Baseball America has their official take on last week's Teixeira-Kotchman trade on their website, but I asked Ben Badler of BA to give me a more Braves-centric take on the trade. Here is their analysis, though it may be a tough dose of reality to some:

Stephen Marek was one of the Angels' top 10 prospects, though he probably wouldn't rank that highly in most organizations' farm systems. All of the Angels top prospects—Brandon Wood, Jordan Walden, Nick Adenhart, Peter Bourjos, Sean Rodriguez and Hank Conger—have plenty of question marks, and it looks like the Braves determined it was better to acquire a player with major league experience like Kotchman as the key piece of the deal. Marek does have two plus pitches coming out of the bullpen: a low-90s fastball and a mid- to high-70s curve. He's always been old for his level, so you'll have to keep in mind that at best he'll be making his big league debut at age 25. He could be a useful bullpen piece for the Braves at some point, though it's hard to get too excited about minor league relievers.

Kotchman's strike zone discipline this year has taken a step back; he doesn't strike out much, but he's not drawing too many walks and that's held his value down significantly. He's a first baseman with only moderate power, so when he gets impatient at the plate and puts up an OBP around .330 his value isn't going to be too high. But while Kotchman is a tick below-average offensively, he's one of the best first base defenders in baseball, saving probably 10 to 15 runs a year, making him an overall above-average defender. He's still 25, so he should continue to get better, and having him for three more years at below-market value is a nice luxury for the Braves. He has a fluid swing and he makes hard contact, though he's probably never going to be a player with classic plus power at first base. But with his other skills, Kotchman can still be above-average without needing to fit into the slugger first base profile.

The trade of Teixeira (and the two implied draft picks from offering him arbitration) could be a win for the Braves, though the draft picks would have been valuable for the Braves, an organization with a strong track record of drafting hitters. But given the entire context of what transpired with Teixeira—including his production provided for the Braves, the players acquired from the Angels and the prospects dealt to the Rangers—the sum of the Teixeira trades will likely be a net loss for the Braves.

I still like Marek as a prospect, he sort of reminds me a bit of Joey Devine (don't know if that's a good thing or not). For another view of Marek, we turn to scout Deric McKamey. His take on Marek is a bit more bullish:

Marek is a strong-framed pitcher with plenty of arm strength.  He was a reliever in college, where he always tried to throws gas by hitters, so his mechanics and approach were pretty raw.  Since, he has done a better job of repeating his release point, which has helped his command and ability to extract the same movement from his pitches.  Moving back to relief after spending the majority of his professional career as a starter has helped. He throws 88-94 MPH with his two-seam fastball and can get strikeouts with his 74-77 MPH curveball.  His 79-81 MPH split-change is an average pitch at the moment, but uses it to combat LH batters.  He could stand to reduce his walk rate, but misses enough bats to compensate.  His ability to keep the ball down is evidenced by him giving-up just two home runs all year.  His stuff is good enough to close and at worst, can be an effective setup reliever.  He should be able to compete for a bullpen role in 2009.

I'm excited to get another good young arm that we could possibly add to the bullpen mix next year. Over all the Teixeira trades we will have to wait and see how all these young players and prospects pan out. All we can hope is that the three guys we ended up with will become key parts of our next post-season appearance.