While trade rumors swirl about Jake Peavy being traded to the Chicago White Sox in return for prospects, I can exhale. In the back of my mind, since Spring I have been worried that Jered Weaver and Brandon Wood were being boxed and gift wrapped for Bud Black and the San Diego Padres.
Besides the old gut just having one of those feelings about it, there were many reasons I was opposed to the Peavy trade that I can now articulate:
SALARY ... when the Angels are selling 10,000 fewer tickets for a visiting RED SOX series, the likelihood of a quick recovery for teams to afford the salaries of yore may be a few years off from now.
FLEXIBILITY ... as in, we'd have NONE, with Jake still having his no-trade clause.
ELBOW ... he missed 26 games with a bark in his.
SHOULDER ... missed time in 2006 with an owie there, too.
PETCO ... Jose Lima has a future as a Padre when you think about it. This pitcher's park inflates his numbers. To what degree is debatable, but it has to lower his trade value.
NATIONAL LEAGUE ... Basically he has been facing AAA lineups, one in nine batters are not professional hitters and many of his away games are in the pitching-friendly Chavez Latrine as well. Imagine him in Fenway Park in October throwing heat that goes to the track in Echo Park and the Gaslamp district... it would end up in the Citgo neon, and were he pitching for the Angels... well that doesn't change the story of our recent Octobers.
EVERYDAY PLAYERS ... Trading pitching for pitching is one thing, but the Angels would be trading from their depth and the only middle infield prospect that would bring Peavy would be Brandon Wood. Aybar and Saunders would be too much, Wood and Weaver wold be suicide. Trading a player who plays 162 games for one who plays 33 games still does not add up. If the player you trade goes on to be an all star and the player you get ends up on the disabled, that alone is terrible, but if both function at a high level, perhaps All-Star caliber, thanks, I will take the player punching the clock every day.
Maybe I am spoiled by years of the Angels producing their own home-grown pitching talent and using free agency to pull in decent depth, but Jake Peavy, his no-trade clause, his Hedge Fund-era salary and his Petco padded numbers are a gamble that Tony Reagins need not break out the ninja gear for.