The Real Teixeira is Back
Well, it’s about damn time, Mark Teixeira owners must be saying.
After driving in a ridiculous 144 runs last year, Teixeira looked like a shell of himself this season, producing a mere 49 runs batted in over 350 at-bats prior to the All-Star break.
Then, the real Teixeira emerged. The Ranger first baseman has been on fire since the break, driving in 23 runs in just 107 at-bats. He’s already matched his first-half home run output with nine and he’s walked 30 times to move into sixth place in the AL in that department.
Teixeira has traditionally been a better second-half player, but never to this extreme. After batting .275/.353/.445 in the first half, he’s .327/.471/.626 in the second half (his 1097 OPS since the break tops the American League). It’s not as if Teixeira’s slowing down either, as evidenced by a .364 mark in the past week.
This kind of run is not unprecedented by Teixeira, but it seems more shocking and sudden now when compared to his substandard first-half performance. Last year, he hit .315 with 18 homers and 71 RBI after the break. In fact, over the past three years, no one in baseball has more second-half RBI than Teixeira.
If you’re a Teixeira owner, sit back and enjoy the ride. You know at the very least he’ll be in the lineup every day as he has for 403 straight games now — the second-longest streak in Ranger history and second-longest active streak in baseball.
