Braves Trade Mark Teixeira to Angels

Earlier today, it was rumored that the Atlanta Braves traded first basemen Mark Teixeira to the Los Angeles Angels for first baseman Casey Kotchman and a minor leaguer. If this trade goes through, and all indications point to it going through, the Angels have to be the clear cut favorites in the American League.

Now I am not going to sit here and say that I have been on the Angels bandwagon since day 1, but I did make some interesting observations a few weeks ago about the Angels having the best road record in the AL and how that makes them to favorites to make the World Series. Now with the acquisition of Teixeira, I think that just cements their standing as the favorites even more because my one criticism of the Angels has been that I don't really like their offense all that much.

Teixeira is a major upgrade offensively compared to Casey Kotchman. Here is how their stats compare on the season:

Teixeira: .283, 20 HR, 78 RBI, .390 OBP, .512 SLG, 139 OPS+

Kotchman: .287, 12 HR, 54 RBI, .327 OBP, .448 SLG, 105 OPS+

As you can see, Teixeira is far more productive offensively than Kotchman. While Teixeira definitely is more powerful than Kotchman, he also gets on base more, which is going to be a key for the Angels, who do not have an offense that has a high on-base percentage. The Angels currently rank 11th out of 14 teams in the AL with a .322 OBP. Since he is so good at getting on base, I would expect Teixeira to bat third in the Angels lineup; ahead of Vlad Guerrero and Garrett Anderson in order to give them more RBI chances.

Overall, I think this is a great trade for the Angels and I think this cements the fact that the other teams in the American League will have to go through them in order to make the World Series.