Texas Fans Booing Tex?

Loved this article from the Dallas Star-Telegram, chiding the local fans for booing Tex. It says:

C’mon, you should be cheering every time he comes to the plate here, not just because he was an all-around good guy and superb player while wearing a Rangers uniform, but because we have him to thank for much of what this team is today and what it has a chance to become.

This is what general manager Jon Daniels astutely turned Teixeira into when he traded his soon-to-be-free agent-first baseman to Atlanta on July 31 two years ago:

A starting shortstop in Elvis Andrus who is making a magnificent case for himself as the American League Rookie of the Year.

A left-handed starting pitcher in Harrison who, despite Monday’s awful start, won nine games as a rookie a year ago and just four starts ago threw a complete-game shutout against the White Sox. In other words, he’s not nearly as bad as he looked Monday.

A young starting catcher in Jarrod Saltalamacchia who has 30-home run potential and is just beginning to blossom at age 24.

A flame-throwing right-hander in Frisco named Neftali Feliz, who in late February was ranked 10th on Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects list and regularly tickles 100 mph on the radar gun.

Left-handed reliever Beau Jones, also at Frisco, who was a combined 9-1 in three stops in his first year of professional baseball.

And you think A-Rod robbed the bank by running off with Tom Hicks’ money? Hindsight is beginning to show us that Daniels should have been arrested and charged with grand larceny for fleecing the Braves so badly.

So here’s my question to those who so lustily and repeatedly booed Tex when he came to the plate Monday: If the Yankees called this morning and offered him back to the Rangers for Andrus, Harrison, Salty, Feliz and Jones, would you do it?

Of course not. An old Baseball axiom on judging trades is to wait a few years, and ask yourself if you would do the trade again in reverse. In the case of Mark Teixeira and the Texas Rangers, that question is easy. There’s no way on Earth Texas would ever trade the players they got for Tex two years ago. Some of them are the foundation of their team, and others appear to be ready to help very soon.

Remember this the next time you hear some “Baseball purist” pontificating about how the money the big market teams throw at free agents is “bad for baseball” and hurts small market teams.  You can make the system work for you if you’re a smart GM. If a small market team is being hurt by players leaving, they have a management problem as much as a revenue problem.