Yep, Tex is a Brave

Rangers Mark Teixeira and Ron Mahay get swapped for Jarrod "Salty" Saltalamacchia, slick-fielding shortstop Elvis Andrus, right-hander Neftali Feliz, left-hander Matt Harrison and left-hander Beau Jones. I don't know what to make of the trade, but right now, I'm actually pretty pleased. A 2 for 5 deal just doesn't happen everyday. My concern (Yes, I do have some) is the return is massive and "minor". On paper, it looks like a BRILLIANT trade, but John Daniels hasn't slapped together a winner trade as of yet.

Ron Mahay was a stud in the bullpen and everyone knows Tex. Salty is a rookie, but everything indicates that he is going to be a future All-Star regular. SSSSOOOO... who are the rest of these fellas?

Actually, I want to check out Salty first...

Minor League stats for Jarrod go like this:

GCL Braves: (2003)

• 70 Games, 170 at-bats, 39 hits, .229 batting average, 2 HRs, 20 RBIs
• K'd 38 Times (average of .223 strike out to at-bat ratio)

Rome: (2004)

• 91 Games, 323 at-bats, 88 hits, .272 batting average, 10 HRs, 51 RBIs
• K'd 83 Times (average of .257 strike out to at-bat ratio)

Myrtle Beach: (2005)

• 129 Games, 459 at-bats, 144 hits, .314 batting average, 19 HRs, 81 RBIs
• IBB of 11 and 35 doubles
• K'd 99 times (average of .216 strike out to at-bat ratio)

Mississippi: (2006 - first time at AA level)

• 92 Games, 313 at-bats, 72 hits, .230 batting average, 9 HRs, 39 RBIs
• K'd 71 times (average of .227 strike out to at-bat ratio)

Mississippi: (2007)

• 22 Games, 81 at-bats, 25 hits, .309 batting average, 6 HRs, 13 RBIs
• K's 17 times (average of .210 strike out to at-bat ratio)

Total Minor League Stats:

• 404 Games, 1346 at-bats, 368 hits, .273 batting average, 46 HRs, 204 RBIs

Atlanta Braves: (2007)

• 47 Games, 141 at-bats, 40 hits, .284 batting average, 4 HRs, 12 RBIs

This kid is going to be a little something special. And the BONUS is that he's in a super-hitting stadium. The thing that makes or breaks, what makes this trade a good versus bad, is the quality of pitching we get for Tex and Mahay. If the pitching sucks, then was it worth it? I don't think so. But at the very least, we get a hitter who is going to perform every bit as good as Tex, but without the outrageous contract to boot, at least not for a while.

Neftali Feliz doesn't have all that much as far as stats are concerned. He is, after all, 19 years of age. Here's what I found on him.

GCL Braves:

• 0-2 with 2 saves with a 4.03 ERA in 11 games. He threw only 29 innings. and gave up 13 runs.
• This season: 2-0 with a 2.05 ERA starting 6 games. He's thrown 26 1/3 innings and given up only 6 earned runs. His opponents are hitting a weak .178 off of him.

Matt Harrison: (Career #s in the Minors)

• 35-27 with a 3.45 ERA (the highest his ERA at season end was 4.09). He has 6 complete games and two shutouts. Homeruns per nine is at a 0.66 and hits is just under 9 per nine innings.

Beau Jones: (his numbers are quite a bit rougher than the others)

• His career numbers are a little higher than what I was expecting, and I think that is due to Jones having transition trouble each time he moves. He went from the GCL Braves to Rome and his ERA in Rome was 5.53, and then he settled into Rome the next season, only to move to Myrtle Beach where his ERA shot up to 15.26... so when he moves over to the Rangers A team, I would still expect his ERA to continue to be high until he begins to feel comfortable in his skin again.
• Career Numbers: 12-7 with a 5.07 ERA over 58 games (30 starts). Jones has 4 saves and holds the longball at bay with a HR per nine of 0.41 and 8.91 hits per nine.

The Red Sox apparently will pay Eric Gagne the extra $3.6 million -- on top of the remaining $2 million he's owed in salary -- he would have earned had he met his bonuses for games finished, which he has little chance of doing while setting up in Boston. The Rangers will get Kason Gabbard, David Murphy and Engel Beltre. They'll likely have Joaquin Benoit replace Eric Gagne in the closer's role, with C.J. Wilson a possibility to get the occasional save chance against lefty-heavy lineups.

Maybe Jon Daniels would have been better served focusing on one big prospect for Eric Gagne instead of his three-player haul. And perhaps he could have gotten more than one big-league-ready player for Teixeira and Mahay. Both are just picking nits. Daniels turned around a bereft farm system over a whirlwind 24 hours, and while that might not be enough to save his job over the next year or two, it could leave his incumbent sitting pretty.