Peavy in Pinstripes?

Unfortunately, the short answer to that question is no. This is the time of year when the general managers meet and wild rumors begin to circulate everywhere. Something to keep in mind about me is that I love hearing about these rumors so expect many articles discussing rumors that I have heard. One of those rumors, which actually had some validation, was the Padres sending their ace, Jake Peavy, over to the Yankees in exchange for Phil Hughes and Melky Cabrera. I’m sure most Yankee fans were salivating at this thought but apparently this rumor is all but dead at this point. Peavy is two years away from free agency so the Padres may have been thinking about selling high on their young ace while they had the chance. Peavy was 19-6 with a 2.54 ERA and a major league leading 240 K’s in his likely CY Young award winning 2007 season. In his young career, Peavy is 76-51 with a 3.31 ERA and has twice led the league in ERA and twice in K’s. Phil Hughes is a great young prospect but his ceiling is to become what Jake Peavy is now, and Peavy is already there so that is a part of the trade that the Yankees do without hesitation. As I’ve hinted at before, I think Melky Cabrera is quite overrated, on defense and offense, and will never be much more then he is now so including him in the deal wouldn’t hurt, especially if it led to a signing of Aaron Rowand or Torii Hunter. However, while Jake Peavy is the ace the Yankees have been lacking (no Wang is not that ace), and is only 26 years old, there are many things about Jake Peavy that would drive Yankee fans crazy. For starters, if you move Jake Peavy out of the best pitcher’s park in the majors, out of the pitcher friendly national league, and into the division with the best offenses in the AL East it would be hard to expect Peavy to repeat his prior successes. Not only that, but Peavy has been just brutal in the post season. Peavy is 0-2 with a 12.10 ERA in the post season and this is not even including his ugly outing in the Padres one game tie breaker game against the Rockies this season in which he allowed 6 ER in 6.1 innings. That type of performance in the playoffs in New York is enough to get somebody crucified. The moral of the story, no trade or player is perfect, not even Jake Peavy.