‘Sabathia is looking for a reason not to go to the Yankees,’ which would most likely be either the Giants or Angels. That he’s basically ‘pleading for someone’ to come up with some kind of structured deal whether with deferrals or incentives that would be in the ballpark.

I'm getting this feeling, too, which will make me double-pissed if he still ends up with the Yanks because the rest of MLB decides they can't afford to Christmas shop this year.

Teixeria would be perfect for [insert team without a franchise first baseman here].

* ‘Sabathia is looking for a reason not to go to the Yankees,’ which would most likely be either the Giants or Angels. That he’s basically ‘pleading for someone’ to come up with some kind of structured deal whether with deferrals or incentives that would be in the ballpark.

Even if this isn't true, the Yanks must be aware of these rumors and hopefully they are looking at other ways (i.e. signing the best freaking player on the market, Teixeira) to add impact talent to the team.

Teixeria would be perfect for everyone not named the St. Louis Cardinals.

Why the #### would Sabathia consider the Giants.

crap, you made me click thru to susan mullen's blog.

I just love it when a ballplayer whines about not being able to go somewhere because the moneyt didn't work out. How many teams you figure wouldn't give him 8 years at $4 million per, and how many people wouldn't be set for a few lifetimes based on that?

& yes, I know it's baseball, not reality, but still...

I think Leigh Teixeira has a vote in all this and she is just not a Red Sox fan. Boston will have to blow everyone else out of the water.

Thank god for Leigh Teixeira then.

I just love it when a ballplayer whines about not being able to go somewhere because the moneyt didn't work out. How many teams you figure wouldn't give him 8 years at $4 million per, and how many people wouldn't be set for a few lifetimes based on that?

Except when some other player goes to arbitration, that lowball contract they signed is taken into consideration by the arbitrator, so now you've screwed some other player out of money.

The Union won't stop you from signing a lowball contract, but they'll remind you that the only reason you have the right to sign with your team of choice is that other players have fought for that right, and many of them lost millions of dollars in salary in striking to protect those rights -- and that you have a responsibility to protect those rights for other players. And they're right.

Halofan, it doesn't matter who the Sox sign, either way they'll still kick your arse in the playoffs...

Don't you just hate that smugness?

crap, you made me click thru to susan mullen's blog.

Is it just me or is that one of the worst looking blogs? It looks like the sick baby of text just threw up all over the site... a mixture of colours and fonts that is simply bizarre.

If the Red Osx were to sign Texeira, it would mean that they think Lowell is finished. Is he? Right now, they wouldn't be able to get any real value for him in a trade (because of his injury-filled season in '08)

Regarding C.C. If he wants to play for a winner and be near his home in California, the Angles sure make sense. They are in the playoffs almost every year, and play in a much easier division (where it would be easier to get Ws).

If the Red Osx were to sign Texeira, it would mean that they think Lowell is finished. Is he?

Is he now? No, I think he'll be fine in 2009.

The reason I think the Sox are interested in Teixeira has less to do with 2009 than it does with 2010 and beyond. Lowell and Ortiz both have contracts that expire in 2010 (club option on Ortiz for 2011) and neither player is likely to be an elite hitter after that. Obviously there is a lot of hope that Youkilis will maintain his '08 level or that Lars Anderson will become such a hitter but I think the Sox believe that Youk just had a career year and they are being appropriately cautious with putting all their eggs in a Lars Anderson basket. Teixeira seems like the type of player who should be able to continue posting big numbers for 4-5 years comfortably.

A quick look at his top ten comps at age 28 gives some theoretical confirmation for this with most of the guys being folks who aged pretty well, certainly well through the years a contract with Tex would cover.

Youks could bounce around 3b-LF-RF (not sure where he and Bay would each play when both are in the outfield.) Lowell, Ellsbury, Drew, and Ortiz fill 3 spots, with whoever's hurt, tired, etc on the bench. You could also do a defensive platoon, depending on who's on the mound.
With those guys' injury concerns and platoon issues, signing Teixeira makes a lot of sense.

I'd been rooting for them to sign Dunn more cheaply, to play 1b-RF, but have not heard even a whisper of that.

Teixeria would be perfect for the Red Sox.

Actually, other than the Cardinals, I can't think of a team on which he's a worse fit.

At the least, signing Teixeira would require the Red Sox to move Youk to 3B and trade Lowell for next-to-nothing (or eat a lot of salary). That's not impossible or make it a bad idea, but it's more than enough to make it a far-less-than-perfect idea. I've never understood why there's been such heavy speculation about their interest.

The nice thing about the Sox is that they really don't need improvement anywhere. The two areas which could most use improvement are CF and the rotation (cuz rotation's can always stand improvement) -- but neither is a sore spot and there doesn't seem to be anything available for CF (that's worth acquiring) and an upgrade on that rotation will be quite pricey.

The nice thing about the Sox is that they really don't need improvement anywhere

Not true. Unless your infield consists of Pujols, Utley, H. Ramirez(fielding notwithstanding) and Wright, you can always improve. You can always get better and when that talent is available, you make a play for it.

Maybe the Sox are thinking of selling high on Youk if they acquire Tex? Who knows how well Ortiz and Lowell will come back?

There are always questions, there is always room for improvement...unless you have Pujols manning your 1B position.

I've never understood why there's been such heavy speculation about their interest.

Well, there have been rumors saying they've made an offer to him. That's (a bit) beyond speculation, which in turn leads to speculation.

The other reason is because as you said, they're not bleeding anywhere, but have a comparatively low salary right now. For luxury tax purposes, they're at about $108M right now, and they need to fill 2 bench spots, and the catcher spot. That puts them something like $30-35M shy of where they were last year, so they might have money to burn.

Whether they will, I have no idea.

Maybe he is a perfect fit. Can he handle a pitching staff?

there is always room for improvement

Of course there's always room for improvement.

But the headline was "perfect fit." A "perfect fit" is when you have a hole and you upgrade to a Teixeira without disrupting anything else.

Adding Teixeira requires trading at least one valuable (and popular) player with who knows how much success. As I said, that doesn't make it a bad idea but it does make it a far-less-than-perfect fit.

Teixeira probably projects to something like a 145 OPS+. That's what Youk did last year though he'll only project to about a 125-130 OPS+. Maybe Youk would give you average or better defense at 3B but it's certainly hard for us to say as he has only 65 games there over the last 3 years ... and Youk was apparently very good defensively at 1B so Tex is probably not an upgrade there. Ortiz probably projects as good or better than Teixeira with the bat (obvious injury concerns here). Lowell presumably would be the ideal odd man out and even he probably projects as at least an average 3B.

Any team with the possible exception of the Cards would _improve_ by adding Teixeira (and in the Cards' case, I'm pretty sure Teixeira could handle LF). But a list the teams that would benefit the most from adding Teixeira and/or be disrupted the least, I put the Red Sox very low on that list.

Now, just looking at the AL ... he's a "perfect fit" on the Yankees, Angels, Blue Jays, Rays (Pena to DH), Orioles, Twins (Morneau to DH), Indians, Royals, A's, Mariners and Rangers (Davis to DH) and a better fit on the Tigers (dump Sheff, Cabrera to DH) and White Sox (dump Konerko) than the Red Sox. That's every other AL team.

Alas, baseball players like to get paid and money-wise the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels and maybe White Sox and Orioles are probably the only perfect fits from Teixeira's perspective in the AL ... but I don't think that's what the author was getting at. :-)

EDIT: minor clarification in that last sentence

I would be pretty bummed if the Red Sox moved Youkilis. I think if you can sign Tex you do it and worry about the rest later. Maybe you move Bay and install Youkilis in LF, where he can't possibly be worse than Ramirez was. Bay has only 1 year left on his current contract and is pretty cheap; I can see a lot of teams interested in doing a deal for Bay... I'm not saying I'd do it, but Youkilis does seem the type who would throw himself into becoming the best possible LF he could be if told that's where he has to play should they sign Tex and Lowell bounces back.

Or perhaps Youkilis gets them the shinier of the C prospects in Texas, so they can keep their P prospects in-house... There's just myriad ways this thing could play out if/when we sign Tex.

Again, there are plenty of ABs to share among Drew, Ellsbury, Ortiz, and Lowell. You can't take it with ya: they are a rich team with money to spend, and Teixeira (unless things get just ####### crazy) would be a smart way to spend it.

Adding Teixeira requires trading at least one valuable (and popular) player with who knows how much success.

No, it really doesn't. Just not at all. Youk, Drew, Lowell and Ortiz missed a combined 172 games last season. Obviously some of those games overlapped somewhat, but assuming Youk can cover RF (or LF pushing Bay to right on those days), the Sox can sign Tex, not trade anyone, and hardly loose any AB's. Giving Ortiz, Drew and Lowell plenty of rest is the prudent thing to do anyway.

For a team with Bostons resources, going into a season with a backup plan* of giving a full seasons worth of AB's to a utility infielder, is actually the insane thing to do. Signing Tex makes short term sense, because they face tough competition in their division right now, and every marginal win is important, and it makes long term sense, for the post Ortiz/Lowell era.

*and one that likely needs to be executed

Why the #### would Sabathia consider the Giants.

Are the Giants that far away from competing in a really bad division if they can get Sabathia? A rotation of CC, Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, and Barry Zito is very nice and the NL West could be weaker than usual if the other teams in the division are hurting for money.

Scott Boras and Tom Verducci are the two most prominent people pushing the "Teixeira signed by the RedSox makes lots of sense" ####pile.