A long time top five starting first baseman, Mark Teixeira has struggled recently in large part due to suffering from the injury bug.  Two season ago Teixeira played in 123 games, and last season he only managed to play in 15 games.  When he plays though Teixeira has still been a very productive player.

Outside of 2009 when Teixeira batted .292, Teixeira has only been about a .250 hitter since coming to New York.  Playing in New York has had it’s advantage though as the power numbers have seen an increase as well as the average number of runs scored per season and RBI’s.  Besides the two shortened season due to injury Teixeira has displayed great power numbers belting 39 homeruns twice and 33 homeruns the other time.  In his last three full seasons Teixeira has scored over 100 runs twice and 90 once while driving in at least 108 runs three times.   

Overall Teixeira has been a very productive player over the last couple of years the only issue has been health.  So far this spring Teixeira has reported no problems with his surgically repaired wrist and is finally back at 100 percent to start the season.  This is great news as with the revamped Yankee lineup there will be a plethora of opportunities for Teixeira to score and drive in runs batting in the middle of the lineup.  

Don’t worry if you draft Teixeira and after the first month he is not performing up to expectations.  Teixeira has been less than stellar throughout his career in the first month or two of the season so don’t panic if he is only batting .230 with two homeruns after the month of April.  This is normal for Teixeira and as the weather heats up so will his numbers. 

I would actually recommend trying to buy low on Teixeira if he struggles out of the chute, as many owners are already leery on selecting him due to his wrist injury that cost him most of 2013.  If an owner is fed up with Teixeira take him off his/her hands and reap the benefits of what should be another productive season.

There may not be a better value pick in drafts this year than Teixeira.  Teixeira’s ADP is sitting at 225 and he still has the skill set to easily be a top ten fantasy first baseman this season.  As long as you have a team that will help make up for Teixeira’s lack of batting average, particularly in the month of April where he a notoriously bad hitter, you will have a first baseman worthy of starting on any fantasy team.

2014 Projected Stats: .259 AVG, 92 Runs, 33HR, 105 RBI