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The Los Angeles Angels, what I have always known to be the California Angels growing up, made a HUGE MOVE acquiring Mark Teixeira of the Atlanta Braves. The L.A. Angels are currently the best team in baseball.
The Braves traded Teixeira to the Los Angeles Angels for first baseman Casey Kotchman and minor-league reliever Stephen Marek on Tuesday, two days before the non-waiver trade deadline and one day after deciding it was time to turn the page on the team’s disappointing season and focus on the future.
Kotchman, 25, has hit .287 with 24 doubles, 12 home runs and 54 RBIs in 100 games for the Angels this season, after hitting .296 with 11 homers and 68 RBIs in his first full season in 2007. He’s a strong defensive first baseman.
“This is obviously not the way we wanted the season to end and go forward, but we look at it as building for the future,” Braves general manager Frank Wren said in announcing the trade an hour before Tuesday’s game against St. Louis.
The Braves also had serious trade discussions about Teixeira this week with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks. Wren said Kotchman was the best player offered.
While getting a first baseman in the deal wasn’t a prerequisite, he said it did give an advantage to any team offering a good one.
“I’m excited to go to Atlanta and play for Bobby Cox,” Kotchman told reporters in Boston, where the Angels were playing. The left-hander was raised in St. Petersburg, Fla., the son of former minor-leaguer player and manager Tom Kotchman, a long-time scout.
“The Braves are an East Coast, Southern team,” he said. “Bobby Cox has been there forever. Seeing how he handles players, pulls for them, I’ve got to believe it’s a blessing for me to start a new chapter in Atlanta.”
Teixeira hit .295 with 36 doubles, 37 homers and 134 RBI in 157 games for theBraves, with a .395 on-base percentage and only six errors. www.AJC.com
