Yes, it was extremely cold at Camden Yards last night.
So cold that apparently YES focused on me rocking my North Face ski cap. Thanks to my pal Andy Cahn for this profoundly unflattering screen shot.
Mark Teixeira brought up the cold during a pregame conversation. “This is the pitchers’ time of year,” he said. “There are a lot of ugly numbers out there, and I’ve put up my share.”
Yes, most Yankees fans know that Teixeira in April is like the final season of “Entourage”: Inexplicably bad, save for perhaps a highlight or two. He delivered a fluky, flare double in the 10th inning last night that allowed Nick Swisher, a man whom Yankees fans regard as profoundly un-clutch, to deliver a game-winning, two-run homer , giving the Yankees a season sweep and evening their record at 3-3.
Here’s my column off the game, concerning Teixeira, Swisher and clutch hitting.
It makes perfect sense that the pitchers would own April. Teams spend seven weeks or so in the heat of Arizona and Florida — not to mention that most players situate themselves in warm climates during the winter — and all of a sudden the hitters are expected to connect on 95-mph fastballs in 40-degree weather in about half the locales. It’s an adjustment for pitchers, too, of course, yet their job description sets the adaptation bar lower.
But before accepting Teixeira’s observations at face value, let’s look at the numbers. With the help of Baseball-Reference.com, let’s see the monthly splits since 2003, Teixeira’s first season in the big leagues:
2003 – Hitters put up a .753 OPS in March/April, tied with May for the third-highest mark. They hit worse in August (.749) and September (.746).
2004 – .768 in March/April, second-highest. May (.753), June (.759), July (.767) and September /October (.749) were worse.
2005 – .739 in April, lowest of the season.
2006 – .767 in April, tied with August for second-highest. May (.761), June (.766) and September/October (.760) were all worse.
2007 – .731 in April, lowest of the season.
2008 – .733 in March/April, lowest of the season.
2009 – .762 in April, second-highest. May (.751), June (.734), July (.749) and September/October (.741) were lower.
2010 – .738 in April, highest of the season.
2011 – .711 in March/April, tied with May for second-lowest. June (.708) was lower.
Put it all together, and what do we have? A lot of noise. “Lowest” comes up three times. But then again, so does “second-highest.”
What about Teixeira’s teams, specifically? We’ll even overlook the fact that his poor starts naturally contribute to his team’s poor offensive starts:
2003 Rangers – .835 OPS in March/April, highest of the season.
2004 Rangers – .864 in April, highest of the season.
2005 Rangers – .752 in April, lowest of the season.
2006 Rangers – .808 in April, highest of the season.
2007 Rangers – .704 in April, second-lowest of the season.
2008 Braves – .778 in March/April, highest of the season.
2009 Yankees – .835 in April, second-lowest of the season.
2010 – Yankees – .816 in April, second-highest of the season.
2011 Yankees – .812 in March/April, second-highest of the season.
Yeah, not much more rhyme or reason there. The warm-weather Rangers sometimes surged early and sometimes stunk. Same for the cold-weather Yankees.
Teixeira is hardly the only baseball person to make this proclamation. And viscerally, it feels right. But be careful about drawing visceral conclusions. And don’t excuse your team’s offensive woes by pointing to the weather.
–Johnny Damon is close to signing with the Indians, as first reported by Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal.
Damon, 38, performed well enough for Tampa Bay last year to stay in the game. The Rays wanted him back, in fact, but abandoned discussions about a renewal of vows when they couldn’t agree on financial terms with Damon and his agent Scott Boras.
The good news for Damon is he’ll get his at-bats and continue his pursuit of 3,000 career hits. 277 to go.
The bad news is, he’ll probably be chasing history quietly. There’s little reason to think the Indians can challenge the Tigers for AL Central supremacy.
When he searched for work last year, Damon, not uncommonly, wanted playing time, a good team and proximity to his home, which is in the Orlando area. Since Cleveland is reasonably close to Orlando, but since the Indians visit the Rays just once, let’s say that Damon went 1 ½-for-3 in his pursuits. Well, since he isn’t playing a full season, let’s knock it down to 1 ¼-for-3.