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Friday morning items

A few quick things to point out...

The S-T has an article on Gerald Laird, and his work to reclaim the starting job he won in spring training 2004.

Kat O'Brien has a piece on Mark Teixeira's second half resurgence. After a disappointing first half, Teixeira has hit .288/.411/.618 since the break. I think any worries that Teixeira wasn't the player we thought he was should be put to rest.

Evan Grant has an item in the DMN blog about candidates for the Tom Grieve and Nolan Ryan awards.

One of the things that jumped out at me was a commenter on the blog saying that Nate Gold will be ready to take over Teixeira's spot when Teixeira's contract is up.

I'm not sure if he meant after 2007, when Teixeira's current extension is up, or after 2008, when Teixeira is a free agent. But in either case, that's simply not realistic.

Gold is 26 years old. He's a year older than Mark Teixeira right now. I don't want to hear comparisons to Travis Hafner...when Hafner was 26, he was playing for the Indians. Hafner was 24 when he was in AA.

Gold has a .292/.376/.582 line in AA. While those are very good numbers, the reality is that he's playing against much younger competition. A 26 year old first baseman putting up those sorts of numbers in AAA would still probably be just a fringe prospect...a 26 year old first baseman putting up those numbers barely is going to be on the radar. His major league equivalent is a .227/.292/.425 line. That's not going to get you a job in the majors.

Gold has had a very nice year. But he's a fringe prospect, at best. He's not Mark Teixeira's heir apparent, he shouldn't be on the 40 man roster this year, and Rangers fans should not be counting on him to do anything on the major league level.