Inattentive (UPDATED)

Just to clear things up, the reason I have not been writing anything about baseball has nothing to do with the fact that the Braves are below .500 and have had injuries left and right during the year.

No, the real reason I haven't written much about baseball these past few months is that I really haven't been paying much attention this season. Not just the Braves, but the entire sport.

I had not really wattched much baseball this year, but I decided to flip on the All-Star Game last week around 11:00, as I figured I would be catching the tail end of the game. As we all probably know by now, it went 15 innings, and the extra six innings played were some of the most inept baseball I've ever seen. It only served to remind me why I've preferred to watch other things or not watch TV at all lately.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise this week to find out that the Braves traded away Mark Teixeira for an inferior (but cheaper and younger) first baseman and a middling pitching prospect. Generally, the Braves have not been sellers at the trade deadline.

In looking a little closer, though, I guess we can't be too surprised. The games since the All-Star break were really a make-or-break time for the season, despite the injuries to Smoltz, Hudson, Chipper, and about half the roster. Instead, they've gone 4-7 to fall into fourth place in the division, 8.5 games behind first.

UPDATE: Tim Hudson will need Tommy John surgery. So you can probably write off 2009 too.

The only surprise there should be from this deal is that the Braves get so little in return. Even though it is a rent-a-player deal for a Boras client, this is still a 28-year old 1B with 37 homers in the past 162 games who's just entered his prime.

At least that prediction can go into the garbage pretty early this year.

I would hope, for the Braves' sake, that this is not the last deal to come down the pike. The Braves really need a lot of pieces at this point, so now may be as good a time as any to stockpile as many young assets as possible.

In the meantime...training camp is underway, and as bad as the Falcons will probably be this year I'll still be paying more attention to them than to the Braves, not to mention the Dawgs pursuing #1.