Here are some interesting snippets about Mark Teixeira's future from a Jayson Stark column over at ESPN:
As of early Monday, the Braves hadn't glued a ribbon on Teixeira's head and stationed him in their main display window -- yet. But we're hearing they have gathered their chief decision-makers in Atlanta for a meeting Monday afternoon.
Add to that the fact that special assistant to the GM, Jim Fregosi (also one of the Braves top talent evaluators), was in attendance in Philadelphia with GM Frank Wren to watch the Braves. Those last two games, by the way, were actually pretty historic:
The feeling of clubs that have spoken with Braves GM Frank Wren is that he hasn't seen anything lately that would convince him his team has a 41-17 run in it (which is what it would take to get to 90 wins). And neither has anyone else.
Wren followed his team to Philadelphia over the weekend, to try to get "a feel" for which way it was headed, he said. What he witnessed was almost incomprehensible -- a weekend in which the Braves blew leads of five-plus runs to the same team in back-to-back games for the first time in franchise history.
"I don't know how he could watch that," said an official of one club monitoring the Teixeira situation closely, "and come away thinking they've still got a shot at this thing."
Here's the market, according to Stark:
Tampa Bay is looking for a right-handed-hitting right fielder, not a first baseman. The Red Sox don't have a place to fit David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, Mike Lowell and Teixeira even if they unload Manny. The Angels love their first baseman, Casey Kotchman, and seem more focused on a low-level bullpen deal. And none of those teams would give up its first baseman for a two-month rental of Teixeira.
So that still seems to leave Arizona as the best fit. Despite reports that Atlanta would insist on getting Conor Jackson back for Teixeira, one source with knowledge of those clubs' conversations says those reports are "not accurate."
"'Insist' is not the right word," the source said. "For one thing, there hasn't been that much conversation. That would insinuate somebody walked away from an offer that didn't include him. And that's not the case."
Keep in mind that all of this "no market for Tex" talk is simply speculation on the part of writers. The Braves know there's a market for him out there, there's always going to be people inquiring on someone who could have such an impact on a team. One factor to keep in mind about this "market" for Tex is that if the Braves play the game right it will probably be just before the deadline when he is traded.