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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > July > 30
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Several factors led to Teixeira trade
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s the injuries, stupid. Actually, it’s the avalanche of those injuries that caused Braves officials to pull one of the biggest reversals you’ll ever see.
They had no choice.
You can’t lose your best everyday player (Chipper Jones) and your best overall pitcher (Tim Hudson) on the same day to the disabled list and keep slugger Mark Teixeira. That’s especially true with all of that other stuff happening.
Stuff like aches and pains elsewhere throughout your roster. Stuff like the National League East race leaving you in a hurry after two consecutive brutal losses in Philadelphia before getting torched at home by the St. Louis Cardinals.
Until then, Braves officials believed they still had a decent chance to contend, and they were correct.
Just 11 days ago, Braves manager Bobby Cox sat in the home dugout at Turner Field and said defiantly that his team would be a buyer instead of a seller regarding the July 31 trade deadline. He even held a team meeting to inform his players that the Teixeira trade rumors were false.
Then there was Braves chairman Terry McGuirk telling me on Saturday night that his team had short-term and long-term plans, but none involved the Braves holding anything close to a fire sale before Thursday’s trade deadline. McGuirk said, “My attitude is that we’re always a buyer, especially in this flawed National League East, where every team has big holes and flaws.”
You know the rest.
Teixeira is working for the Los Angeles Angels right now. The Braves shipped away their slick-fielding first baseman who can become a free agent at the end of the season, and then they began to prepare for 2009 with the younger (but definitely not better) Casey Kotchman in return.
Added McGuirk during our conversation on Saturday night, “Until proven that we don’t have a chance in that division, we’re a buyer.”
It was proven emphatically.
And quickly.
Thus the Teixeira trade.
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