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Poll
Will the Peavy trade happen this week?
Yes, Peavy is as good as gone
50 votes
No, Peavy is stuck with Padres and the Padres are stuck with him
43 votes

93 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  37 comments

Comments

Hoffy

looks like he has no one else to go to the dance with.

I'm sure he'll find someone to go with

He still will probably end up with teh Dodgers to stick it to the Padres

And its nice to know that baring something impressive happening all of a sudden we’ll walk out of the winter meetings with jack squat to show for our efforts. Gotta love the padres.

if peavy's interest in the yankees is true...

it can only help the padres in getting what they want in return. i personally would like to see what towers could pull out of the yankees system.

Yankees don't have squat in their system

They won’t give up either Jackson or Hughes, their top two prospects, so unless KT wants to do what he’s done recently and take nothing for something, we wont’ get much out of the yankees.

Maybe Gardner and Matsui

I bet

They could get something better than the Cubs are offering.

agreed

i bet the padres like ian kennedy – even if you and i dont. he’s a control type guy that the padres seem to covet. i would take melky off their hands, too.

Plus

One might hope you could get the Cubs and Yanks to bid against each other.

I know, I know, it’s crazy, I know.

"looks more likely today than yesterday."

So does Armageddon. Yet another meaningless quote.

draft picks

this is why baseball teams should be able to trade draft picks. it would give them more freedom and possibilities in trades.

anyone care to argue against that? im merely interested in the opposing argument.

Argument Against

Draft picks don’t always pan out and probably wouldn’t be as enticing as we think. I don’t think it’s a bad idea for them to be able to do it, but I also don’t think they’d use the option very much.

I don't think it applies much to this case

The Padres don’t want players that will take 3-4 years to develop. They want players (specifically, pitchers) that will start pitching in San Diego in 2009 or 2010 at the latest.

The lack of “freedom” is mainly coming from the Peavy no trade clause. If it wasn’t for that, this deal would be done and I imagine that most of us would be okay with what the Padres got in return.

Speed

I’m just a casual fan, but shouldn’t the Padres be picking up nothing but speed? The team seems constructed backwards for the stadium they have. The stadium attracts pitchers with distant walls, shouldn’t there be some defensive speed and some folks that can burn up the basepaths? I took a quick look and it looks like they stole a base every week or so. This is not an Earl Weaver stadium where you can wait for the three run homer. You guys have probably talked that to death already.

Moores is cooked too; nobody is going to give him money unless they get to run the team; otherwise it’s just an interest free loan with a very nice parking spot and box seats. It may take a while but the Padres will see new ownership; hopefully it will attract some billionaire that won’t mind pouring cash into the payroll.

crossing over...

very bold of you.

but i agree with you. speed doesn’t slump. plus its exciting to see stolen bases. i mean it doesnt draw as many fans to the ballpark as power does, but we don’t have a ton of that either…

Coming over to the round side...

Wins draw fans too though; and they have some good power with Gonzalez and Headley right? I remember when they had Alan Wiggins; he could steal a base on a pitchout. And nobody was more fun to watch than Ozzie Smith; defensive talent is great to watch.

the team doesn't value speed

regardless of their stadium or what makes sense. towers and alderson have said time and time again that speed is not very high on their list.

That's a drag

This is like waiting for them to sell some priceless heirloom on ebay and the time is running out and the bid is like 2$.

Speed is crap

Talent is key. Bring in talented players and you won’t miss speed. Speed doesn’t mean you can hit, it doesn’t mean you can field, it doesn’t even mean you can run the bases well. I agree with the Padres, why bring in speed if it can’t do anything else?

I understand this is sort of a cop out because you might say, “Well get the guy with speed that can do stuff”. Well those guys are harder to get and teams that value speed will place a higher premium on it. So then you can ask yourself, should I get a couple very talented guys or get one talented guy with speed? For me, I’ll take more the deal that brings in more talent because it will produce more.

OK

The NFL always fails when they try to bring in some track star and turn him into a receiver. But the Padres seem to have gone away from even putting it on their list. They are dangling some amazing bait out there; I guess your sense is that speed is too highly valued by other teams? They want too much in return? I guess I could by that; but the way Petco is I would think speed (plus other skills) and defensive range would be much more valuable to the Padres than say the Rockies.

Still

You might as well take speed out of the equation. If you can get a guys that play defense as well or better than the speedy guys, then what is the purpose of adding speed?

Think about it this way:
If you want to travel by plane, you don’t look for the fastest plane, you look for the one that will get you there on time and for the best price. Sure, the speed of the plane helps, but its the whole package that matters.

That's a nice analogy
WRONG

i fly JetBlue for the TVs. Yeah so sometimes i get stuck for 7 hours on the plane. at least i get the History Channel.

One last shot

Gold glove outfielders from last year:

Shane Victorino, 36 SB
Nate McLouth, 23 SB
Carlos Beltran, 25 SB
Ichiru Suzuki, 43 SB
Grady Sizemore, 38 SB
Torii Hunter, 19 SB

Wouldn’t you say there is some correlation between speed and defense? Half the guys on that list stole more bases than the entire Padre roster.

One problem

The correlation between good fielding and gold glove awards is very small. To often horrible fielders are awarded those things for some unknown reason….in fact I don’t even know why they bother handing them out anymore. But if you want to make a correlation between speed and gold glove awards then you make a compelling argument there.

Between two guys who are very good fielders, the gold glove will go to the guy who has flashier offensive statistics.

Maybe there is a correlation between speed and defense

But it still doesn’t seem like anyone should care. The bottom line is you still want to find good defense, not good speed.

Also, Lance Berkman stole 18 bases last year. Are you going to tell me he’s faster than Jody Gerut or Scott Hairston? I’m not sure he’s even faster than Giles or Greene. Stolen bases aren’t really the best measure of speed.

Another thing, most of those guys are CFs and you only need one of those. So — if I accept that stolen bases = speed and gold gloves = good defense — I could concede that you need speed at 1 postion out of your starting 8. However, it doesn’t appear to be the case since Jody Gerut was one of the better defensive CFs but didn’t win a gold glove, and he looks pretty fast to me, but didn’t steal many bases.

Fair enough

But if speed is correlated with good defense then stolen bases will by and large come along with it. I’m not talking about the whole team being speed burners; but one or two guys that can tear up the basepaths plus some contact hitters that can get them around would seem to make a lot of sense to me.

It seems like that makes sense

But typically teams that try to score with burners and contact hitters end up being very good at scoring 1 run, but have trouble scoring many runs. Petco Park isn’t so extreme that you build a team that is extremely vulnerable to the 3 run homer. Men on base and power is still the key to scoring runs in today’s game (even if it is doubles power instead of HR power).

That being said, if the team added a speed guy or two that played good D and batted 7th and 8th in the lineup, I’d be down with that (you can maximize your light-hitting bottom of the order hitters ability to score by making sure they have speed), but having your best hitters be speed and contact guys would decrease your ability to score. Even at Petco.

the front office

is doing a lot talkin, but not a lot doin, if you know what i mean? it’s kind of frustrating. i mean i go here and everyday it’s the same freakin story. peavy wants to go here, but they wanna trade him over there. alderson hasn’t called hoffy, hoffy cries. no, wait, peavy’s staying after all… wait just kidding. like wtf? make up your flippin minds. i’m so over this little game they’re playing with each other. so tired of the dramz.

speaking of which, where is drama?

He's around

He’s whining about radio ratings or something.

Oh, cut that poo out (speed doesn't slump)

How does that apply to on-base-challenged Juan Pierre or Willy Taveras or Michael Bourn? Name a star player whose primary attribute is his legs?

You bring up Jose Reyes and I bring up one of those other 3 guys. Having said that, I would love the Pads to develop a Reyes, and wish they’d take a shot on some “toolsy” guys in the draft.

The draft

That’s the other issue with speed. You get to the draft and you ask yourself “Should I draft this guy that can do nothing but run and might get better at everything or should I draft this guy that can already hit and play a position and might better?” The Padres tend to choose the latter because they have more baseball talent and is more of a sure thing that way. However, in the international markets who don’t have to make an either/or choice. You can just grab as many prospects as you can sign. I think as the Padres develop their international guys, you will start to see more speed in the system.

So when Peavy doesn't get traded

Phantom has to put some GLB solicited signature on his profile right?

Gaslamp Ball

Peavy trade talk and Wonko weighing in

Speed doesn't always solve the equation

Anyone remember the ’06 playoffs?

Dave Roberts sat on third base the entire time.

Market's set

CC to the Yanks for $161m over 7.

Nice to see that teams are capable of doing multiple things

except for our beloved padres who are basically stuck on Peavy while everything goes around them. I guess I missed when the Padres could afford to play blackjack down in the casino. How about finding a damn backup Catcher and some bench players, there’s three GMs and all of them have to be stuck on peavy.
At least my other favorite team locked up a bonafide ace

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