If their pitching staff would've been healthy, Teixeira might've. But I forgot--interference doesn't take injury into account. I wonder how well a team like Boston would do if they lost their #1 for 60% of the season (and he was playing injured for the other 40%), their #2 for 6 weeks for getting spiked at a play at the plate, their #3 (for a few weeks, though playing through back injuries all season), their #5 (who pitched through injuries all season which made his mechanics all fucked up), and their closer (for half the season, playing injured for half the remainder). Oh, and they were 18 and 30 in one-run games. With one extra bat, how many of those 30 would've been added to that 18? With a Teixeira, probably 10-15.... Add those 10-15 to another 10-15 that the 'pen blew (being closerless).... add those 20-30 to the 10-15 lost due to injured staring pitching.... Suddenly one big bat and a multitude of injury change everything.
you wanna talk to a mets fan about injuries? our starting left fielder and 5 hitter played 2 innings, our right fielder and best hitter through the first two months of the season thought he was batman, pedro hasn't been healthy since the clinton administration, beltran gets the sniffles and sits out a week, and our closer blew his arm out in the middle of a pennant race.
so why didn't the mets lose 101 games despite all these key injuries? ahh right... they don't suck. seattle? yea, they suck. thus why they lost 101 games.