Mark Teixeira’s Last 119 Regular Season Games
Posted by Steve L. on May 9th, 2012 · Comments (10)
Here’s Teixeira’s BA/OBA/SLG line from June 16, 2011 through May 8, 2012: .237/.308/.434 (in 459 AB).
Call me crazy, but, I suspect the Yankees were looking for a little more production from him than that…
Maybe he should just give up switch-hitting and only bat right-handed? Could it be any worse than what he’s doing now?
He’s so frustrating. Yeah, the Yanks were looking for way more production, but what’s more frustrating is how feeble his at-bats are. Most of the time he looks over-matched, and when he does hit it’s almost like he’s even surprised.
Clearly, Tex is messed up at the plate.
Maybe the Yankees should ask the Cubs to loan them Rudy Jaramillo to get Tex fixed?
It’s been done before:
http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/03/former-rangers-coach-works-wit.html
Teixeira’s problem is that he’s overcorrected his pull-happy, lofted swing. Now, instead of trying to generate fly balls to RF (as a LHB), he’s so too conscious of trying to go the other way and is now swinging at EVERYTHING, irrespective of whether it’s a hittable strike or not. His FB% has dipped to a Yankee-career low 37.4% (has been mid-40′s since joining the Yanks) but his corresponding GB% has risen to 44.4%, a career high. His LD% remains stable from last year at 18% but that is down from around 20% before 2010.
Teixeira is swinging at 34% of pitches outside the strike zone (previously never higher than last year’s 28%, historically always in the low 20′s) and swinging at 46% of all pitches overall (roughly 4% increase from last year). He’s making contact at roughly the same rate as he has in previous season but he’s making contact with pitches outside the zone 7% more frequently than at any other point in his career. In other words, as he swings more often at non-strikes, he’s also connecting more often with these pitches and, in many cases, that leads to weaker contact (grounders).
His swing and his approach are both screwed up and he badly needs a few days off. Kevin Long is credited for helping both Granderson and Swisher with their swings (although he wasn’t able to get Jeter to buy in). I don’t know if Teixeira and Long are working well together or not but, clearly, the fact that Teixeira went 71 PA’s (4/16-5/5) without walking even once shows that he’s lost at the plate.
FYI – from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/sports/baseball/rays-manager-joe-maddon-is-the-king-of-shifts.html?_r=1&ref=coachesandmanagers
[Kevin] Long pointed to {Mark] Teixeira — whose average has plummeted the last two seasons at least in part because of widespread shifts deployed against him — as the one hitter who could have trouble again this week.
Teixeira has struggled to drive the ball the opposite way when batting left-handed. Long said that when Teixeira attempted to hit the ball the other way against the Rays last year, he grounded to Evan Longoria, the Rays’ repositioned third baseman, every time, adding to the frustration.
“He’s just not real good at it,” Long said of Teixeira’s ability to hit the other way left-handed. “He doesn’t have a good feel for it.”
Long said that he had worked with Teixeira on having a positive frame of mind on beating the shift by hitting the ball where the fielders aren’t, but that “we’ve kind of hit a dead end with it.”
How about his playoff resume? Can’t be much better.
I think he’s a dud – though probably a great guy and good teammate. Even still, he’s young enough to change his hitting approach – maybe – and I give him grudging support while he wears the pinstripes.
Steve L. wrote:
I’d like to see Teixeira try hitting right handed against RHP for a spell, just to see why his lefty swing is so broken.
@ MJ Recanati:
I’ve always had a theory* on switch-hitters. They either do it because they’re not good and need the help of taking away the curve. Or, they do it because they are soooo good that switching is a way of showing off how good they are at hitting.
And, in the case of the latter, they could probably just bat one way and be fine.
*I wrote on it a million years ago:
http://www.netshrine.com/switchhit.html
nwyank wrote:
No question, if he was a jerk, he would have been fried by now. Being clean-cut, a tad of a nerd, and charitable is buying him a buddy-pass right now…with many.
@ Steve L.:
Not sure I agree with that theory because then there would be a lot more “survivalist” switch hitters out there.
Nevertheless, I do think it’s time for Teixeira to be platooned for a spell. He just can’t hit righties anymore for some reason and I’m not interested in hearing Girardi talk about patience. Teixeira should either abandon switch-hitting or stop facing RHP for a little while.