Should the Yankees Consider Benching Mark Teixeira?

Lets face it, this season, Mark Teixeira has clearly not been the same hitter he was last season.

With his staggering batting average now down to .215, and his on base percentage at a lowly .328, he might be best suited for a couple of days on the bench.

His struggles were brought back into the spotlight today after an atrocious game against the Blue Jays, where he put up a goose egg in six at bats, which included five strikeouts and four men left on base.

I'm not saying he cost the Yankees the game, but he did come up in a crucial situation with Jeter and Gardner on base, and all that was needed was a base hit and the Yankees would have had the lead in the 12th. But once again, mighty Tex went down swingin'.

To his credit, Mark has played stellar defense this season with no errors to his name. He has also driven in 34 RBI for the Yanks, but still has a .230 average with runners in scoring position, which is higher than his overall batting average, but still is sub par considering his career numbers.

If the Yankees bench him, then he could have more time to work with hitting coach Kevin Long and possibly iron out or even identify his problems at the plate.

Even if they don't bench him, then I think that he needs to be moved out of the three hole, any team that wants to go far can not have a guy hitting .215 plugged into the three spot in the order. Robinson Cano would fill that hole a lot better right now.

Either way, there is something definitely wrong with Teixeira this season, and you can't use that excuse that he starts slow, because the season is a third of the way gone, it's no longer early anymore folks. Tex needs to get his act together if the Yankees want to have a shot at number 28.