Late Innings

Update: the Peavy to the Braves trade now seems highly unlikely, especially since Frank Wren doesn’t want to surrender the Braves’ top talent.

I wrote about this earlier last week, and the topic has gotten more and more attention since then. Any ways for the most part, due to issues such as no-trade clauses and prospect availability, the only team that has been linked with the Jake Peavy trade rumors has been the Atlanta Braves. There have been a number of suggestions linked, and the one group that has been mentioned is Tommy Hanson, Jordan Schafer, and one of Kelly Johnson/Yunel Escobar. Hanson for the most part is their only pitching prospect, Schafer lost some of his early season glitter after his 50 game HGH suspension, and Johnson/Escobar are regulars in the Braves infield.

Any ways personally I don’t feel that is enough for Peavy, who if going by the “good season", “off season” trend for Padres pitchers (which started with Oliver Perez and Brian Lawrence) is due for one hell of a season in 2008. Keith Law for the most part agrees.

The first question I have is why is Jason Heyward’s name not mentioned in these rumors? He should be the starting centerpiece for any deal for Peavy. I know that people don’t like trading their 2007 draft picks, however the Brewers did it with Matt LaPorta when they acquired C.C. Sabathia. I know that I’m not Paul DePodesta, but this is what I would do if I would shop Peavy (which I’m still not sure if the Padres even want to trade.)

Any ways Sickels coincidentally did his 20 best prospects for the Braves last night, during Game 2 of the World Series, and in media res of these Peavy talks. He ranked the prospects, and Heyward is #1, Hanson is #3 and Schafer is #4. Heyward got an A-, and Hanson and Schafer got B+es. Any ways his comments on Heyward:

A personal favorite, though he actually hit fewer homers than expected. Broad base of skills.

Some remarks on Tommy Hanson:

Looks good to me, though will need some Triple-A to put on the finishing touches. Number Two starter ceiling.

And a humorous quip on Schafer:

Power, speed, defense, OBP, and played well without the juice.

Any ways to surmise what the Padres could be getting here, a #3 pitching prospect, a #4 outfield prospect, and a regressing infielder in Johnson for an All Star in Peavy (who still had a 2.85 ERA in a “down” year?) If DePodesta pulled the trigger on this trade, we’d be ridiculing him, since this is a worse haul than the Twins got for Johan Santana. The city of San Diego would probably go after him as well.

Any ways to the Braves fans, start the package with Heyward. Throw in Hanson and two other top pitching prospects (kinda barren here) and you can have Peavy. That would do it for me, and would probably do it for the Padres as well. That’s the template which got the Mariners Erik Bedard, the Diamondbacks Dan Haren, the Brewers Sabathia and the Twins Santana.

If the Padres need help in looking for Braves pitching prospects, they can wait a few weeks for Baseball America to do their top 10 organizational prospects. They usually do the NL teams in November and the AL teams in January. Still there’s one thing that’s certain about these Peavy trade rumors: there should be no rush whatsoever on the Padres’ part to move their ace.