You can call it a comeback. You can call it a return to form. You can even call it a third cliched expression not thought of by uninventive baseball writer, but that would be kind of mean.
No matter what you call the first half of Mark Teixeira’s 2015, though, one thing is undeniably true: Teixeira is on pace for his best or second best season as a New York Yankee, his recent two-week slump notwithstanding.
In fact, if this piece had been written on June 25, Teixeira’s resurgence would be even more pronounced. On that morning, he was hitting .259/.369/.557 with 18 home runs and a 15.7 percent walk rate. He was producing these outstanding numbers despite a .234 BABIP.
What followed was an 11-game stretch from June 25-July 7, when Teixeira went just 5-for-40, posting a .575 OPS and .120 BABIP. Entering the game on July 8, he had seen his OPS drop by more than 50 points in two weeks.
Still, through last Wednesday night, his team’s first 84 games, Teixeira has produced numbers comparable to 2009, his monstrous first season with the Yankees. As of this writing, he is posting the best TAv (.318) and OPS+ (146) of his Yankees career, with the second best OPS (.902), and he is on pace for his most home runs in a season since he hit 43 for the Texas Rangers in 2005.
While Teixeira’s first-half is undoubtedly impressive, and worthy of the countless “Teixeiras’s back!” columns that have been or will be written, this piece is focused on a significant reason for his improved production: he is again dominating four-seam fastballs. Teixeira’s 2015 return to offensive levels from a half-decade ago is due largely to his performance against four-seam fastballs, the pitch he has seen the most in every season of his career:
| Frequency | K% | BB% | HR | AVG | SLP | BABIP | |
| 2015 | 35.2% | 20.2% | 12.9% | 9 | .287 | .614 | .290 |
| 2014 | 36.1% | 17.5% | 13.0% | 8 | .161 | .316 | .153 |
| 2013 | 32.0% | 31.8% | 9.1% | 0 | .100 | .100 | .154 |
| 2012 | 34.9% | 8.4% | 12.9% | 8 | .258 | .490 | .242 |
| 2011 | 32.6% | 12.0% | 16.9% | 13 | .257 | .524 | .238 |
| 2010 | 33.7% | 11.6% | 19.4% | 12 | .262 | .508 | .250 |
| 2009 | 34.0% | 8.3% | 12.6% | 17 | .324 | .640 | .299 |
As you can see, after Teixeira’s first season with the Yankees, his production against four-seam fastballs decreased across the board — he walked less, struckout with greater frequency, hit fewer home runs, and saw his BABIP plummet. From 2010-2014, Teixeira saw four-seam fastballs 34.1% of all pitches, hitting .231/.351/.451, with a shockingly low .221 BABIP.
That has changed in 2015. More specifically, Teixeira has seen a sizeable improvement in his production against four-seamers from right-handed pitchers:
| % of Four-Seam Fastballs | % of All Pitches | K% | BB% | AVG | SLP | BABIP | |
| 2015 | 74.4% | 26.2% | 21.7% | 10.8% | .267 | .733 | .286 |
| 2010-2014 | 68.2% | 23.3% | 12.7% | 15.9% | .216 | .459 | .180 |
| 2009 | 70.4% | 23.9% | 10.7% | 12.4% | .336 | .710 | .312 |
Since joining the Yankees, Teixeira has seen four-seamers from right-handed pitchers a quarter of all pitches and about 70 percent of all four-seam fastballs.
As we discussed at the top of the piece, Teixeira struggled mightily in the two weeks leading up to the All-Star break. Not surprisingly, it has coincided with a sharp decrease in his production against four-seamers:
| Frequency | K% | BB% | HR | AVG | SLP | BABIP | |
| Through June 24 | 34.7% | 17.0% | 11.7% | 7 | .301 | .615 | .300 |
| June 25-July 8 | 37.2% | 35.0% | 10.0% | 2 | .222 | .611 | .222 |
During his eleven game slump, Teixeira had swung at more four-seam fastballs, while putting fewer balls in play, and whiffing at a significantly higher frequency:
| Swing % | Whiff % | BIP % | |
| Through June 24 | 40.57% | 5.43% | 19.14% |
| June 25-July 28 | 43.37% | 8.43% | 13.25% |
On July 8, though, Teixeira showed definite signs of coming out of the slump, with both of his home runs coming on four-seam fastballs from Athletics reliever Evan Scribner. In 2015, Scribner had thrown his four-seamer 47.5% of all pitches, with opposing batters hitting just .206/.242/.444 against the pitch. Despite his 31.8 percent strikeout rate with the fastball, he had surrendered five home runs on the season. Even so, what Teixeira did in consecutive at-bats in the middle-innings was damn impressive.
In the fourth inning, Teixeira took a 93.5 MPH four-seam fastball up and away on 1-and-2, and launched it into the right field bleachers:
In the sixth-inning, Teixeira took another four-seamer up and away, this time a 92.8 MPH fastball on 2-2, and again deposited it into the right-field stands:
On both home runs, Teixeira showed enough strength and bat speed to pull 93 MPH fastballs for home runs. For one night at least, he righted the ship against four-seam fastballs.
This is a brief, tangentially related aside. In 2015, when batting from the right-side, Teixeira has hit three home runs to the opposite field:
Amazingly, that is already more than he hit from 2010-2014:
During that five season stretch, Teixeira hit 81 home runs against right-handed pitchers, with only one going to the opposite field. He has surpassed that total in 84 games this season. Of course, this encompasses all pitches and not just four-seam fastballs. However, a 35 year old slugger who can still hit for power to the opposite field, especially one who sees fastballs 61% of all pitches, must be doing something right.
Teixeira has been outstanding in the first half of 2015, with a deserved All-Star selection (just his third, surprisingly) to show for his efforts. His power against four-seam fastballs, especially from right-handed pitchers, is a major reason why he was in Cincinnati next week. Through the season’s first three plus months, it has been like 2009 all over again, just with noticeably less Lady Gaga on the radio. And for that reason, we, by whom I mean you, me, and Teixeira, are all winners.
(Photo: Anthony Gruppuso-USA Today Sports)