A lot of talk about the Laird trade out there today...

Keith Law sees it as a positive for the Rangers:

The trade of Gerald Laird to the Tigers gets Detroit an inexpensive everyday catcher, but one with limited upside, and at a pretty significant cost in minor league pitching.

* * *

His secondary stuff is all projection at this point, but bear in mind that the Rangers might be the best team at identifying amateur talent in Latin America and have used that knowledge to find throw-ins for trades the past two years. They landed their top prospect, Neftali Feliz, in one of those trades, and toolsy outfielder Engel Beltre in another. Of course, Melo is just a baby in baseball terms, and the odds are against his staying healthy and developing into a big leaguer, but the strategy of collecting as many arms like his as possible and figuring enough will pan out is a sound one.

Christina Kahrl?  Not so much...

You might be asking yourself, two years of a start-worthy catcher, in this market, and that's it? Keep in mind that Laird's going to be arbitration-eligible both seasons, and that'll run his employers perhaps as much as $4-5 million over that time. Even so, if you're a Rangers fan who harbored high expectations for what Laird might bring you, this has to be a bit of a disappointment.

Joe Sheehan also weighed in...

The Tigers need a catcher and see nothing in the market they can invest in with confidence. The Rangers have a glut of them, thanks to some shrewd trades by Jon Daniels. Gerald Laird, pack your bags. Laird is a marginal starter himself, with so-so power, a poor contact rate, and a career K/BB over three to one. He has a good defensive reputation, and very good statistics, having thrown out 38 percent of the runners trying to steal on him in his career. Some of that may be in the pitchers he's worked with, such as Kenny Rogers and Vicente Padilla, who hold runners well, so take that figure with a grain of salt. Laird is a stopgap, and at 29, he's not going to change much. He's probably better used as part of a solution than as the whole one.

The Tigers didn't give up the store here. One of the prospects is a 25-year-old who has just 260 professional innings under his belt. Guillermo Moscoso was the Tigers' tenth-ranked prospect according to Baseball America, and while his performance begs attention—122 strikeouts in 86 2/3 innings at two levels last season—his age and level limit his upside. The other prospect, Carlos Melo, won't even be 18 until February 27, and is a skinny hard-throwing right-hander. Check back in 2012.

For the Rangers, it looks more and more like Taylor Teagarden is going to emerge from their group and be their starter in the long term. Teagarden is by far the best defensive catcher they have, and will be one of the best in baseball once he takes over in Arlington. While the team could find room for Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Max Ramirez, both players—who are marginal catchers with very big bats—would have more value to an organization that will put them behind the plate and live with their defense. That puts Daniels on the spot; he has a team that is emerging as one of the best collections of talent for the 2010s. His job now is to turn that into a baseball team, which means signing the right free agents—next year, in all likelihood—sorting through the gluts at some positions, and bringing along studs Neftali Feliz and Derek Holland in a way that balances their development, their health, and the team's needs. While I'd rather have his job than, say, Neal Huntington's, Daniels faces significant challenges in progressing from a strong organization to a championship team. Trading Saltalamacchia and Ramirez will be a critical step in that process.

Richard Durrett has some bullet points from Jon Daniels on the trade, including Daniels saying that the team is going to look at Moscoso as a starter.  From what little I know, he seems like a better fit in the pen, but the more I think about this, the more I have to wonder if Moscoso isn't this year's Terrmel Sledge, the guy we get in a trade and ruminate about and try to figure out where he'll fit in, only to see him moved before the season in another deal.  Moscoso is the type of live arm that lots of teams are going to be interested in, and could be a kicker in a deal involving one of the catchers, one of the expensive starters, or Hank Blalock.

Durrett also has a Q&A with Laird up.

Over at FanGraphs, Dave Cameron says Laird would be a $10-12 million per year player on the open market.

T.R. Sullivan has some notes up from Vegas, with the most notable being the Giants having interest in Blalock and the Braves having interest in Millwood.  For the life of me, I am having a hard time figuring out what sort of return a Millwood to Atlanta deal would bring.

Jeff Wilson has many blog updates today, including a mention that Greg Golson is going to be in Arlington working with Rudy Jaramillo this week.