Texiera the Great? CHALLENGE

Never, and I mean never before have I ever heard an announcer heap undeserving praise on a player like Buck Martinez gave Mark Texiera in Game 2. To be fair, if you look at the box score from the game you will see that Texiera went 3-3 for with an RBI and a run scored. At first glance, that looks like a decent game. But then you dig a little deeper and realize that all three of his hits were singles and his RBI came on a sac fly. All of a sudden not so much right? Maybe if that were a bottom of the lineup middle infielder we could sing the praises, but forgive me if I can't get excited about a cleanup hitter's game when all he did was hit three singles and drive in a run by making an out. If you were listening to the way Buck was raving about Texiera last night though you would have thought that he was 4-4 with 2 homers, 2 doubles, and 8 driven in. Nope. Three singles and a sac fly. For the guy who supposedly was the "missing link" to the Angels offense and was going to put them over the top that is pretty meager.

And that brings me to my next point.

I've always kind of felt that Texiera would be one of these players who would put up good to great numbers every year for 75-85 win teams and always be a non-factor in the postseason. Call him a poor man's A-Rod if you want. In fact, call him a poor man's A-Rod because I was talking to a Braves fan a few weeks back and I asked him about Texiera and his response was, "He's the type of guy that will come up empty in big spots, but hit the three run homer when you are already up two or down five". Sound familiar? Let's just say that at this moment right now 2004 Gary Sheffield is still safe as the most intimidating player the Sox have ever gone up against in the playoffs.

I used to want Texiera for the Sox because I'd look at his numbers and force myself into really liking the guy. After this series though? No thanks. Somebody will give him big cash, but the Yankees really have no need for a first baseman these days and the Mets will probably just re-up Delgado at a team friendly rate so I'm not sure where he's going to get the cash this offseason, but where ever that cash comes from I am not going to sweat it even if he does land in the lap of a rival.