I think Joe S. thought a Pie/Marshall/Prospect package might get a Peavy deal done.

I hope we put such a potential offer on the table. Peavy would be huge for the front of our rotation.

Jim K - great post on the prior subject this morning. Well stated - particularly regarding Pinella.

Peavy would be awesome for are rotation. with him and Zambrano at the top of are rotation, we would have a great 1-2. I think it will take a lot in a trade to get him. SD will not let him go for nothing. It's going to take at least 3-4 players for Peavy. Look what it took to get Harden. I'm afraid we do not have enough to trade for him. The other teams on that list do. St. louis will be all over this. I have a bad feeling that, St. louis is were he will end up. GO CUBS

It would probably take a Vitters, Pie, Colvin, and pitching prospect (maybe even the shark) to get Peavy

I am assuming that if we acquired Peavy, we would be letting Dempster walk. Otherwise that would be quite a financial commitment. And I think Hendry wants to save $ for a left-handed bat. I love Peavy, I'm just saying.....

Doesn't the Shark have a no trade clause in his contact?

I can't see us having enough to get Peavy. Houston definitely doesn't. The Cards might with a package based on Rasmus and others. The Dodgers have enough to offer though I'd think the Pads would want him out of their division. The Braves (with a package based on Heyward and a couple of their high end pitching prospects) would seem to be the best match.

The team we currently have now, will win the division or wild card atleast come next year. What Hendry needs to do is build a team for the post season, and by that I mean guys that hit and wont choke. I believe if we were to just get Manny Ramirez that would be enough to put this team over the top. I saw the 07 & 08 playoffs and what i saw was a team that lacked confidence, a guy like manny would bring enough confidence on this team to get the whole team pumped up. We need someone that will bring confidence in that clubhouse, and i believe manny is the man.

David F...in living down here in Atlanta, the Braves rotation is decimated with Hudson out with his recent surgery, Smoltz likely heading back to the closer role, and Glavine considering retiring (even if he comes back, his best days are behind him). The Braves farm system isn't what is used to be relative to pitching prospects (Jagr is the only bright spot that produced last year), and they'll be looking to lower v. add to payroll. While the Braves would love a Peavy, I just don't see the local pieces to make that happen. Just a local opinion though.

I'm glad to see Peavy has the Cubs on his list....I've said from the start this can work! I agree that if we pull it off, we let Dempster walk unless he gives a significant "hometown discount".

The Padres want inexpensive payroll....especially given the divorce situation with the owners John and Becky Moores. It's messy. They struggled all year to find a CF to roam expansive Petco Park. Pie would be an excellent fit. I say we try to expand the trade and get Greene as our SS, moving Theriot to 2B or possibly including Theriot, or even Cedeno (or both) as part of the trade for them to use at SS/2B. If we package Marshall in the deal and another young arm....I think this deal can be done in a heartbeat.

Here IMO is the kind of deal we would be competing with for the stud, Peavy. The Angels would likely send the Pads: Kendrick, a proven .300+ hitter and mediocre fielder in the bigs to play 2nd; Arredondo, an excellent young reliever late in the year in the bigs, B. Wilson, a top catching prospect and a good pitching prospect. Maybe Saunders instead of Arredondo if they lose KRod.

I think it would take it would take Samardzija, Ceda, Pie and Guzman from us. Dempster is not Peavy but we can get what should be a 15-17 game winner (Demp) for less money and keep the high potential guys like Samardzija and Ceda.

Cary,

I just go by what I've read as I'm no where near Atlanta, but I thought Tommy Hanson is considered a top SP propect for the Braves with more upside than Jair Jurhens. I could see a package of Hanson and Heyward with a couple other prospects being very hard to beat.

hmmmmmmmmm....don't know what to do with this information. It reeks of a Boras-esque situation. Here's what I mean:
-usually, it is the team that will quietly navigate the league in search of the right trade partner
-Boras pulled this same crap with Boston, trying to find trade partners before a decisions was even made on Boston's part (perhaps it was leveraging on behalf of the team to raise the bounty, but perhaps it was leveraging for his own benefit with a new team, who knows?) Keep in mind that the Mets, Marlins, Yankees, and Blue Jays were all rumored to be in on any deal. It seems like Boras brought in LA at the last moment, realizing that if Manny actually put 100% effort, they'd probably re-up him without question (which looks like a no-brainer on their part) because they have the funds to do so, whereas other trade partners had dollars tied up, or in the Marlins case, couldn't spend at all.
-Axelrod, Peavy's agent is leaking names of preferred teams, which makes me wonder why, since that information is usually confidential between player-agent-team. Get what I mean?
-LA would certainly have the talent to make a trade for Peavy. I don't know enough about other team's systems to make a truly accurate judgement, but from BA rankings, I've seen the Astros and Cardinals ranked near the bottom for talent in their system. Would we match up? I don't know. Aren't his innings and possible injuries (missed time this year) alarming?
http://www.baseball-reference.com/p/peavyja01.shtml

His stats...ERA and innings pitched in particular are eerily similar to Zambrano, and even their age and pitching style are similar. Zambrano has the edge on innings, because he's pitched one year longer than Peavy has

http://www.baseball-reference.com/z/zambrca01.shtml

Is Peavy headed for similar health problems? Could that be why they're shuttling him off, being that he is their ace? Could they be hiding behind a "youth movement" trying to get the most out of their ace? I mean, weren't they technically in a youth movement already?

Anyway, just questions you have to ponder. Sure, you'd love to get your hands on an ace. That's why almost all of us loved the Harden deal...but look at what was lurking in the shadows, and look at his MRI, drop in velocity, pitch every other week, etc., etc. I know Peavy doesn't have the injury history as Harden did, but it just makes you wonder, that's all.

My take on the Pads, Peavy and Axelrod trade rumors. It's simply an unannounced collaboration where a big contract guy, Peavy, influences where he goes and the Pad's replace a not very old Peavy with three or more younger players still under team control and making under $1 million. The younger "established" guys like Kendrick, Arredondo, (or Saunders), Wilson (or Mathis) of the Angels fall into that category.

If the Dodgers don't get Sabathia, an in-division deal for Peavy could happen. There could be a couple of other "acceptable" bidders.

I had an unpleasant flashback to the Cubs' infield blowup during the NLCS. That would be the inning where we were given 2 errors but really had 3. The flashback came in the fatal 5th inning of the Philies-Dodgers game tonight. There were 3 errors in quick succession resulting in 2 runs. All 3 errors were by Furcal. It may not be symptomatic of difficulty with pressure, but it raises questions.

ive gotten to the poitn where i think no matter who we get and how good we are we will sitll lose in the playoffs? convince me wrong im still hurting

He'll go to Atlanta. Where free agent pitchers go to poop themselves!

I don't think we could get him without a serious package. Does Pie still have any trade value? If I'm the Padres I would laugh at any mention of Pie. Pie = Patterson, to me. Coulda, shoulda, will never.

Info from the San Diego guy......

Towers announced at the end of the season or just before that he was examining the entire team and nobody was untouchable and included Peavy and Gonzlaez (1B) in his statement.

Peavy's health issues this year were nothing like Zambrano's. There is no doubt about Peavy's future.

The problem out here, as I mentioned before, is the owner, John Moores and his wife (Becky) are going through a nasty divorce. They've even battled over who gets to use the owners box....thats how bad it is. They haven't said outright, but this is a definite attempt to save money. That's all it is folks. So, nothing to do with the agent....the GM spoke first. Nothing to do with health issues.....he was fine once off the DL.....it's all about ownership. As Neal wrote in the story, he has several years on his contract and alot of money.

The Padres also put a wedge between them and Khalil Greene (who I've advocated getting)by filing a grievance against him to recoup over 1 million dollars for his missing a portion of the season as a result of breaking his hand after punching a wall or locker or something in frustration. There have been many injuries like this that teams have not tried to collect money back.

Fact is you can't really call this a fire sale, because there aren't many starts to begin with. It appears they will offer Trevor Hoffman a contract as a free agent because they pretty much have to or this town would revolt against them. Trevor is second to only Tony Gwynn to Padres fans.

Cubs need to go after Peavy!

By the way my last post started by just saying "Towers announced"...that would be General Manager Kevin Towers...

Also to address the comment that the numbers between Zambrano and Peavy are "eerily similar"...uh, maybe compared to Victor Zambrano because if you look at their ERA's....Peavy has had an ERA UNDER 2.90 in 4 out of the last 5 years..including one year at 2.27 and one at 2.54. Carlos in the last 6 years has had ONE season under 3.00 and that was in 2004 when he was at 2.75. Since then he has steadily climbed into the almost 4.00 range (3.95 in 2007 and 3.91 this year). So there is no comparison there. And although only ERA and Innings were specifically mentioned, I will say that another category that Peavy blows Zambrano away is the ever important WALKS...In the last 5 years here are Peavy's totals: 53-50-62-68-59. Here are Zambrano's totals in the last 5 years: 81-86-115-101-72. Obviously Jake is better there too. And even in Strikeouts, Zambrano has seen a dramatic decline in two years..while Peavy has not (taking into account both missed about the same amount of time this year). Peavy's totals for the last 5 years: 173-216-215-240-166 while Big Z's numbers over the last 5 years were: 188-202-210-177-130.

Carlos is a good pitcher...but Peavy is a bit better. And he doesnt throw pissy temper tantrums either.

Joe S,

Those ERA numbers are skewed -- because Peavy Pitches in a HUGE, completely pitcher-friendly park.

His career road ERA is 3.80, as opposed to 2.77 at home.

Big Z has a 3.36 ERA on the road and a .359 at home

Wrigley is about 100 times more hitter-friendly than Petco Park.

Given that, Peavy is definitely a notch above Z on the totem pole, no doubt about it. But the difference is not THAT big.

Baron,

Stole the words right out of my mouth.

I never argued against having Peavy...I was just citing IP as a potential health issue down the road, and cited Zambrano as a case in point.

jj...I feel your pain. But ,unlike you, I think that a strong-nonchoke-leader needs/can be INSERTED into this lineup and it could go the right way. Simple math tells you that there is a lineup card problem since it is obvious players are batting in the wrong spot of the lineup.[Soriano-Lee-Theriot-Aramis] One thing is for sure, if we stick with the same team we will choke even harder, probably loose the playoff spot at the end of next year's campaign to Houston or a shitty rallying team.

1-Aramis[my fav.Cub]Ramirez = A-Rod without the regular season numbers.[Chone Figgins is not afraid]If my man stays he should bat 3rd.Choke artist#1
2-Soriano=nothing, think of it. I hate Adam Dunn because of the strike outs and bad outfield play but ain't that a mirror of Soriano? That is, minus the 70 point differential in OBP. ADunn would be a better leadoff hitter.seriously trade Alfonso and get Crawford.Choke artist#2
3-DLee=the non-leader leader. He just had a great 2005 and that has been enough for him to be in the 3spot for ever. He is a great player but not a 3 hitter...he is a 6th spot guy....just ASK the MARLINS. And if he has another career year, then great!
4-Dempster=DLee of 05'. He just had his carrer year, now sign him cheap or let him go...PERIOD. I appreciate the gutsy seaon this guy put in and am still vomiting because of all the walks he gave up in game 1. Choke artist #3
5-Derosa=MVP of our team, choked in game 2. Please understand this guy cannot play the outfield and neither can Hoffpauir.
**Rothschild needs to go. I have nothing against him other that he can't handle Zambrano or make him respect him.

ok I'll stop for a while. Hey, here's to a speedy recovery. CCO Therapy helps.

Very true about Petco Park and I should have referenced that...however...that has no bearing on the huge walk differential, and what has become a big strike out differential. Not to mention the professionalism....look I love Carlos....but I'm tired of his antics on the mound....grow the f*&k up already Carlos....

Anyhow..I had the benefit of living in San Diego, so I was able to provide insight that he's not hurt, it's not an agent work, it's the Pads shopping due to the divorce of the owner....

The injury question should be for Carlos....I'm concerned he's got a huge problem. Aside from his up and down performance this year, and all the time missed this year....look at how dramatically his strikeouts have dropped....thats an alarm. The bullcrap that Brenly and Kasper shoot out about oh his K's are down because he is trying to be more efficient is a lie....c'mon we as fans know Carlos is not going to adjust his style like that--especially when it isnt even working. Something is seriously wrong and could blow up this year.....

Part of our problem is that we don't have tons of good prospects to trade. Thinking about young, potentially expendible players, Marshall has nice value, Pie has some, Ceda is somewhat valuable, Atkins a little, and beyond that the cupboard is pretty bare.

Our main asset to acquire players, is, once again, CASH. We always have some of that around.

I like taking advantage of San Diego though. That sounds like a bargain in the making.

Keith,

I agree with you to some extent, but look at recent trades for big name players like Manny, Harden, Santana, and others, as well as our recent past---Nomar (who at the time was quite a player), and you'll see that our limited talent base can actually acquire pretty good talent if we use it right, and if our players fill their needs. We value guys differently than some teams, and vice-versa. Some teams actually might value Wuertz, while we'll cast him aside, and others still see potential in Hill when we and management have all but given up on him. You just never know...this is a crazy game, and who knows how prospects will turn out....it's often a crapshoot when you're dealing with players not drafted in the top 15 or so players in the first round. Guys like Upton, Longoria, Fielder, Braun, Crawford, Kazmir, Tulowitzki, etc. are hard to come by. The rest are tough to figure out. Raise your hand if you thought Theriot or Soto would become productive major leaguers for our team? Conversely, raise your hand if you thought Patterson, Prior, and Pie would flame out after productive minor league seasons? If you answered yes, you're probably in the minority of fans AND management. In the case of Theriot and Soto neither were highly touted. Yes, they were drafted for potential, but neither had very good minor league stats to justify anything, then they came up and surprised a lot of people.

My point is, again, we might not value a given player while another team notices their potential, and give them a shot. Theriot and Soto were thrust into spots where we were shaky, and that's how they got their shot. A lot of our prospects are blocked at key positions. I just hope that Hendry doesn't fall into the trap of "untouchable" players in the system. We've been burned so many times before, and it's high time we capitalize on more Harden-type trades where we're giving away spare parts.

So I just found out that the Cubs tried to turn Theriot into a switch hitter in the minors and that it killed his stats.

Maybe thats why he wasnt highly touted. And myabe thats a sign that Theriot's MLB stats aernt an abberation?

This is a really good site. I just found it googling around. Well I didn't get to see my beloved cubbies much (in Iraq)but I think its time to start over or we will turn into the Chicago Braves. realistically they can't trade Soriano, so the next best thing is to trade Ramirez and Lee. I agree Lee is not a #3 hitter and Ramirez is not a prototype #4.I'm also not sold on Theriot being an everyday SS. We need an infusion of speed where ever they can find it. Good teams manufacture runs and the Cubs don't. If I was a betting man I wouldn't put my money on the same cast next year. Thats two years in a row they have disappointed. I wouldn't resign Dempster either go after Sabathia I heard he was really good friends with Drew Gooden(Bulls) maybe that will help. If all else fails try to deal Soriano back to the yankees at the trade deadline I'm sure they will take him by then! GO CUBS

What worries me about Jake is his delivery.
It's very violent.
And since he is mainlly a strike out pitcher he does not pitch deep into the game.
Average is 6 to 7 innings.
Plus I would hate to deal with Boras!