Sports Page Atlanta

The Atlanta Braves have officially become sellers, trading 1B Mark Teixeira to the Anaheim Angels for 1B Casey Kotchman and minor-league pitcher Stephen Marek.  Teixeira was hitting .283, with 20 HR and 78 RBI with the Braves this season.

Kotchman was enjoying a break-out season this year for the Angels, hitting .287 with 12 HR and 54 RBI, in just his second full season.  In his five major-league seasons, Kotchman is hitting .274 with 31 HR and 165 RBI.

Marek has spent his entire season with the Arkansas Travelers (AA), sporting a 2-6 record, 3.66 ERA and 57 SO in just 46.2 IP. 

The trade is the culmination of what is a dreadful season for the Braves. Key players John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Chipper Jones, Mike Hampton, Tim Hudson, Mark Kotsay, Matt Diaz, and Rafael Soriano have all missed, or will miss, significant time; Jeff Francoeur is enduring his worst season as a pro, and the Braves haven’t been able to win a one-run road game this season.  It’s the first time since 1990 that the Braves are officially
sellers.

About an hour ago, the Los Angeles Angels pulled Casey Kotchman off the Fenway Park field and into the clubhouse. He was informed that he and minor league pitcher, Stephen Marek, had been traded to the Atlanta Braves for Mark Teixeira.

It should be easy to compare Kotchman to Teixeira as they’re both first basemen. Let’s now look at Marek.

Marek is a 6′2″ right-handed pitcher in the Angels organization playing for Double-A Arkansas. He was a 40th round selection for the Angels (#1,193 overall) in 2004. He started his professional career as a starting pitcher, but moved to the bullpen this season. He’s never played above Double-A baseball.

His record, this season, is 2-6 with a 3.66 ERA. He strikes out more than a batter per inning as he has 57 strikeouts in only 46.2 innings of work. He holds opponents to a .223 batting average.

Casey Kotchman was a first round pick (#13 overall) by the Angels in 2001 and is playing in his fifth big league season, second as a full-time player). In 100 games this season he’s batting .287 with 12 home runs, 54 RBI, and two stolen bases.

While Kotchman doesn’t have the power that Teixeira has, his value to the Braves comes in a smaller salary. He’s playing the 2008 season under a one-year salary worth $1.45 million. If the Braves do resign Kotchman, it surely won’t be as expensive as it would have been for the Braves to resign Teixeira.

Here’s a little update on some of the rumors flying around on where, and if, Mark Teixeira might land before the trade deadline.

• The L.A. Angels have increased their interest as of late.
  

  Though a deal for the Atlanta switch-hitter would probably cost them promising first baseman Casey Kotchman, the Angels believe Teixeira and Vladimir Guerrero would give them a three-four punch comparable to Boston’s David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.

• The Arizona Diamondbacks may not be willing to send Conor Jackson any longer. But they may send Chad Tracy and, maybe even uber-pitching prospect Max Scherzer.
  

  ‘Zona’s surplus of pitching prospects means they can offer up Max Scherzer (top pitching prospect in the org) and Wes Roemer (87/28 K/BB in High-A) for the opportunity to romp into the playoffs over middling NL West competition.

All this talk about trading Mark Teixeira made me think how dominant he has been in his career.  Since he started his big league career in 2003, he has 628 career rbi.  That rbi total rates him 6th most in the majors in that time period and he notice that he’s not far off from the leaders.

Here are the top 6…

1. Alex Rodriguez - 692
2. David Ortiz - 685
3. Albert Pujols - 660
4. Carlos Lee - 641
5. Manny Ramirez - 630
6. Mark Teixeira - 628

If you were wondering, Chipper Jones is 21st in that time period with 517.

It’s just a rumor at this point, and not really even a very likely rumor as the Braves may be asking for a lot, but Ken Rosenthal, from Fox Sports just wrote that the Diamondbacks have enquired about Mark Teixeira.

What the Braves told the Diamondbacks was great. It amounts to the fact that they know the Diamondbacks just depleated their farm system in the Dan Haren deal, so if the D-backs want Teixeira the Braves want Conor Jackson.

Three-plus years of Jackson clearly is more valuable than two-plus months of Teixeira. Then again, the Diamondbacks would not bid for Teixeira as a free agent. So, the deal would amount to Jackson for a Teixeira rental plus two high draft picks. The Diamondbacks also could ask for other players back if they traded Jackson and prospects

No, neither is a trade involving Mark Teixeira or Will Ohman, but the Atlanta Braves did make two roster moves over the past two days. On Monday, they designated RP Vladimir Nunez for assignment, and activated RP Rafael
Soriano off of the DL. Tuesday, the Braves activated UTIL Omar Infante from
the DL, shipping SS Brent Lillibridge to AAA Richmond.

In a road trip, those are the first two, of what could be many impactful
roster moves. Still nothing regarding Teixeira or Ohman, but don’t be
surprised if one or both is gone by the end of the week.

The Braves resume playing tonight as they take on the Washington Nationals.

Here is how some of the current Braves have done at the all-star break the last 3 seasons…

Chipper Jones: 2008 - .376 avg  18 hr 51 rbi

                            2007 - .329 avg  15 hr 41 rbi

                            2006 - .315 avg  11 hr 50 rbi

Brian McCann: 2008 - .302 avg  18 hr 53 rbi

                            2007 - .262 avg   9 hr 49 rbi

                            2006 - .343 avg  6 hr 29 rbi

Mark Teixeira: 2008 - .271 avg  17 hr 69 rbi

                            2007 - .302 avg  12 hr 41 rbi

                            2006 - .275 avg    9 hr 49 rbi 

Jeff Francoeur: 2008 - .234 avg    9 hr 44 rbi

                            2007 - .289 avg   10 hr 58 rbi

                            2006 - .260 avg   17 hr 63 rbi

Colin, over at Braves Blast, just posted the first part of a two-part serialized article concerning whether or not the Braves should make a run for the championship this season or cut their losses and rebuild for 2009. Today, he posted 10 Reasons To Pull Out The Stops. Tomorrow, he’ll go in reverse and tell us why the Braves should rebuild.

This is good stuff here, and I’d like to comment on a few of his reasons from today.

• “They have Mark Teixeira until the end of the year and he’ll make a huge contract year push.”

I think Colin is right here. Teixeira will have a great second half, due in part to his impending free agency. He’s already begun to feel his power stroke as his nine home runs in June more than doubled his power output for the season. There’s no reason to believe that Teixeira cannot approach 40 dingers this season. My worry is that Scott Boras over prices Teixeira, and the Braves are left searching for a clean-up hitter and first baseman in the off-season. But, to make a run in 2008, the Braves must have “Big Teix”, or receive one hell of a hitter in return.

• “Chipper is chasing .400″

While this was neat as Chipper was above the .400 mark, it’s kind of a moot point now. His June batting average was almost 100 points lower than his March through May batting average, and his July batting average, although we’re only nine days in, is 70 points lower than his June. However, he’s having a superb season, and staying relatively injury-free. It’ll be fun to watch Chipper just do the things that make him a Hall of Fame worthy third baseman. But, Chipper is done flirting with .400, so don’t expect those kind of heroics.

• “Brian McCann is showing everybody why the Braves traded away their starting catcher so he could play as a rookie.”

McCann is the biggest ray of hope that this Braves team has. He’s arguably the best offensive catcher in Major League Baseball, and if it weren’t for the fan support for Cubs rookie Geovany Soto, should have been the NL All-Star starting catcher. His batting average (.293) is higher, his slugging percentage is higher (.547), he’s scored more runs (39), hit more homes (17), and even stolen a base. I’m not taking anything away from Soto, as his numbers are very similar to McCann’s. But McCann should be starting in NYC, and he’s definitely a reason for anyone to come out to “The Ted” to see one of the essential cogs for this 2008 Braves team.

The Braves made it kind of interesting last night, but fell short to the Phillies by the score of 7 to 3.  The game could have been tied, but Mark Teixeira struck out with 2 outs in the 9th with the bases loaded.  A few pitches earlier, Teixeira blasted a shot that was just foul.

It would have been the 2nd grand slam hit by a Brave this year.  Kelly Johnson hit a pinch hit grand slam against the Mets back during the first week of the season.

Here are the number of grand slams hit by the current Atlanta Braves…

Chipper Jones - 6 (although last one was back in 2001)

Brian McCann - 4

Mark Teixeira - 3

Mark Kotsay - 3

Kelly Johnson - 2

Greg Norton - 2

Jeff Francoeur - 1

Mark Teixeira hit another home run yesterday against the Blue Jays, but it wasn’t enough as Atlanta fell to Toronto 9-5.  Teixeira has been a good hitter vs the Blue Jays.  He is a career .315 hitter against them and has clobbered 17 home runs.  The 17 is 2nd most against any team he has faced.

Here are the top teams that he has hit home runs against…

20 vs Oakland Athletics

17 vs Toronto Blue Jays

16 vs Seattle Mariners

16 vs Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

He has hit 2 career home runs against the Braves.  One was against Russ Ortiz in 2003 and the other against Jorge Sosa in 2005.