does anyonne else think we should try and trade him in a seperate deal rather than package him with tex?

im bringing this up cuz of thoughts on two tradees occuring this year.
1. john rauch for emilio bonifacio
first off… all of the experts expected the price for rauch would be higher than a #6 (maybe the d-backs are deep in prospects?) organizations prospect..now ohman doesnt come with a closer tag like rauch and is really thought of only lefty specialist.. but even so his price must be in the 11-16 range of an organizations prospect list.. the reason i say that is because of a second trade…

2. Tyler Yates for Todd Redmond
Redmond was the pirates 27th ranked prospect…27th in that organization…ohman is easilly better than yates..plus its the time of year where teams overpay for a certain need..if yates alone got us a 27th prospect id figure ohman at least deserves a 11-16 and maybe a 30ish?

the point is i think the return would be greater, in my mind, if he was traded to a differnt team than tex. i dont want him to just be a throw in like mahay was last year.

It’s looking like Wren will get some good stuff in return. And if Arizona becomes seriously interested and offering Jackson plus Parker, I think that’s a done deal right there.

I can’t see the Braves getting Parker—for Tex…hope that I am wrong.

One other quick point in Street and Smtih’s Baseball Yearbook Redmond was a top 10 pick in the Pirate ogranization…a good pick up for the Braves….

I think Chad Tracy and a less celebrated prospect might be the eventual deal. I just hope the Braves understand that they have to SELL…..

Tracy would be very valuable as the lefty side of a first base platoon, but it makes little sense to run him out there against lefties as well; his career line is 225/272/347. So yeah, get Tracy, but factor in that he’s going to be effectively worthless for ~200 PAs necessitating paying a righty to caddy for him.

The Dbacks are not an ideal trading partner because they can’t expect to sign Teixeira long term. Their offer will be for a rental rather than a rental with option to buy.

Conor Jackson is indeed a poor first baseman. Guys like Teixeira (and Youkilis) aren’t just middle of the order hitters, they’re important assets in the field.

The Braves should place Teixeira with a team which can outbid the Mets for him next winter. And with the Red Sox and Yankees, you want to pit them against each other. Neither wants the other to get this guy. He could haunt them for years to come. A few months of bonding with teammates in a pennant race might tip the scales in a close bidding war next winter. The Red Sox and Yankees should be willing to pay for that edge with top talent.

It really seems Arizona may be the only viable option. Red Sox with Ortiz back don’t have a need for Tex. And I think the Yankees are looking more for a bat in the OF since they have Giambi and Sexson available at 1st base.

Just want to give a little perspective from the Diamondbacks perspective. Tex would be a nice short term rental for us, he’d increase our playoff chances from around 55% to about 63% and world series chances from 10% to 13%. He’d change us from likely being the worst playoff team with the worst chances to just a lower tier playoff team with lower tier chances this year.

That’s nice, but it’s not a huge difference, and there is also no way we can re-sign him. So given that the core of our team is in good shape the next two years, that we have options for first base and our real needs are elsewhere (outfield, 2nd) we can’t give up much of value for him. No Parker, no Scherzer, those guys will be needed in the rotation or in trades that fix bigger holes for the long term.

And no Conor Jackson, he’s actually been surprisingly okay in left field and might be our left fielder of the future (he was an OF coming up and his lousy 1B work is a product of a late switch). We simply can’t give up valuable cheap players now. Maybe in a few years when the team finishes working through all the deferred payroll it still owes former players, and the Eric Byrnes (gulp!) contract.

So that brings us to Chad Tracy. Chad is a righty smasher who is decent around the bag. His career numbers are probably below his talent level given a bad knee that required microfracture surgery last year and which he looks to be pretty well recovered from now. He should be platooned but can get by if not given that most pitchers are right handed. He can also play a little outfield/3B.

My understanding was that Atlanta’s 1B was a huge hole before Tex, and might still be one after him, so Tracy could be a nice upgrade. He’s a good bet to be a league average 1B and he’s only making $4M a year and is cost controlled for a few years. But the problem is if Jackson can stick in LF (moving Byrnes to 4th outfielder thank god), Tracy is our 1B of the foreseeable future, so I don’t think we can punt on 2009 (already needing to replace Orlando Hudson) just to get a slightly better shot at a world series this year.

If your needs are at first base, can I propose a slightly different offer? We have a kid named D’Antona, just promoted from AAA. Despite Tucson being a hitter’s paradise, his .367 line translates to roughly .301/.335/.479 in Atlanta. He’s not a top prospect, he’s 26 years old, his defense is so-so, but he’s a cheap option for getting a good MLB hitter at first and probably worth one of the Tex picks you would lose. We could throw in a lower rung prospect or two to make up for the value of the 2nd pick.

Sorry to go all Millwood for Estrada on you, but the DBacks are a young team with limited financial resources but a core of young players that we can build around for a very long time and we don’t want to trade. We got really burned last year giving up on a couple of them (Hairston, Quentin). It’s hard for us to give up much value for Tex.

In reality the Angels should have already closed the deal. Not only do the Angels have one of the worst offenses in the AL (team OPS+ 93) but they are getting only .283/.327/.429 from first base. They are fooling themselves if they think they won’t fall back to earth by the end of the season and end up playing on the road in the ALCS. Tex could make them the dominant favorites in the World Series. Plus Arte Moreno can afford to sign Tex to a long term deal. They could give you Kotchman plus other stuff. I don’t know why this deal hasn’t already happened unless the Angels are trying to get Tex’s to agree to a discounted contract before the trade happens.

Or Tampa Bay should offer more than Arizona can. Again, so so production from 1B (238 /.344/.458), and a better team situated to make a deep playoff run. Arizona is just too much of fringe competitor this year, production from first is the least of our concerns, and we really need to build a better team for the next two years that can be a favorite rather than focus too much on trying to salvage our long shot chances this year.