As of right now, how do you feel about the Teixeira trade?

[Eshaw99]

A lot of people were very critical of the Tex trade when it happened, believing that we overpaid for him. I don't count myself as one of that camp, but I understood the arguments of those that did. I thought that with an aging Smoltz, an aging and injury-prone Chipper, and one last year of Andruw in center, we might as well go for it this year. We gave up some very good prospects, but we've had no trouble restocking the farm system in the last 10-15 years. So, I guess my question is to those who thought we gave up too much, or those still on the fence:

How do you feel about it, as of right now?

The numbers don't lie. In 18 games, Tex is batting .294, with 9 HR, 25 RBI, and a 1.153 OPS. However, we're only 2 games above .500 in those games, and we've dropped 2 games (from 3.5 back to 5.5 back) in the NL East race. Definitely not Tex's fault (read: pitching), but you've got to look at the whole team's performance. I still think it was was a good trade, but I'm curious to hear other opinions.

[Yogi44]

Great trade, even better if we can somehow keep him long-term. But the bottom line is pitching, pitching, pitching! We have no aces and 3 #5's, no getting around it.

[Cosmic_Avenger]

I didn't like the trade when it happened, and I don't care for it now. Yes, the extra punch in offense is nice, but it wasn't worth what we gave up in five players for one. Brings back memories of Pete Rose yelping about von Hayes ("His jersey number ought to be 541") back in 83 it does.

What the Braves have done is put themselves at parity with the Mets. Both teams will score a lot of runs, but the Mets have the edge in starting pitching, and that will be the difference.

JS was like a kid in the candy store with five bucks burning a hole in his pants pocket with that trade. It addressed nothing that was critical on the team, it made no difference in the balance of power in the division, and it won't be enough to catch the Mets (assuming that James and whoever else after our one and two starters continue with their stellar play). Plus, it hurt our catcher McCann, and his backup now has nowhere near the power that Salty had.

It was a dumb move. It should have happened in the offseason when there may have been some starting pitching available. We will get nothing for Druw, and Salty being traded could have helped out immensely. As it is now, we got snake eyes.

[renny]

Agree totally, yogi, but I'm curious. Do you not consider either Hudson or Smoltz an ace?

[pfiggy]

Ah think yog mistyped.... if'n he didn't ah'm gonna bite his pfinger right thru the keyboard.

[Eshaw99]

Originally Posted by Cosmic_Avenger

It addressed nothing that was critical on the team

While I don't begrudge you most of your argument, I've gotta disagree with this statement. Our offensive production from the first base position was at or near the bottom of the league, in what is traditionally a power hitting position. The addition of Teixeira not only provided a HUGE boost at that position (both offensively and defensively), it provided much better lineup protection for Chipper than Andruw was providing this year.

The most critical flaw in the team was pitching, and there simply weren't any options available on the market to fix that. We could've waited until the offseason, and flipped that prospect package for a dynamite arm, but who knows how much we'll get out of Smoltz and Chipper next year? Who's gonna replace Andruw? We gave up a helluva lot to get Tex, but we've traded MANY top prospects over the last decade, but thanks to this organization's superb scouting and player development system, the cupboard has never been barren as far as the farm system goes. I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I kinda like the "screw it, let's go for it this year" sentiment in the front office. It's something we Braves fans aren't used to.

[Snowman]

We overpaid for a guy we didn't need, and who as a Boras client will be gone after '08. Our offense was fine. We won't even get draft picks for him because JS will refuse to offer him arby. We'd have been much better taking one of the 5 guys we traded for Tex and adding him to the deal we were discussing with Cincy to get Arroyo. We had one outrageously critical gaping hole on the team, a hole that will keep us out of the postseason all by itself, and we traded pretty much the entire farm away without filling that hole.

IOW, we've become the latter-day JS Royals, which must mean he's ready to go to Washington.

[Cosmic_Avenger]

Originally Posted by Eshaw99

The most critical flaw in the team was pitching, and there simply weren't any options available on the market to fix that.

Exactly. All the more reason to stand pat.

The Braves were third in the NL in offense at the time of the trade. Yes, Thorman was not getting the job done at 1B, and defensively he was no great shakes. But something happened which made me wonder if JS had lost focus on the direction of this team: the acquisition of Julio. Why? It served no purpose, but even then, Julio was hitting .400 in the series before Tex was brought in to the team. He was warming up. So why make the trade? Julio mentoring Thor would have been more plausible then blowing our wad on Tex.

eshaw, I agree with you that having Tex nailed down our 1B position, and gave Cox one less position to platoon (always a plus in my book). I also understand the "win it all now" thought process, and I hope it does enrich this team. I'm glad that you feel good about that, and I'm sure some of the Braves share your sentiment.

But with three teams in our division that have loaded offenses, what will seperate the leader is differentiation, not parity. Our starting pitching, for lack of a better word after Hud and Smoltz, sucks. In my opinion, we aren't going anywhere with that rotation, Tex or not. Now, we've traded the one guy that could have impacted that deficiency in the offseason for a brighter tomorrow.

I hope I'm wrong, my friend.

[Eshaw99]

Originally Posted by Cosmic_Avenger

Exactly. All the more reason to stand pat.

The Braves were third in the NL in offense at the time of the trade. Yes, Thorman was not getting the job done at 1B, and defensively he was no great shakes. But something happened which made me wonder if JS had lost focus on the direction of this team: the acquisition of Julio. Why? It served no purpose, but even then, Julio was hitting .400 in the series before Tex was brought in to the team. He was warming up. So why make the trade? Julio mentoring Thor would have been more plausible then blowing our wad on Tex.

eshaw, I agree with you that having Tex nailed down our 1B position, and gave Cox one less position to platoon (always a plus in my book). I also understand the "win it all now" thought process, and I hope it does enrich this team. I'm glad that you feel good about that, and I'm sure some of the Braves share your sentiment.

But with three teams in our division that have loaded offenses, what will seperate the leader is differentiation, not parity. Our starting pitching, for lack of a better word after Hud and Smoltz, sucks. In my opinion, we aren't going anywhere with that rotation, Tex or not. Now, we've traded the one guy that could have impacted that deficiency in the offseason for a brighter tomorrow.

I hope I'm wrong, my friend.

Once again, you present a sound argument. I can't argue your logic, so I guess it's just a difference of opinion.

It did however bring to mind an interesting question (somewhat related, somewhat not) while I was thinking about all of this. From a fan's prospective, if you gutted your farm system to the point where it set your team back five years, but the process of doing so enabled your team to win the World Series that year, was it worth it?

[Cosmic_Avenger]

Originally Posted by Eshaw99

I can't argue your logic, so I guess it's just a difference of opinion.

Nor can I argue the logic that you're using. It's hard to fault JS for wanting to improve the team with whatever was available in the market. I guess you could say we are looking at this from a perspective of degree, rather than kind.

The answer to your question: it would all depend on what was going on in those five destitute years. Specifically, is the team improving steadily each year, as opposed to being in perpetual rebuilding status a la Pittsburgh.