Has Mark Teixeira Turned The Corner?

After a horrible April, a pedestrian May, and what was mostly a ho-hum June, it looks like Teix is finally starting to swing the bat like the Teix we all know and love instead of the flailing, first-pitch-swinging, constant pop-up-hitting schmuck we've been watching for the first half of the season.

In his last 16 games, starting on June 19 against the Mets, Teix has gone 19 for his last 61, a .311 average, with 6 2Bs, 4 HRs, 16 RBIs, and 12 runs scored.  In that time span he has raised his tripleslash from .224/.342/.399 to .241/.351/.431.  While those numbers still don't scream "ALL STAR!!!" at you, they are light years ahead of where Teix was for all of April and May.  Now that he's no longer getting outslugged by Brett Gardner, the question can once again be raised; is Teix back?

Without pushing all of my chips into the center I'll say that yes, it does appear that Teix is back to where he should be and has been for the better part of his career.  He's been showing more patience at the plate lately, a sign that he is seeing the ball better than he was earlier this year and not just going up there guessing.  The dreaded first-pitch-swinging pop ups have almost entirely disappeared and he's driving the ball much more than earlier in the season, a sign that his balance is back at the plate and he's got his hips and arms more in tune rather than being off-balanced, off-timed, and pulling off of everything.

On the negative side, Teix is still striking out more than he's walking, so the patience, vision, and plate discipline is still not entirely where you'd like it to be if you're a Yankee fan.  My guess is that pitchers are still attacking Teix as if he were completely lost like he was earlier in the year, getting ahead in counts, and then getting him to chase.  If he can keep up this current hot streak, however, that approach will change and you'll see pitchers being careful around the plate like they usually are with Teix.

With The Horse rounding into form and Robbie Cano still putting up big numbers (recent mini-slump aside), the potential is there for the Yankees to have a devestating 3-4-5 combo in the middle of their lineup.  They're already ahead of last year's pace without having any of these 3 guys on the same page at any point this season, so imagine how dangerous they can be in the second half if Teix can get back to being what he was last year?  All his struggles aside, he's still on pace to drive in over 100 runs this year, so a final number of 110-120 isn't out of the question if he goes on a tear here soon.

I won't go so far as to say he's completely turned the corner and is officially "back" just yet, but a couple more weeks of this kind of production and you can take it to the bank that he's officially back on the mark... Teixeira.