Jake Peavy to White Sox?

Sigh..

This would just be the final nail in the coffin that is the utter dismal failure of an offseason that Jim Hendry had. Have at him White Sox. Good for you. If anyone needs me, I'll be on the ledge.

Peavy deal Dead. DeRosa still not here.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/rumors/post/Heilman-deal-appears-to-end-pursuit-of-Peavy-for?urn=mlb,137550

"We've had no talks about Jake Peavy since they were well-documented during the winter meetings," assistant general manager Randy Bush said. "I don't anticipate anything happening."

Ok, so I'm officially ticked. Not only, have you traded away arguably our most reliable hitter from last season, traded away a lefty from our lefty sparse bullpen, manged to hang on to Rich "out of options and out of baseball" Hill, and traded away our best extra pieces, but now you're once again killing the Peavy trade possibility.

Maybe Jim Hendry is just a baseball genius and I just don't get it. Do we have a better team than last year? I seriously doubt it. Maybe after Milt plays more than a baker's dozen games in the OF I'll change my opinion, but for now I don't think so.

And a minute later, DeRosa is still not here. Hope that World Series ring looks good on him...

Something brewing....?

So it seems Mark DeRosa and Jason Marquis have left the building...I'd be remiss if I didn't express my opinion here. Aaron Miles is a bargain basement Mark DeRosa. Sadly asd in most things, you tend to get what you paid for. WEill Miles be a switch hitting DeRosa? No. He won't be bad, but he won't be DeRosa.

De-Ro is coming off a career year, and actually his numbers have only gotten better since getting here. But he is also in the lkast year of his contract, and Hendry would not be resigning him for more than he already signed for, so DeRosa was gone at the end of the year anyway. May as well get something for him now. Milers offers less field flexibility for more plate flexibility, which is where the Cubs failed 3 months ago.

Marquis was a good 5th starter. In many rotations he's a decent 3rd starter. So's Sean Marshall. We can totally live without him.

All of this though, just reeks of something bigger. Some maneuvering that will send 5 players to San Diego. Something like a Cendeno, Pie, two of the 3 prospects we just picked up and maybe a Rich Hill.

It's possbile. And it's also the only thing that will make this DeRosa crap not suck.

No Jake For You!!!

For those of you anticipating the best rotation in baseball, and yes that would've included alternate dimensions -

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1297404,CST-SPT-cub25.article

On the continued rumblings -- notably out of San Diego -- that the Cubs still might be pursuing starting pitching, such as the Padres' Jake Peavy or free agent Randy Johnson, even after the Ryan Dempster signing: ''No. Starting we don't need. We're set. We've got six good starters [including Sean Marshall], and they're all experienced. Getting Dempster back was the key. We're in good shape with our starting pitching. Bullpen-wise, [we're looking for] possibly one more experienced pitcher. We've got a lot of young kids out there.''

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081123&content_id=3689645&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc&partnerId=rss_chc

The Padres are trying to cut costs, and acquiring Marquis wouldn't do that. He's owed $9.875 million in 2009. The Cubs headed into the offseason knowing they could afford either Dempster or Peavy, but not both.

Two sources in one day. Yeah...would've been nice, but I guess Jake will be getting his snuggles elsewhere...

Tough Question

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081119&content_id=3685573&vkey=hotstove2008&fext=.jsp&partnerId=rss_mlb

The San Diego Padres say the Cubs are still interested in trading for right-hander Jake Peavy. The Cubs, however, insist they would need to be very creative with their finances and get another team involved to swing a deal.

So here's the question. What to do? A month ago, I would've said go after Peavy all hard and old school. However now, after a bit of reflection, here's your rotation-

Zambrano, Dempster, Lilly, Harden, Marquis.

I can actually live with that. Right now, the need is a bat. The Cubs will tell you they need a left handed bat. I would argue that they need a bat that can hit righties as well as lefties. But let's say for the sake of argument, we need a left handed bat.

Looking back if anything failed the team during the season/offseason, it was offense. Due partially to the fact the Kosuke dropped his kibble in the last half of the season, and D-Lee forgot how to hit home runs. So given that, it would seem the offense has to be the bigger priority. So, Jake, unless Towers folds, looks like you're off to somwhere else, or stuck on that crap-ace team. At least the beach is nice eh?