Runs Saved. Their defense cost them 38 runs. Only the Royals were worse with 42 lost runs defensively.

In 2009 the Yankees improved dramatically defensively. By becoming an average defense overall (with 2 runs saved as a team overall), they improved by 40 runs. Using the rule of thumb that 10 runs represents one win, that’s a four-win improvement due to their defense.

Where was the improvement? Most Yankee fans can pretty much guess: first base. Mark Teixeira stabilized the Yanks’ infield defense. In 2008, Yankee first basemen cost the team 18 runs overall. This year, even in a down year for Teixeira, they improved by 19 runs to one run saved at first base.

And, via Sean Forman -

…Ryan Howard allowed 1.4 fewer runs than the average first baseman because of his defense, while Mark Teixeira allowed 2.4 runs more. This flies in the face of widely held perceptions of the two players — Teixeira is a multiple Gold Glove winner and Howard is, well, not. Howard has improved drastically this year and Teixeira has regressed from previous high levels. Three runs’ difference is small, and Teixeira was much better than Howard last year, so I’m going to chalk this season’s performance up to random variation and an off year for Teixeira defensively (just as off years happen with the bat, they happen with the glove too). About the throwing, the Phillies were second to last with only 12 first baseman assists to second base (the Cardinals led with 38), but the Yankees managed only two more with 14.

Me? I just know that, to date, Tex’s post-season offensive contribution this year looks like this:

Year   Series Opp G PA R H 2B HR RBI BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG
2009     ALDS MIN 3 13 3 2  0  1   1  1  1 .167 .231 .417
2009     ALCS LAA 6 31 2 6  1  0   4  3  8 .222 .290 .259
2009       WS PHI 1  4 0 0  0  0   0  0  2 .000 .000 .000

And, it would be nice to see him start to hit a little bit…before this World Series is over…no matter if he’s great with the glove or not…

Funny, I thought have a “hot” A-Rod back in the line-up was the spark that got Tex going this season. Well, in October, not so much, huh?

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