My 100th post

The Braves traded Mark Teixeira to the Angels for Casey Kotchman and a minor league pitcher. I think the trade will be good for both teams. The Angels get a veteran first baseman for their playoff run. The Braves get a younger player (3 years younger) and they cut a huge amount of salary (Teixeira was making $9 million, Kotchman is making $400,000). Teixeira is a slightly better hitter and fielder, but not by much and their difference is definitly not $8.5 million. The other name on the trade block are Will Ohman, Mark Kotsay, and Mike Gonzalez. The trade deadline is Thursday at midnight.

Jair Jurrjens was named rookie of the month in the NL for June. Jorge Campillo pitched 7 strong innings yesterday, only giving up 2 runs. That was about the only good news yesterday. The Braves lost their fourth in a row, losing 8-3 to the Cardinals. The Braves are now 8.5 games behind in the NL East. Tim Hudson is probably lost for the year. Chipper Jones may be done for the year also. Brian McCann is out for a while after getting his bell rung in a home plate collision. It was so bad last night that our 3-4-5 hitters had 9 homers and 59 RBI combined.

But, we are still a young team. All of the regular starters are under 26, except for Chipper and Kotsay. Kotsay may be traded and Chipper may be MVP, so that isn't too bad. The pitching staff is a little older, but still mostly under 30. Hudson is the oldest at 32 years old. Jorge Campillo is 29, Charlie Morton 24, Jo Jo Reyes 23, and Jair Jurrjens is 22. All 8 pitchers in the bullpen are 30 or under. This team has a good core of players, they have just had some bad luck this year with injuries, one-run games, and playing on the road. They will be competitive next year, so we will see....