36-year old shortstop Derek Jeter finally appears to be slowing down a bit for the Yankees. He went 4 for 4 with 2 doubles and 3 runs scored earlier today against the Blue Jays but days/nights like these have been rare this year. Jeter has played in 105 games this season and he is 125 of 447 (.280 avg) with 78 runs scored, 9 homers, 48 RBIs and 11 stolen bases. He also came into the game today with a pretty poor .719 OPS which obviously went up a bit today. Jeter’s career lows in batting average (.291 in 1997) and OPS (.771 in 2008) could both be topped this season unless today is the beginning of a nice hot streak for Jeter.

Starting 1B Mark Teixeira is off to another rough start for the Yankees this season. He has played in 7 games this season and he is 3 for 27 (.111 avg, .442 OPS) with 5 runs scored and 3 RBIs. His stuggles shouldn’t surprise anyone as April is usually his worst month of the year. I look for him to heat up along with the weather. This is nothing the Yankees need worry about as they have more than enough offense to pick up for Teixeira until he starts hitting the ball better.

1B Mark Teixeira and DH Nick Johnson have yet to get their first hits of the year so far. Johnson is 0 for 9 (.000 avg, .400 OPS) with 1 RBI but he has walked 5 times which is important for a #2 hitter. Hopefully he’ll get it going against the Rays this weekend as they will need all hands on the deck to deal with them. Teixeira is 0 for 12 (.000 avg, .200 OPS) with 2 runs scored and 2 RBIs this season. It’s amazing to me the the Yankees still averaged 5.3 runs per game against the Red Sox with there #2 and #3 hitters going 0 for 21.

Alex Rodriguez is finally looking like the Arod of previous postseasons, as he has now gone 0-8 with 6 strikeouts in the first two World Series games.  Arod was having a phenomenal postseason leading up to the World Series, batting .438 in the previous two series with 5 HRs and 12 RBIs.  It looks like the pressure has finally caught up to Arod and he needs to try and get back in the groove he was in during the ALDS and ALCS.  At the very least Arod needs to put the ball in play.  Six strikeouts shows that he is not locked in at all and after hitting so well in the first two series it seems like he is trying too hard.  The longer he struggles, the more the pressure will build on him so Arod really needs to relax up at the plate and not try and do too much.  He could turn all of it around with one good swing of the bat, so don’t count him out of this series yet.

With A-Rod off to such a great start to the post season Yankees’ fans need to bitch about someone else. That could wind up being Mark Teixeira if he doesn’t start hitting the ball soon. He has played in all 7 post season games for the Yankees and he is only 4 for 30 (.133 avg, .468 OPS) with 4 runs scored, 1 homer and 1 RBI. Lucky for him the rest of the Yankees’ lineup has been really hitting the baseball well.