Repeat After Me "Giambi Wasn't a Bust"

Jason Giambi has not been a New York Yankee since 2008 & ever since his last appearance; the masses have only been saying one thing about him.  Bust.  That could not be further from the truth.  Did he live up to the contract that was awarded to him based on his previous three seasons in Oakland beforehand?  Definitely not.  The Yankees thought that they were getting a high average offensive threat that was going to hit close to 40 bombs a year.

That version of Giambi was alive & well during the first year of his contract but that was the only year we would see it.  Having said that, it doesn’t make the guy a bust by any stretch of the imagination when you look at his offensive output for the rest of his Yankee career.  In 2004 and 2007, the guy wasn’t healthy and the numbers represent that. 

>He was no longer a high average hitter but Batting Average, while important, is not the be all and end all for batting statistics.  Personally, I am more interested in a player’s On-Base Percentage.  The lowest OBP that Giambi put up during his healthy Yankee seasons was in 2008, when his was .373.  To go with that, he was sporting an .876 OPS.  Power-wise, that may not be what the Yankees signed up for on December 13, 2001.  However, that is still an immensely effective Major League hitter, and that is in the final year of his contract.  During the course of the contract, he would put up OBP’s of .435, .412, .342 (injury shortened year), .440, .413, .356 (injury shortened year), and .373.  Except for a respectable .271 batting average in 2005 and his monster year in 2002, the average was always relatively low. 

When you look at the On-Base Percentages and his power output throughout his Yankee days, you cannot possibly call him a bust.  The inevitable comparisons have already begun and those are between the Giambino and Mark Teixeira.  Frustrated fans over the past three years have seen Mark go from all-around offensive threat to a more one dimensional homerun hitter.  They have said things like “Great, he’s turning into Giambi.”  Now, Teixeira has plenty of time to return to his 2009 form but comparing him to Giambi as if that is a bad thing, is an insult to Giambi. 

In 2009, Tex put up an On-Base Percentage of .383, which is fantastic and pretty much on par with what he has done throughout his career.  But we’re not comparing their careers as a whole; we are talking about what they have done as members of the New York Yankees.  Now, thus far .383 is Tex’s peak (for now).  By comparison, Giambi’s peak OBP with the Yankees is .440.  I mentioned what his lowest OBP was earlier in the article, and that is merely ten points lower than Teixeira’s highest.  Yet, people are calling Giambi a bust?  If he’s a bust, what does that say about Mark Teixeira? 

Before you begin with the baseless insults that make absolutely no sense, I am not calling Teixeira (I hate spelling this name) a bust.  I am simply putting out there that if this trend continues, those screaming about Tex “turning into Giambi” offensively would only be so lucky.  Those people that look only at Batting Average need to check the rest of Giambi’s baseball card because he was an offensive beast as a Yankee.  Worth the salary?  Nope, but then, who is?  Bust? Not even remotely close…now I want all of you to repeat that until it finally sinks in.

Twitter: @trevwolff

Mark Teixeira = Jason Giambi ?

Soon after Mark Teixeira signed that huge 8-year, $180 million deal back in 2008, I stumbled across an interesting comparison, talking about how Tex could go down the same path as Jason Giambi, who had just finished his 7-year deal with the Bombers.

When I first heard this, I couldn't help but laugh. Giambi was a steroid-user, DL prone for a good part of his contract, and couldn't play first base for his life. Teixeira was arguably the best switch hitter in baseball, and arguably the best first basemen defensively in the league. Teix was a shoe in to dominate and hit .300 every season, and become the new face of the Yankees for years to come.

Or so I thought.

After a terrific 2009 season in which he batted .292 with 39 homers and 122 RBI, Teix's average dropped 36 points the following year, and another 13 in 2011 where he batted .243. Sound familiar?

In Giambi's first year in pinstripes, he batted .314, but out of the blue batted .250 in 2003, and played in only 80 games in 2004, where he batted .208. The final four seasons - .271, .253, .235, .247. Mediocre, and certainly not worth the $120 million George Steinbrenner was paying him. The home runs and RBI were still there, but when he wasn't driving in runs he was striking out, popping out weakly, or killing rallies.

Unfortunately it's not unlikely to say that's what Teixeira will do in his final 5 years of his deal. A promising young star when he signed, Tex is now 31 and this is when he should be putting up his best numbers, not his worst. There's still a chance he could turn it around, but to me, the only way for that to happen is for Teixeira to stop hitting left-handed. 

Teixeira is still a career .304 hitter from the right side, but .271 from the left. As is the case with most switch hitters, Mark has much more power from the left (227 home runs) than the right (86 home runs). But making him a solely right-handed batter would be huge as far as the overall production the Yankees would get out of Mark .

Sure, Tex's power would drop, but 25 home runs is still likely. What should be guaranteed is a return to hitting for average and a huge increase in OBP. More doubles, more RBI. You name it. Making Tex a right-handed batter would show incredible improvement and a return to form of the guy the Yankees signed him to be.

However, the likelihood of this happening is not good at all, and it's likely Tex will continue to switch hit and decline. The fans still have his back, as do I, but another year of batting .250 and not hitting in the clutch will make them think back to the days of gold thongs, the 'Stache, and seasons of Yankee playoff failure.