Teixeira traded to Atlanta

Before everyone starts to bash JD for this trade, let me just say why don't you all go see what the Braves fans are saying about losing Salty.

So ... with the Rangers trading for two catchers this week ... if I were Gerald Laird I think I might develop a complex. Seriously, if he gone? I fraging hope so.

I've looked at Salty's minor league stats and it looks like he had one decent year at A ball in Myrtle Beach. He only hit .230 at AA last year. Why is everyone so high on him?

I concur with patgreenfan00. It looks like Laird may be the odd man out which is funny because didn't they announce that Laird was the catcher they wanted? How quickly a season changes things. I doubt he plays 1st that often only because I was hearing that there were complaints from Salty about not playing catcher more.
I am sad to see Tex leave. Too bad Rangers couldn't win sooner to keep him around. Now who knows when they will get into the playoffs.

According to the Texas Rangers website, it is Neftali Feliz, not Perez.

Salty is probably the best catching prospect right now. But I feel that getting Elvis Andrus was a major coup for the Rangers. He's only 18 and is holding his own at High-A ball. He may be hitting .244 for the season but his numbers have improved as of late. His line after the All-Star break is .279/.359/.368. Not bad for an 18 year-old.

Apparently, the Cubs are showing interest in Laird (hitting .283 in July). I'm not a big fan of Laird. He seems to be an automatic out and looks like he has regressed offensively compared to last year. The Cubs have been known for making bad deals lately (Sammy Sosa for Jerry Hairston, Dontrelle Willis trade, Juan Pierre trade) If the price is right...

According to Ken Rosenthal, the Braves are also close to getting KC closer Octavio Dotel. The Indians and Dodgers wanted him. Wonder what that does for Eric Gagne?

Hey, I was thinking about buying a Rangers jersey. Does anybody have recommendations for somebody who might stick around long enough for me to get some wear out of it?

We needed front-line, major league starting pitching! Unless there is a Laird trade in the making, this doesn't look good, Rangers fans. Only time will tell.

Did anyone know that Salty married his 30-something year old teacher when he was 18? Wow.

Saltalamacchia and Catalanotto. Egad, that's alot a letters.

http://www.scrubbrushleague.com

Wow...way to go "little Jon" and "Cheap Tom"...you finally found something to make me forget the Pudge trade...Like the little old lady said on the Hamburger ads..."Where's the starting pitching?"

While I am not surprised that Tex has been moved, I can't help but wonder what the feeling in the Rangers clubhouse is right now. We have just traded possibly our best player for (1) a shortstop in A ball with great potential who can hit but needs to work on his defense (what can Michael Young possibly find to be excited about here?), (2) the Salt-man, a guy who can apparrently play and wants to catch (how excited must Gerald Laird be?), (3) a pitcher in A ball with lots of potential in Perez, and (4) if it is Harrison, an injured pitcher with loads of potential(who I do think is a good pickup, if healthy). But tell me again what in this trade helps to put the Rangers in the playoffs in 2008, our previously stated goal? Don't get me wrong, I don't expect the Rangers to solve all their problems with one trade, but if the Rangers were really trying to compete in 2008, I'm not sure why they didn't take the deal with Anaheim for Kotchman and Saunders (gotta love ground ball pitchers) plus a prospect.

Like Laird or not, I believe he is doing a serivceable job at the plate - remember, last year he was platooned and hit mostly against right handed pitchers - so to expect him to break out at the plate this season was probably not realistic. We can certainly discuss his work behind the plate. This really doesn't appear to matter now, because the organization has told him in more than plain terms how much it believes in him. As for Michael Young - the face of the franchise has got to have one major league scowl right now, and I don't blame him. He has seen rebuilding from the inside and doesn't like it. Well, I have seen rebuilding from the outside, and personally, I am growing weary of it, as well.

The trade does help the Rangers get something for a guy who was leaving. It also gets guys who are closer to the majors than the two draft picks the Rangers would have gotten as compensation for losing Tex as a FA. But it continues the team's trend of playing for 2-3+ years in the future. The reality of this franchise is that we belong in the same group as the Pirates and the Royals and the DRays - we are not doing enough to make tangible, calculated and measureable progress toward competing for a championship. We only seem to be continually looking to the future for the day when we will arrive in the playoffs.

There is great potential in all trades and drafts, including the ones we have just witnessed. I really hope that JD and Hicks have a plan for this past draft and this week's trades. I also hope that the plan doesn't involve a carrot and a stick - for the sake of long suffering fans, and the morale of the team's leadership.

Well, Buster Olney likes the deal, "win-win, atl gets the bat and texas gets a ton of talent"
We just got atl's 1,2,3 and 5 best prospects for an aged but effective reliever who i believe is a free agent at the end of the year, and tex. Feliz will be in AA soon, Harrison could challenge for a spot next yr. he is there best control pitcher, feliz has there best fastball (baseballamerica.com)salty seems ok (he's brand new, just up from AA) and it seems everyone likes Elvis Andrus. we have control of these guys for years.

Look at Atlantas blog, they feel they got smoked in this thing....

Chisox fans said the same thing and really it is still a tie mccarthy and danks haven't really pulled away from each other.

bottom line is, time will tell, but we probably will have 4 new guys in our top 10 prospects with the only guy being better is HURLEY (and that is a maybe)

UNBELIEVABLE! Even if Laird is not in the team's plans for the future, how many catcher's are we going to trade for? That is suppose to be a position of strength, especially at the A ball level. Are we going to play eight catchers behind the mediocre pitching we have?
All we have heard in recent years is DVD, hoping one of the three would hit. Well one of them has and its not for the Rangers (surprise). He wasn't good enough to make this average staff, but he can be Chicago's #5 starter. I guess the rest of the league is licking their chops at getting Hurley, because if he is as good as he has performed, he surely won't make our staff. I won't even start in on Chris Young.

I hear the Cubs may be interested in Laird; I guess I better start looking at who they have in A ball as a catcher.

rumor is laird plus a reliever not named cj or otsuka for felix pie cf cubs(baseball america top 100 @49, cf prospect)
btw also according to baseball america's top 100 prospects:

salty 36--ahead of hunter pence, james loney @44,john danks 56

elvis andrus ss 65, played "a" ball at 17yrs old

hurley 68

Joba chamberlain-75 NYY

Harrison is 90.

so you could say we just loaded up.

Hope I don't violate any copyrights here, but I can't resist: here's a song for Tex.

Oh baby, I'm getting ready

I'm getting ready to let you go

My hands are shakin'

My heart's unsteady

Oh, how I once loved you so

I know all the magic's gone

Wish I had a magic wand

I would put a spell on you

You would see it as I do

Ohh... I'm getting ready to let you go

Ohh... I'm getting ready to let you go

Oh, baby you're my drug

I was just your cigarette

I was nothing you could be proud of

I have lost my self respect

My self repect, self respect

I have lost my self respect

Ohh... I'm getting ready to let you go

Ohh... I'm getting ready let you go

Oh, baby baby, I got no traction

I've been waitin' and waitin' for your reaction

Sure I tried a new direction

I'm gonna give myself a resurrection

I'm getting ready, I'm getting ready

I'm getting ready to let you go

I'm getting ready, I'm getting ready

I'm getting ready to let you go

Let you go

- Miranda Lambert, from her "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" CD

It is a good deal for Daniels. Look what he got for Soriano, Wilkerson. Saltalamacchia is going to be a good player. The other guys are top prospects in the Braves system and at least have a chance to do something. If we hit on two of those guys then it is all good. These guys are better than any two draft picks we would probably had selected. Overall i am happy about the deal. If we can get CF Pie from Cubs for Benoit and Laird, then i say do it.

dwidregod, I'm suprised. You of all people would be the one I thought would be going as nuts over this. I know I am I am. We just got royally screwed. Yes, we did get Salty, and that's the one and only bright spot here. I'm happy we got him, but other than that...
We loaded up on prospects, but so what? We probably won't see any of them In Arlington. Why did we need another infield prospect when we already have Joaquin Arias, German Duran, Tug Hulett, and Travis Metcalf? Not to mention the fact that Kinsler, Young and Blalock are entrenched in Arlington. Is this Elvis Andrus guy really that good? He'd better be. And that pitcher, Neftali Feliz? WHO? He isn't even in AA yet! The 4th guy we get better be A LOT closer to the Majors than that. We gave up way too much for way too little here.

I'll take Feliz and Andrus over draft picks ANY day.

I get the feeling that some of you thought we could trade Tex to NY for Hughes, Chamberlain, Cabrera, and Cano. Wake up to reality! This was the best deal out there and is an excellent deal for JD and the Rangers!

The best deal out there was Joe Saunders and Casey Kotchman. Did anybody see Saunders Saturday on Fox? Mid ninetys, gound ball pitcher who is LEFT HANDED. I can't believe LAA offered this deal and I really can't believe JD didn't jump out of his pants to make it. fyi, Kevin Kennedy agrees.

The thing about trading is that you have to find someone to trade with. This is the best we were going to get for Tex. The other team knows they are fixing to shell out a bunch of cash to keep him in 09. Lets go on down the road and play baseball. Remember when Tex was out we played pretty good baseball.

As far a giving too much, we gave up something that we couldn't keep. I'm ready for the stories to start in coming out about Tex. I'll bet he wasn't that great of a team player. Way too much "I"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? The front office is officially stupid. This whole thing makes me ill. And I thought I hated Hicks before. I'm happy for Tex that he'll actually get to play for a decent team if he can't be here, but as a fan, I cannot believe that JD and Hicks just gave him away. What idiots. Maybe I should pay better attention, but I have never even heard of these players before. We couldn't get one single "name" in this deal? And why exactly do we need 15 catchers?? And I'm guessing that someone forgot to tell JD that he just signed Mikey to a 5 year contract extention and that we won't really need another short stop for a few years. I guess I'll have to get my son a Braves jersey for his birthday now to replace his Rangers one and I will encourage him to wear it proudly to the Ballpark.

OMG, what a fool I've been. Kevin Kennedy disagrees with me and most of the intelligent baseball people who have commented on this deal. Kevin Kennedy?

Can't make everyone happy. The people in Atlanta are mad too.

I happened to watch that game. His FB wasn't in the mid-90s. He topped out at 92. He had a pretty good curveball, though. He did OK. It wasn't a quality start, anyway (5.1, 8H, 4K, 101 P). But considering the Tigers' lineup, he managed to minimize the damage.

Can't make everyone happy. The people in Atlanta are mad too.

IF Harrison is healthy, this is a great trade for both teams. Congratulations JD!

Nice trade by JD, under the circumstances getting that many top ptospects rated by Baseball America is awesome. You can never have too much talent in your minor league system. Some will make it to the bigs, others will be trading chips on future deals. This deal made the overall organization stronger. Laird should be traded today, if the Braves thought Salty could play first, they would not have made this trade. He was definitely brought here to catch. Look for Gerald to go to the Cubs, congrats to him, the Cubs have a great shot at doing something this year in the playoffs. Derossa sure seems to be enjoying his Cub experience. If we trade Benoit, that one could come back to haunt us, he really looks this year like he finally is putting it all together. Sometimes it takes time to do that, anyone remember Kevin Brown?

"You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time" -- Abraham Lincoln

Just my opinion:

The Rangers weren't going re-sign Mark Teixeira - no way, no how.

If they held on to him and tried to trade him next season at the trading deadline they would not get any kind of signficant return.

Jon Daniels had to decide on 2 things: whether the return on trading him now would be as good as trading him in the off season and whether the players he got would be better than the 2 first round draft picks he'd get when Tex walked away at the end of next season.

I think he made the right choice. This trade is not going to help the team in the short term - but this is not a team that is anywhere near ready to contend. No, he didn't get major league ready pitching - but the Braves didn't get that either when they traded Doyle Alexander to the Tigers for a AA pitcher named Smoltz, or when the Twins traded AJ Peirzynski to the Giants for an injured A Ball pitcher named Francisco Liariano. This is a wait and see situation.

http://emc.mlblogs.com/

To all those haters:
Take a look at the big picture. Tex was leaving no matter what. I know your heart broken, but come to your senses. If we would have traded him to the Angels then we would still get to watch him hit homeruns in Arlington but it would be in an Angels uniform. If we would have traded him next year then we wouldn't have gotten nearly as much because it would have been a 2 month rental and not a year and a half. If we would have not traded him at all then we would have been used by Scott Boras to mark up his price for some other team to get him. This would have wasted most our off-season next year for what? To have Tex get dangled in front of us for 4 months and end up with our first round draft picks and the opportunity to watch Tex smile and hold up his Yankees Jersey on ESPN. As for our slew of catchers....they will be good trade bait in years to come. Everyone wants to bash JD. I say great job to him. He snuck in and stole the Braves farm system. This means that he's sticking to his plan of trying to build a team that will make to the playoffs continuously for years and not once a decade to be beaten out in the first round. This is something that just cannot be done overnight. If I were JD I would be happy with the outcome. For those of you that live in the now only. The season was shot 2 months ago. We are NOT going to the playoffs this year. If you can't get past it then jump on the bandwaggon and become a Braves fan. As for us REAL RANGER FANS.....the sting of Tex leaving is short and less painful than it could have been. If you take a breath and analyze this trade you'll realize that it was for the greater good of the team.

Tex needed to go.

I don't care what kind of job you have and I don't care how much money you make. You don't slam the boss in public.

I want to know when Sosa is gone so we can see Botts everyday at DH.

WE LOVED YOU TEX, BUT YOU HAD TO GO!!!!

Quote:

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Benjamin Franklin

Way to shake things up JD!!!!!!

The trade at first glance is wow... tex is gone and we just traded for another catcher. However, Salty will probably end up playing first base for us since our best depth in the minors is at the catching position. We just grabbed the 3 top prospects in the Atlanta Braves system... not bad JD not bad

It was time for Tex to go, no doubt; and it looks like we raided one of the better farm systems; but I hope there is a plan to find additional pitching and an everyday centerfielder. Everyone's looking for it, but the one team that cannot seem to find it, trade for it, sign it or draft and develope it is my beloved Rangers.

Torii, please come play center for us starting next year!

I'm fine with the Tex deal. We all knew he was a goner. Seems 2010 might be our year. Unfortunately, Andruw Jones and Torii Hunter won't even consider coming to a team that was blown up and is rebuilding. Unless Tom can start spending money again, like "a drunken sailor"-to use his own words. No Tex, Gagne, Lofton, Mahay....JD, why not look at unloading Blalock, Millwood and Michael Young, too? We could get great "prospects" who might be serviceable by 2011. I reiterate, I do like the Tex trade. Still, I will NEVER will be convinced in the "trading for the future" thing, YEAR in and YEAR out. AT some point, you have to hang onto to some veteran like a Lofton who is producing, is a sparkplug, and provides leadership. Who is our leader on this team anyway? Tick...Tick...Tick. No one. A team needs someone to keep it loose, focused, and driven. Yes, a veteran. But we don't believe in keeping veterans. A team wins the division/pennant with the players it has performing right then, not someone in Double A. Example: What exactly has Joaquin Arias done for the Major League club? Nada. What has Kenny Lofton actually provided for the major league club? The answer is very simple and clear-cut. Arias has produced nothing. Lofton has produced valiantly. I rest my case.

Bye Tex. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Good Trade, Tex didn't want to sign a $ 140 mill 8 year contract? We should have traded him to the Devil Rays