Blasts from their past?
Teixeira, drafted by Sox, didn't sign
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ANAHEIM, Calif. - If you could pick about five hitters in baseball who could be tagged with the label "perfect for the Red Sox," Mark Teixeira likely would have his name in capital letters. It's no secret the current Sox regime always has coveted the switch-hitting first baseman.
The old guard of general manager Dan Duquette and farm director Wayne Britton did, too. They drafted him out of Mount St. Joseph's High School in Catonville, Md., in the ninth round in 1998 and were interested enough to concoct a story that Teixeira wanted to go to college so they could get him later in the draft after telling him they'd pick him in the first round.
The strategy worked in one sense, that they were able to draft him, but it backfired badly when his adviser, Scott Boras, and Teixeira's dad John, a Navy officer who had lived in Maine and rooted for the Red Sox, were so upset with what the Sox had done, they walked away from a take-it-or-leave it $1.5 million bonus. Teixeira went to Georgia Tech.
The whole experience with the Sox stung for a while, as Teixeira really wanted to play major league ball. Instead, he flourished at Georgia Tech, where he hit .427 as a junior.
"That was the greatest decision of my life, both professionally and personally," said Teixeira while preparing for a game vs. Texas last weekend. "It was made very clear to me that I wasn't ready for pro baseball. The business of it is something I completely understand now, but as an 18-year-old kid it was completely unfair.
"I got to go to college and have the three best years of my life. And I can't complain on how my career has turned out. I was upset about it for a couple of weeks, but then I started getting into college, and once I stepped on the campus of Georgia Tech, I knew it was meant to be."
Teixeira recalled, "[The Red Sox] treated us very poorly. It's something I tell high school kids who are going to be drafted that you've got to be ready for the business. Unfortunately, that's the way we were treated after I got drafted, and that's the reason I didn't sign with the Red Sox. We never sought or asked for an apology, but like I said, it was the best thing that ever happened to me."
Time certainly has healed those wounds. A new front-office regime has made Boston less evil to him. Over the last couple of years he's heard speculation about Boston's interest, even this season before the Angels acquired him in a July 29 deal from Atlanta for Casey Kotchman and minor league pitcher Steve Marek. He actually joined the Angels in Boston July 30.
If Mike Lowell hadn't re-signed with Boston in the offseason, there is belief in some quarters that the master plan was to move Kevin Youkilis to third and obtain Teixeira to play first.
"They're great people," Teixeira said of the new Sox brass. "I had Terry Francona [as a coach] in Texas for spring training. He's an amazing guy. I was there with [third base coach] DeMarlo Hale and [psychologist] Donny Kalkstein. I don't know [GM] Theo Epstein very well, but I hear great things about him. There are a great group of guys over there, and they've been successful as a result of it."
For a player so good, he's moved around a lot in his first six seasons. He's played for Texas, Atlanta, and now Los Angeles, and he'll be a free agent at season's end and could be on the move again.
He's won two Gold Gloves, and he's averaged 35 homers and 118 RBIs over the last five seasons. He's hit .369 since the All-Star break, and is an on-base machine, an aspect of his game the Red Sox and others, like the Yankees, love. He hit .358 with an on-base percentage of .449 in 54 games with the Angels.
His 203 homers are the most by a switch-hitter over the first six years of his career, and he's driven in 100 or more runs in five straight seasons. He totaled 33 homers and 121 RBIs this season.
He's loving Anaheim, but he's very careful in what he says about his future.
"You hear so many rumors," he said. "If you're gonna be traded anywhere - a place like Anaheim, a place like Boston kind of knocks your socks off, so I was definitely not disappointed when I was traded here. Considering some of the other rumors I heard, I could go to worse places.
"No matter where I am, it's going to be for a long time," added Teixeira. "I've been hopping around the last year and a half. It's tough on my family. Having to move them so much and not knowing where we're going to be, you're not able to make plans because you don't know where you're going to be playing next year."
Teixeira still lives in Texas, the team that selected him fifth overall in the 2001 draft, but he said he'll move his family (a wife and two children) to wherever he ends up.
"After I become a free agent, I'll just stay wherever I sign," he said. "Those are things I can talk about after the season. I love playing here. These are a great group of guys, great fan base. Southern California is beautiful, but we have some unfinished business."
What Teixeira has done, according to Angels hitting coach Mickey Hatcher, is change the culture of hitting in Los Angeles. He's taught teammates to be more patient, to take walks if the perfect pitch to hit isn't there.
"He definitely adds a lot to our lineup with that on-base percentage; a guy that works the count," Hatcher said. "It's good for some of my players to watch that. He's brought that into our lineup. Ever since we got him he's had a lot of big hits for us. He gets on base to help us create more runs. He plays unbelievable defense, and I think that makes our pitching staff that more confident. He's just fun to watch."
Teixeira believes he's improving as he matures. He doesn't think he's hit his ceiling as a hitter but is just now coming into his prime.
"I'm getting better as a hitter," he said. "I've become a much more well-rounded hitter. In my first couple of years in the big leagues, I swung for the fences a little bit more. I didn't get on base as much I could have. I didn't drive in runners in scoring position as good as I should have. I just feel I'm getting better every year. The best hitters in baseball get better with age."
As a Ranger he was always in the 120s in strikeouts. That declined to 112 with Texas and Atlanta in 2007, and this season he finished with fewer than 100 strikeouts for the first time (93).
He's a self-professed "cage rat," in that he hits endlessly. One reason is he tries to get a certain amount of hacks from the left and right side. Perhaps more on those nights when he knows he'll bat lefthanded. Teixeira said while he's a natural righthanded hitter, "I bat so much lefthanded that it's much easier for me now.
"I became a switch-hitter when I was 13 years old and it took me a couple of years to really feel comfortable from the left side. Now sometimes if I haven't hit righthanded for a few days and suddenly have to switch over, it can cost me a bad day."
He feels he benefits from having Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter hitting around him in what has become a potent 3-4-5 part of the Angels' batting order. For years LA searched for protection for Guerrero, and now he's covered like a blanket.
"I've told a lot of people around here how underappreciated [Guerrero] is," Teixeira said. "The players appreciate it, but first he was in Montreal and now he's kind of hiding on the West Coast. People around baseball don't give him the credit that he deserves."
Teixeira said the '08 Angels are "head and shoulders the best team I've ever been on. It's mostly because of our pitching. When you have a starting rotation like ours, and a record-breaking closer, that's pretty impressive."
Of the Red Sox he said, "I just know they have a great team. I respect their pitching."
And Teixeira now has the respect to show how feared he is.
Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.
