Brave Move: Mark Teixeira Traded to Angels

The 2008 campaign is officially over for the Atlanta Braves.

Sitting 7.5 games out of the National League East lead, and with stars Chipper Jones and Tim Hudson recently placed on the DL, the Braves traded slugger Mark Teixeira away to the American League West, where he will join Vlad Guerrero in the middle of the Los Angeles Angels' lineup and the playoff hunt for the remainder of this season.

The Angels gave up fellow first baseman Casey Kotchman and minor-league pitcher Stephen Marek in exchange for the slugger.

Teixeira had been hitting .283 with 20 home runs and 78 RBI for an injury-ridden Braves team that saw veteran starters John Smoltz and Tom Glavine each go down early in the season. In addition, they had the injury bug bite Chipper Jones, keeping him out of the lineup this past weekend against the Philadelphia Phillies. The series was primed to show which way the Braves would go at the deadline: If they won, they might have kept Teixeira, but they lost and fell out of contention behind three teams in the action-packed NL East.

While that series was a good indicator, the injuries to Jones and Hudson are ultimately what made the Braves front office decide to sell Teixeira to the highest bidder.

In return for for the former All-Star, the Braves received Kotchman, who had been starting at first for the Angels, and Marek, who will likely be added to the Atlanta bullpen. Kotchman had been putting together a nice season with the Halos, hitting .287 with 12 home runs and 54 RBI. Marek, 25, had been 2-6 with a 3.66 ERA and three saves with the Angels' Double-A affiliate Arkansas.

Teixeira gives the Halos the bat that they've long coveted to help protect Vlad Guerrero in the middle of the lineup and put some more pop and production behind their stellar pitching staff.

The Angels hope to receive the numbers Teixeira put up in 54 games with Atlanta after being traded there last season. In that brief stint, he hit .317 with 17 homers and 56 RBI.

Now with more offensive production, as well as a great defensive player, look for the Angels to make a deep run in October.