Mike Lupica is wrong and I am going to explain why.

Teixeira is certainly playing better that I expected. I'm a big fan of Teixeira. Are you not convinced?:

• I have stopped eating gluten and started playing 2525 in the Pick Four. 
•  I revisited the Foul Territory clips on YES Network, and you know what? They're actually kind of funny if you give them a chance. (I take that back. Sorry, that just went too far.)
• I want Teixeira to challenge Clinton for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2016. 
•  I waited in line to to get his autograph so I can secretly steal a swab of his DNA and clone him. 

Having said all of that, Teixeira isn't the AL MVP unless you revert to looking at RBIs and nothing else:

"Mark Teixeira hasn't just been the MVP of the Yankee season so far. He has been the MVP of the American League, whatever his batting average is right now. Of all the surprises of the season for the Yankees, and that includes Alex Rodriguez, the biggest of all has been Teixeira, and the way his hitting has carried his team.

'I would say he has been (MVP),' Brian Cashman, the Yankee general manager, said Saturday."

That settles it.


"Teixeira came out of Friday night’s game against the Angels with 17 home runs, one behind Nelson Cruz, and leading the league in RBI. And even though he feels like he is a thousand batting-average points behind Prince Fielder, having a monster season of his own as he carries the Texas Rangers back to respectability, Teixeira is the most important reason of all that the Yankees are in first place in the AL East."

I guess I agree with the last part, but there are two other teams in the AL who are in first place in their division.

So if that's your thing ... "best player on best team" ... then you still haven't made a convincing case for Teixeira.


"It is a rundown neighborhood, of course, the weakest in baseball when it was once the strongest and best. The Red Sox have been the biggest disappointment in the sport, the Orioles aren't close to being the team they were last season when they ran away with the thing, the Rays being in second place is a head scratcher."

You're not helping your case.


"But the Yankees are just another under-.500 team if Teixeira hasn't hit the ball out of the ballpark and knocked in runs the way he has."

Complete nonsense:

• With RISP, Teixeira is hitting .224.
•  With RISP and two outs, Teixeira is hitting .179.
•  Late and close, if you pay attention to that? .192.
•  Overall batting average .242.

Your AL MVP is batting .242? 


As for the under-.500 claim, Math disagrees with you.

The Yankees are 6 games over .500. You'd have to subtract 4 wins to make the Yankees under .500 at this stage -- 1/3rd into the season.

So Lupica is indirectly stating that Teixeira is worth 4 wins so far (at least). On pace for 12 wins for the season (at least). This is simply not accurate. It would be one of the most valuable seasons in baseball history.


"Rodriguez has exceeded expectations, and wildly, because nobody knew what reasonable expectations were for him coming into the season."

When I say "nobody," I mean "myself."


"He’s already hit more home runs than people thought he might hit all year."

When I say "people," I mean "myself."


"But coming out of Friday night, and even after a four-hit game, Rodriguez had one less RBI than Daniel Murphy, and five more than Wilmer Flores."

... and, therefore, Mark Teixeira is the AL MVP? Because neither ARod, Murphy, or Flores are driving in a lot of runs this season?


"He’s not the only hitter to watch in the American League this season, not by a long shot. He’s just taken the biggest shots so far. You know the qualifiers: Only a third of the way in, so much baseball to be played. Teixeira could get hurt again. But if he doesn’t hit the way he has, and that means hit the ball over the fence, the Yankees would likely be where the Red Sox are."

Well, I thought we were talking about the 2015 AL MVP.

Teixeira adds little value on the basepaths or in the field. His fielding has deteriorated in recent years, but even if he was still a Gold Glover, he's just a first baseman.

Which brings me to my final point: When figuring where the Yankees would be without Teixeira, one must resist the impulse to compare Teixeira to a void, a null, a cipher.

When determining a player's relative value -- which is precisely what an AL MVP attempts to do -- one must compare Teixeira to other AL first basemen (really, all AL players, but I can stick to first baseman in Replacement Fantasy Land).


"If Teixeira doesn't hit the way he has, the Yankees would be under .500."

No way. Not if I get to replace Teixeira with Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Eric Hosmer, or Kendrys Morales ... and maybe even Steven Vogt, whose biggest crime is playing in Oakland for a bad team.



Prince Fielder is batting .356.

.356/.412/.545.


If Fielder was batting fourth and playing first base for the Yankees in 2015, the Yankees would not be under .500. They'd be even better than they are with Teixeira.