July 31, 2007
Teixeira Deal Done
BBTN just announced that the Braves and Rangers completed the Mark Teixeira deal.
Update: This move certainly helps the Braves. Combined first base statistics for the Braves this year: .211/.270/.363. That's a bad middle infielder. The Braves weakness on offense was obvious, and they've plugged the whole. I wonder about Teixeira's upside a bit. Looking at his career, he seems to have peaked at age 25. Maybe Bobby Cox will bring out his best. The move from Showalter to Washington didn't seem to help.
Then again, Teixeira may not be a long term fix for Atlanta as he's a free agent at the end of 2008.
As for the prospects the Rangers got, I'm reminded of the Fred McGriff trade. The Padres received three players. One hit 60 or so home runs in the majors, one pitched about 40 innings and the other one never saw the show. Jarrod Saltalamacchia is supposed to be the prize. He's only twenty two, so there's plenty of upside. But his overall numbers don't blow me away. One thing I do like about his minor league career is that he does adjust to his level. His second season at a particular level looks great. If the Rangers are actually going to let him catch, he'll be an offensive assest. At first base, he's just another hitter.
Elvis Andrus is still a teenager, so his upside is great. Not clear why they need him with Michael Young signed to a long term contract. If he develops into a good player, they can trade him for pieces they need. It's never a bad thing to have too many shortstops. The two pitchers haven't been officially announced yet.
Once the Teixeira deal was done, the Braves were able to trade Davies to the Royals for Dotel. I'm not sure why the Royals want Davies except Moore used to work for Atlanta. Then again, I thought the Meche deal wasn't a very good one, either. The Braves bullpen wasn't a weakness, but this does make them better.
All in all, the Braves improved, but they weren't that bad. The offense ranked fifth in runs per game, the bullpen ranked 8th in ERA, the starters sixth. Does this really make the team's run differential better enough to make up 4 1/2 games on the Mets? We'll see.
Posted by David Pinto at
02:50 PM
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Thanks for pre-calling yourself out on selling the Meche deal short. Saves me the trouble of going back through the archives. :--)
Here's hoping you're just as wrong about Davies as Meche! Go Royals!
soria will be the new kc closer right? not greinke?
I'm thinking about trying out for the Braves rotation now.
They might be trying to win the Wild Card. These trades don't look like it was aimed as high a division title, unless they know something we don't about Dotel. They also know that even if they win the division, they'll likely still have to face the Mets in the post season...and they might be thinking of that. I don't know Dotel or Texiera's numbers against the Amazin's, but it seems they're grabbing AL guys...and the AL did very well against the NL in interleague. Maybe I'm wrong, but it just has this flavor to me.
I don't know why the Mets, with their very underwhelming +35 run diff, are supposed to be so uncatchable.
The offense, to put it mildly, is nothing special. Wright's the team's best hitter, and he's putting up a .888 OPS, nice but not brilliant. Beltran is having one of his allright-but-not-fantastic years, which are far more common than his great years (career OPS .845). Delgado is aging and showing it at .760, and Reyes is overrrated at .831. The rest of the team isn't hitting much. Their new addition, Castillo, brings a nifty .704 OPS.
Okay, we'll cut the hitters some slack because of Shea. But on the flip side, the pitching staff isn't as good as the park makes them look. Put that staff on the road and they've got a 4.01 ERA. Decent but not intimidating.
I think the Mets can definitely be caught. Their lead is slim, and the team just isn't that far above league-average.