Teixeira is great.

His .328 EqA would have been second-best in the American League(behind Milton Bradley, ahead of the great Alex Rodriguez) if he'd played in that league all year, and he posted a .321 EqA the year before. His 10.8 WARP3, which is widely considered the best full-skill statistical assessment metric, would have made him the second best position player in the AL(behind the guy who should have Pedroia's award, Joe Mauer). 10 win players are prime MVP candidates, and Teixeira would have posted back to back 10 win seasons if he hadn't missed two weeks in '07.

A .300/.400/.500 hitter with gold glove defense annually is a top player, without question. Teixeira might not have one specific attribute that makes him better than his peers, but he has as wide a breadth of skills as anyone in baseball. He does virtually everything well, and possesses every major skill except elite speed. He just had the misfortune of having not played on a playoff team until the last two months of this past season, so he didn't receive the attention your classically overrated RBI guys(the Morneaus and Howards of the world) get, despite being better.

I'd say, along with A-Rod, Mauer, and Sizemore, Teixeira is one of the four or five best position players in the AL, and there's no reason to expect him to stop being one suddenly, given his baseball pedigree of being one of the most heralded college players of all time and a former consensus top minor league prospect. Unlike Sabathia, he's in good shape, and is one of the hardest workers in baseball. I think a good comparison for this contract is the one given to Todd Helton in 2001. Even if Teixeira's power declines(as Helton's did) by the time his contract nears its conclusion, his plate discipline and quality defense will make him valuable, and Teixeira has the added bonus of being a switch hitter.

MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.