Jake Peavy

The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that the White Sox, not our Cubs, are closing in on acquiring the Padres ace.

The sickening details are here.

I love baseball newsy days in January. I love roster moves. You can see that I don't even mind listening to a baseball guru or two.

Fox's Baseball analyst, Ken Rosenthal was on WGN Radio's "Sports Central" show hosted by David Kaplan tonight. For those not able to listen, here's a summary of his take on all things recently swirling in Cubsville. He takes on Milton Bradley vs Lou Piniella (a dangerous mix). Could these two ever be as lovable as Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson in the 2003 film, Anger Management? Somehow, I just can't see LouPa getting Bradley to sing, "I Feel Pretty".

Plus a bit more on the shrinking odds to acquire some guy named Jake.

On to the details, after the jump...

So ends the saga of Jake Peavy to the Cubs for 7 or more players. But is the deal really dead? In fact, even the Brian Roberts deal isn't exactly dead. These kind of non-transactions take a "life" of their own. So I thought we might play a little game. One of the more common cliche's is "the best trade is often the one not made". So I'm asking for you to reach back and see what you can remember as to rumored trades that never occurred but if they had been made, would have been one gigantic mistake for someone or maybe even a timeline changer in the course of baseball history. Sosa for Soriano circa 2000 comes to mind. I'm sure there are some good one's out there to remember. Please help.

UPDATE: Apparently the NSBB story guy(DonnieD) was vacationing in Puerto Rico, not that he lives there. Apperently some folks at NSBB think this is vital information. I think it's inconsequential. I also think most of the folks on that board have an extra chromosome, especially this genius who thinks Chad's bit of information has anything to do with the NSBB story. They're two mutually exclusive stories pal, I just posted them together - try to figure that out.

So to sum up for the reading impaired, i.e. the posters at NSBB - dude met Jake Peavy at a resort in Puerto Rico and Peavy said he's not going to Atlanta and if he can't end up in Southern California, he wants to be in Chicago. Padres rightfully aren't interested in sending him to the Dodgers and Peavy still would prefer to pitch in the NL.

Then, a completely isolated story was related in the comments by one of our readers, NOT The Cub Reporter or any of its writers. That reader heard something from a source that has been reliable in the past for him. I have no reasons to doubt Chad as he's been at posting at The Cub Reporter longer than I've been writing and Chad may be a lot of things, but he's not a liar. 

Oh, the Internet...the wild west of information and speculation has spewed out a couple of beauties for us. First, a fella that claims to live in Puerto Rico relays a story of running into Jake Peavy over on the Northside Baseball Message Boards. Read the entire link but he basically says that Peavy only wants to come to the Cubs. There was a Nike Tour in Puerto Rico this week, so he's either a good researcher who has weaved together a fantastic story or telling the truth.

Then, long-time reader Chad relays this bit of information:

MAJOR GRAIN OF SALT ALERT

My boss has an inside guy in the San Diego Padres front office. Says the deal is done. Just waiting on the announcement.

I will say that a few things that my boss has tipped me off on in the past came true.

Please notice the bold type, but we've known Chad a long time around here and I'm confident he  heard what he heard. It MAY NOT come to pass, as it is a rumor afterall, but I don't have any doubts that is what he was told.

So there you go, if nothing happens, don't blame me, I'm just passing along the information. They are rumors afterall. 

The Padres called, the Cubs said they're interested, and it's a possibility.

According to a West Coast source, the Cubs are the
Padres' best option for a trade partner if for no other reason than
they're not the Dodgers, who are Peavy's first choice, and they're not
the Braves, who at this point are saying they won't deal their best
prospects.

That's the latest from Barry Rozner of The Daily Herald and I'd probably put a lot more stock into it if it was from Bruce Miles, but it should make the offseason rather interesting. Rozner doesn't believe the Cubs have the pitching prospects that the Padres are looking for, and if you consider Jeff Samardzija and Carlos Marmol as untouchable, I'd have to agree. He then goes batshit crazy by suggesting Sean Marshall and Felix Pie to the Padres and then dumping Jason Marquis and another prospect or two to a third team that would land the Padres the elite pitching prospect that they so crave.

While I agree that dumping the bulk of Jason Marquis' contract for next year would be crucial in trying to acquire Peavy and resigning Ryan Dempster, there will be no good player being exchanged for Jason Marquis and the near $10M he's owed.