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Reactions to the trade

Rather than throw up a new post everytime I see a reaction to the deal somewhere, I'm just going to update this post throughout the day...

Buster Olney calls it a win-win:

Within baseball circles, the peers of Texas GM Jon Daniels believe he did relatively well in this trade, considering the high ceilings of Salty and Class A shortstop Elvis Andrus, one of the prospects Atlanta is shipping to Texas, and considering the circumstances. Teixeira will be eligible for free agency in 15 months, and he's represented by agent Scott Boras, who takes his clients into free agency almost every opportunity he gets, and Texas had no plans for signing Teixeira; rival executives became convinced early last week that Teixeira was going to be traded.

But despite all of that, Daniels wound up getting Saltalamacchia, a 22-year-old catcher who is thought by some of his teammates to be at least the equal of solid Atlanta catcher Brian McCann, and perhaps even better -- and Saltalamacchia can flat-out rake. In 141 big-league at-bats, he's hitting .284, after hitting well at every level in the minors. In Texas' bandbox, he is liable to become a 30-homer threat sometime in the next few years. Andrus is probably years away from playing in the big leagues, and he is rough around the edges -- he has 25 errors in Class A this year -- but he has a chance to be very good, according to the evaluators who've seen him.

Two different diaries at Halo's Heaven...one commenter says that the claim that Saltalamacchia has a higher ceiling than Kotchman is "East Coast Bias," one another saying the Rangers are idiots because the Angels' offer of Kotchman and Saunders was better.

Discussion of the trade at BTF...

Joe Sheehan has praise for the Rangers in making this move, questioning whether Teixeira was enough of an upgrade over Saltalamacchia at first base to warrant Atlanta kicking in Andrus and two pitchers, although he also mentions Schuerholz's track record in selling high on prospects.

Some comments are up at the DMN blog, with several people bitching about not getting major-league-ready pitching.

Not Teixeira related, but the Transaction Oracle comments on the Lofton trade, with another good grade for Daniels there.

The Reaction amongst Braves fans appears mixed...

MacMahon says it is "OK," although he would have preferred a "premier pitching prospect," and wanted a Loney/Ethier/Kershaw package.