Mark Teixeira's Phone Starting To Ring, But from Where?

The two teams from New York spent a lot of money on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the Yankees closing the deal with CC Sabathia and the Mets adding Francisco Rodriguez. While the numbers being given out in the Big Apple have led many to question where, in this economy, the dollars are coming from, it comes as no shock that teams in New York are throwing money around.

Now comes news that the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, two mid-market teams that have played between mediocre and awful baseball for the better part of a decade, are trying to get hometown hero first baseman Mark Teixeira to come back to the Maryland area. And the offers might surprise you.

Reports are that the Orioles have offered Teixeira a seven-year, $150 million contract.

Sound big? How about the Nationals, who apparently added an eighth year to the contract and made the total money $160 million.

I am certainly not here to preach about baseball displaying some modesty while hundreds of thousands of Americans are losing their jobs; this is a free market and as long as the fans keep paying what we do to watch the games, the salaries will continue to be justified.

But it does come as a shock to see two teams with minimal postseason hope willing to throw such ridiculous numbers at a player.

If Teixeira accepted the deal in Washington, he would likely bat around the prolific likes of Ryan Zimmerman, Austin Kearns, and Josh Willingham. In Baltimore, he would receive protection from Melvin Mora and Nick Markakis.

Not quite Chipper Jones or Vladimir Guerrero like he had last year in Atlanta and Anaheim, respectively.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of these proposals is that, in all likelihood, teams like the Angels and Red Sox won't have "Sabathia Money" laying around. If an offer were to come back for less money or years from either of those clubs, we could see a client of Scott Boras be forced to choose between money and winning.