Stark's Latest: Teixeira, Dotel

Jayson Stark has updated his big ol' rumor post over at ESPN.com.  Some highlights:

• Stark believes Mark Teixeira to the Braves or Angels is "almost certainly going to happen."  The Angels' willingness to offer Joe Saunders instead of Ervin Santana is seen as a big plus.  Meanwhile the Braves want the Rangers to tack C.J. Wilson onto their trade but Texas is resisting.  Stark's update counteracts Will Carroll's latest; Will recently wrote: "It's looking more and more like Mark Teixeira is going to stay a Ranger."  You decide.
• Toss a few more scenarios into the Octavio Dotel mix:  to the Red Sox for David Murphy, or to the Mariners for Wladimir Balentien.  Big difference there.
• Stark calls Mark Loretta a "very big name to watch."  Hmmm, maybe this trade deadline is lamer than I realized.
• OK, the market is now open on Houston's relievers. 
• The Marlins would be happy to trade Armando Benitez or Byung-Hyun Kim.  Both would need to shake off major control problems to be of any use.
• Stark says to forget about trades of Daniel Cabrera, Joe Blanton, Richie Sexson, Livan Hernandez, Dontrelle Willis, Todd Helton, Aaron Rowand, and Noah Lowry.  C'mon now, that's no fun.  Something tells me the rumors on some of this group won't disappear, so it's all good.

Comments

[braves#1]

If we are gonna give up Salty, Harrison( or Davies), and Elvis We have to get Tex and CJ Wilson!!! I know that Wilson is good but the Rangers are already SCREWING the Braves in this deal!!! They just do not wont to give up the Lefty reliever at all!!! I know h is good, but cmon now!!! I hope we withdraw that offer and forget about him!!! We are basically bidding against OURSELVES anyway, because I just do not see the Rangers trading Tex inside their OWN division!!! Just dont see that happening!!! I say we offer Salty, Harrison or Davies whichever one they want, Thorman, Dan Smith, and Devine in that deal!!! Take out Elvis and they can take out CJ Wilson, and we will take Mahay instead!!!

I dont blame the Rangers for being so greedy, but I really hope it backfires on them!!!

[TheWrightStuff]

In a way I almost hope the Braves trade for him cause by the sounds of it they will be harming their future a lot no matter what. And after next year Tex is gone cause Scott Boras will make him hit the open market. So as a Met fan is a win win cause they will give up a stud in Salty + more and than lose him in a little over a year. His numbers also have been declining and they suck outside of the fanbox in Texas

[braves#1]

TheWrightStuff,

Cant dissagree with you about Tex leaving, because Tex is gonna go somewhere else, probably your team, or the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, or others!!! But you have to realize Bobby Cox is not hardly ever playing Salty at First Base anymore!!! So basically Salty will be traded either at the deadline, OR in the Offseason!!! I wish we would play him at First but BC apparently dont like him there!!! I am a BC supporter, but man yall are gonna win this division BECAUSE BC has made ALOT of bonehead decisions this year!!! And I hardly ever say bad things about him, but IF true Brave Fans watch the games so far, they will have noticed it also!!! So you Mets Fans have BC to thank for this lead this year!!! So actually TheWrightStuff we are not really giving up much, because Salty never Ever plays anymore, Harrison will be descent, nothing special, and MAYBE Lillibridge!!! No way I trade Elvis!!! We would not be in this damn mess if JS would have kept LaRoche instead of trading him!!! I hated that trade!!! Then he traded McBride away for Ledezma!!! Stupid trade, at least McBride STILL had options left!!! Ledezma has no options left and he sucks against Lefties and he is a Lefty!!!

If JS trades Salty, Harrison, and Elvis for Tex and Mahay then that will be the THIRD bad trade in less than a year, counting back in January when he traded LaRoche away!!! We finally got a Cheap Good First Baseman, and he ends up trading him!!! Hell JS has not made 3 Bad trades since he has been our GM, and he may end up making 3 in less than a year!!!

[JoeM]

Good trade for the Rangers as long as Wilson is not involved. Two coveted talents, a 35HR 115RBI 27 year old multi Gold Glove first baseman, and a power throwing lefty reliever, future closer with a 1.2 WHIP for a stud Catcher, and two minor leaguers no where close to being in the bigs soon. I like the trade for Teix and Mahay or Gagne, but not Wilson, Salty may be a stud catcher but his value decline considerably as a first baseman. Considering catcher is one of a few talent pools the Rangers have depth at in the minors, throwing in Wilson to get this deal done makes it more of a setback than an improvement.

Rangers might as well keep Tex and pick up the draftpicks after next year rather than giving up two major league level contributors for pure speculative talent.

Good deal if its just Tex, or Tex and Gagne/Mahay, if not good luck with Julio Franco next year and no Andruw Jones.

[JoeM]

I love my Rangers but I gotta say I hate what they've done to themselves. Getting a 34 year old reliever for Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez then Brad Wifferson for Alfonso Soriano leaves Jon Daniels with no leverage as far as bargaining skills go. GM's are low balling him and barely budging feeling that they can probably milk him for all he's worth because of his horrible off season last year.

I actually like the Braves offer and feel that its okay for return for a player of Teix's caliber. However, if the Braves are holding out for more forget it. Hold on to everybody except the Gagne/Mahay/Benoit/Sosa type players and focus on upgrading internally and through low priced free agents.

[Pedantic]

"Rangers might as well keep Tex and pick up the draftpicks after next year rather than giving up two major league level contributors for pure speculative talent."

Since there is nothing speculative about the draft whatsoever.

[DentalPlan]

There's nothing speculative about the guys the Braves are trading? Let's see - the last lefthanded starter with as much hype as Matt Harrison the Braves traded - Dan Meyer. Andrus's career thus far has been a carbon copy of Luis Rivas's, right down to the age, level, OPS, stolen bases, and position on the field.

Saltalamacchia's career minor league OPS is .822, very good, but not studly. He had a good 81 ABs in Triple A this year (so did Felix Pie, ugh) and has slowed way down to a .744 OPS. I don't see surefire success here. What I do see is a lot of hype, a lot of Andy Marte style hype.

Yeah, it's a good package, fine. But let's face facts, the Braves have made a virtual cottage industry of dunning other teams out of their players with overrated prospects. They know who to let go and who to keep and they're one of the smartest teams in baseball because of it.

So I don't buy the Rangers are ripping off the Braves. Nobody gets the better of the Braves in a trade. People talk about Saltalamacchia like he'll be better than Russell Martin, I don't think he'll even be as good as Martin. Which is not to say he's garbage, but let's get real here, people are throwing around the term "stud" far too easily. I think the Braves know something nobody else does which is why they've been shopping Saltalamacchia instead of McCann.

[bravesbeast]

The reason that the braves are shopping Salty instead of McCann is for two obvious reasons. First off, McCann last year had one the best seasons ever for someone so young, not to mention form the catcher's position. he made the All-Star Game in 2006, and has made it again this year. So the first obvious reason is the fact that McCann obviously has had major league success, while the jury is still out on Salty.

The other reason why the braves are not going to shop Mccann is because they locked him up with a 6 year 29 million dollar contract to cover him through the 6-year service time ad his first year of free agency. It is very rare for a team to give a player that long of an extension after just 1 year in the majors, especially considering he braves never did that before Mccann. WE are talking the same type of thing te Twins did with morneau and mauer, or what the tigers did with bonderman. What sense does it make for the braves to sign mccann for six years then trade him off? Your right, absolutlely none at all. So, that is why the braves are not shopping mccann. One of the best proven hitters in the game, mccann is staying on the braves for a very long time.

[bravesbeast]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/angels/la-sp-angrep28jul28,1,6591848.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-mlb-angels&ctrack=1&cset=true

[bravesbeast]

Tim,

The site above says that the rangers and the angels had agreed to the first two parts taht would come to the rangers in a three for 1 deal for tex, being kotchman and joe saunders. However, after that, the Angels have now essentially backed off of TEX because the rangers have asked for one of four players to be included with Kotchman and Saunders:

Brandon Wood, Howie Kendrick, Nick Adenhart, or Ervin Santana

The AJC is also reporting the same thing, that later Friday nite the Angels had pulled out of the race for TEX. I do not know if something has changed over nite, but just figured id post about it.

[bravesbeast]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/angels/la-sp-angrep28jul28,1,6591848.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-mlb-angels&ctrack=1&cset=true

Here is the latest David O'Brien, the AJC article I mention above that said the Angels had appeared to back off. The Braves also seem to be pursuing a reliever again, especially C.J. wilson, with the Salty, Andrus, Harrison package again, showing that if we are going to trade away all of our potential trading chips and best young talent, we really need to fill as many holes as we can.

[bravesbeast]

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/07/27/brvnotes0728.html

My apologies, here is the AJC article

[Tim Dierkes]

Cool, there is a new post in reference to those.

[JerseyMetFan]

braves#1...

PLEASE tell me you didn't just pin our success this year on Bobby Cox. We're in first place because we're the better team, not because your manager makes some dumb decisions. Guess what... every manager does.