OPINION

By Ryan Fagan

updated 10:46 p.m. ET July 29, 2008

These are the types of days Arte Moreno must have dreamed of when he purchased the Anaheim Angels in 2003.

It's hard to imagine a better six-hour stretch for his baseball franchise than the one it had Tuesday. In the afternoon, the Angels completed a deal to acquire the best hitter on the trade market — first baseman Mark Teixeira, who brings the big bat the offense has been lacking and shores up the only "weakness" this team seemed to have. Then, as an evening encore, Moreno's ace pitcher, John Lackey, carried a no-hitter into the ninth on the road against the Red Sox, one of the best franchises of this decade.

Lackey lost his bid for his first no-no on a one-out, ground-ball single by Dustin Pedroia, but that did little to dampen the building enthusiasm and momentum the Angels are carrying into the final months of the regular season. The win left the team 26 games over .500 and way, way ahead in the American League West.

In the past several years, the Angels have been called many unkind names on Aug. 1. The July 31 non-waiver trade deadline would pass, and L.A.'s "other" team would stand pat despite possessing a team that had needed just a tweak or two to make a deep run into the postseason. But times have changed. The Angels haven't really been the "other" team in Southern California for quite some time — they have four playoff berths since 2002; the Dodgers have had only two since 1997 — and this year they didn't hesitate to make a move at the deadline.

The Teixeira deal represents more of a risk than the Angels have typically been willing to take. For one, he can become a free agent after the season and has made no secret of his desire to sign a record-breaking contract — excluding Alex Rodriguez, of course. He's a switch hitter — in fact, he owns the single-season RBI record for switch hitters with 144 in 2005 — but even he has a few faults. "I just worry that he takes too many pitches," one scout told Sporting News Today.

Casey Kotchman, the primary chip the Angels exchanged for Teixeira, is an elite fielder at first base and a solid — and improving — hitter who isn't eligible to become a free agent until after the 2011 season.

The Angels have the juice to give Teixeira the big dollars and long-term contract he desires, and it's hard to imagine any player not wanting to play several years for manager Mike Scioscia. But Teixeira is an East Coast guy — he's from Maryland and went to Georgia Tech — and in the past has publicly stated his desire to eventually return to his roots.

If the Angels get bumped early in the postseason and Teixeira heads east, this deal will go down as a bad move. But it seems much more possible that the Angels will head to the World Series for the first time since 2002. Either way, this move was worth the risk.

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