Projo Sox Blog

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - Lars Anderson paid little attention to the Red Sox pursuit of Mark Teixeira even though the talented prospect's position would have been tied up for a long time if the team succeeded.

The 21-year-old first baseman's name, though, drew plenty of attention for a player with just two years in professional baseball.

The lanky slugger is amused by the talk that Boston is set at first base because of his potential. After all, he's never played above Double-A and is in just his first major league spring training camp.

"Am I really disappointed that he didn't sign? No," Anderson said. "But if he signed, I wouldn't work any differently. I'd be doing the same thing."

Teixeira ended up signing an eight-year contract with the New York Yankees. Anderson, who took an $825,000 signing bonus with Boston in 2006 rather than attend the University of California at Berkeley, has a much clearer path to the majors than if Teixeira was in his way.

"It didn't even happen so how am I going to get bent out of shape over it when it's not even a reality?" said Anderson, rated the 17th-best prospect by Baseball America. "There's so many things you can't control in this game and something like that is definitely one of them.

"I can control how I prepare and I control how I work."

 Tags  Lars Anderson Mark Teixeira New York Yankees

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