What Should Happen with Tex

The entire idea of trading Tex is so we can win... that idea gets lost from time to time, people (JD?) think that we should trade Teixeira just because his agent always gets the most money for his clients and Tom Hicks won't offer him the most money, so it's better to get something rather than nothing.

I previously covered what the Rangers should do with Tex, however it looks like I underrated the market for Tex. While I got the team right, still think he should go to Atlanta, it now looks like the Braves are willing to part with much more than I thought they would. I figured they would see that they were basically bidding alone, but the LAAAofA Angels have really benefited the Rangers by jonesing for Tex.

[I really don't want Tex to go to the Angels, not because I'm afraid of trading him in the division, why should the Rangers care if the Angels beat them they're rebuilding anyway? It's because the trade offers we've been getting from them suck!]

Ken Rosenthal made my baseball pants happy!

"The game is now, "Can you top this?"

The Braves, major-league sources say, have made the Rangers a whopper of an offer for first baseman Mark Teixeira.

The Rangers evidently would receive three highly regarded young players — catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Class AA left-hander Matt Harrison and Class A shortstop Elvis Andrus — while sending the Braves only Teixeira.

At a time when teams are reluctant to trade inexpensive prospects for high-priced veterans, such a deal would be a coup for Rangers general manager Jon Daniels.

If he can beat the Braves' 3-for-1 proposal, more power to him."

Well more power to me, because I'm going to try and beat it! I like Salty (more on that later), I like Harrison, but I don't really like Andrus.

There are some teams that would rank Salty, Harrison and Andrus and the Braves top 3 prospects. If the Rangers get that haul, it's def not bad and I'll applaud JD for it. However, I think we can do just a little bit better. If we follow these easy steps:

Step 1) Remove Elivs Andrus from the trade.

In every scouting report of him you'll read, the word "toolsy" pops up in the first sentence. This is baseball slang for "not good at baseball." If I'm trading a superstar and getting a guy back who is just "upside" and "potential" he'd better be a pitcher!

Step 2) Add Chase Fontaine and Jeff Locke.

Andrus could turn out to be a good player, but I like Chase Fontaine better. The best thing about Fontaine, other than the fact that he's a very good hitter who draws walks in bunches; fundamentally sound both at the plate and in the field; your basic baseball rat who loves playing and takes well to coaching, is that he isn't as highly regared as Andrus...even though he should be. Virtually all GM's overrate the upside of players and underrate the downside, making a guy like Fontaine who isn't near as flashy as Andrus but is a much more accomplished player available for cheaper.

The fact that Fontaine is less highly regarded than Andrus means that we could get him AND someone else for the same price as the King. That someone else should be Jeff Locke. I spoke before about not wanting someone who's full of "potential" unless they're a pitcher... well Locke is full of potential but he's a big lefty! Drafted in the second round last year out of a New Hampshire High School, Locke is a tall, teenage lefthander who can sit in the low 90s and has a very high ceiling; excellent control for his age and experience; very few innings on his arm from pitching in a cold-weather climate; very good makeup.

Step 3) Add Ron Mayday to the deal.

Most teams will have trouble making a 4-1 deal, adding a decent lefty reliever to the mix should allieve those worries. If they insist on CJ Wilson, as much as I love him (and I do! I get lost in those eyes, I just want to stroke his faux-hawk and spoon with him on a bear skin rug listening to Saosin over and over again...was that weired to share with everyone?...Sorry) but I'd let him go in this deal.

Step 4) Re-trade Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Salty, as his teammated have to geniously nicknamed him, is a pretty darned good player. Big switch hitting cather; good eye; nice pop; he's no threat to Pudge's gold glove record, in fact he'll probably end his career with the same number of gold gloves as me, but he's good enough defensively to stay behind the plate. His upside is about that of a Jason Varitek...if Tek could switch hit. In other words, good...not great. Salty is the second best catcher in the NL East right now, however he happens to play on the same team as the best catcher in the NL East, Brian McCann. As such, every team knows that Atlanta is going to trade him. The fact that virutally every team could use a good young catcher has created an interesting situation where I now believe that Salty's trade value exceeds that of his actual value between the lines.

We could use him as a player and that would be ok, but if we could get something really good in return (like something that can throw the ball) I'm interested. Word out of Pittsburg is that the Pirates have been trying to pry Salty from the Braves. They've been dangling Ian Snell + prospects, the Braves haven't gone for the bate but I would! Personally I don't think the best interest of the Pirates is to trade good young arms, but I'm fine if we can get then in Arlington. The Buccos have grown tired of Ronny Paulino, who I'd also take off their hands.

Step 5) Trade Salty, Arias, and Chris Davis to Pittsburg for Ian Snell and Ronny Paulino.

That nets the Rangers a good young catcher (Paulino) a young pre-arb starter who would step in the rotation right now (Snell) a high on-base scrappy middle infield prospect (Fontaine) and two good lefty pitching prospects (Harrison, Locke) basically for Tex and a couple overvalued prospects who won't be any good.

Snell is a higly talented pitcher, who's having a good year for Pitt. Because he doesn't want to play in Pittsburg any more, he's been trying his darndest to get traded (true I doubt that Texas is his #1 choice but he doesn't have that much say in the matter.) He hasn't done anything as crazy as this former Pirate/Ranger, but that's a good thing.

Paulino is very talented and has raked at every stop he's every had in baseball...but he's having a bad year and some the Pirates brass have become worried about his conditioning. Very good time to buy low.

So next year the Rangers rotation is

Millwood
Snell
McCarthy
Hurley
Padilla

*they should put Tejeda on the Jaquin Benoit plan*
**Harrison will replace Padilla when his crazy contract is up

Then in a couple more years add Porcello for Millwood...Oh..wait...nevermind

[bangs head against door]

does it really matter? Ranger's screw it up anyway!