Peavy traded to the White Sox

[Beninator]

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/32241732/ns/sports-baseball/

[SFP]

I'm not sure what they gave up but unless they gave up a more then 1 All Star caliber player, it was worth it. Peavy is one of the premier pitchers and good guys in baseball. They now have two of the best pitchers in baseball which in in the playoffs is all you need. I'm not sure who in the AL can match those two coming at you. They are 2 games back with plenty to play and if Peavey's injury to his ankle is fine I'd expect to see them in the playoffs again with a legitamate chance of going all the way.

[Da Coach]

The price for Peavy was Clayton Richard, who was scheduled to start tonight's game against the Yankees, and who is a very good left handed prospect, Aaron Poreda, another left handed pitcher who is at AAA and is rated higher than Richard, Adam Russell, a hard throwing right hander at AAA, and Dexter Carter, an A-level pitcher who also is projected to be a solid major leaguer.

Here is a summary of the players involved-

http://futuresox.com/frontpage/?p=1116

[SFP]

As they say a bird in the hand is better then 2 in the bush. With pitchers you could even say 3 in the bush. I guess I'm a big Peavey fan having seen him pitch and I'd bet he has a long great career in front of him.

[Beninator]

Kind of interesting article... winners and losers for the mlb trades per NBC Sports.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/32245552/ns/sports-baseball/

[Da Coach]

Interesting read. I had never heard of this writer Tony Demarco before, and I have to say I disagree with most of his analysis. He lauds the Red Sox and Cardinals, both of whom did nothing to improve their pitching for the stretch run, which is what usually makes the biggest difference in a pennant winner. And he rips the White Sox, who acquired arguably the best pitcher in the NL, without giving up a single player of significance on their major league roster.

But then he really gets silly and says-
There are reasons why Orlando Cabrera keeps getting traded to contenders for stretch runs — he's a gamer, an excellent defender and clutch hitter, who just so happens to be red-hot of late.

Is he joking, or is he just dull? The reason Cabrera keeps getting traded is that he is a cancer on any team. He is a me-first kind of player, who doesn't get along with anyone. He is having an average year at the plate, he's a .280 singles hitter. His on-base percentage is a terrible .318.

As for being a "gamer", his batting average for the White Sox last year in the playoffs was .125, and his lifetime postseason BA is just .242. Hardly what I could call a "gamer".

And, though Cabrera has the reputation as a decent fielder, this year he has been absolutely terrible. His fielding average this year is .968, well below his career average. The Oakland A's were ecstatic to get rid of Cabrera. They traded him for a low class A player, and they even paid the Twins $500,000 to take him off their hands. The A's didn't even have another shortstop on the roster to replace Cabrera, which tells how determined they were to unload him, and they called up a utility player who was hitting just .242 in the minors to play shortstop for the rest of the season.

Tony Demarco also puts the Atlanta Braves in the category of winners at the trade deadline for their shrewd acquisition of Adam LaRoche. Huh? The Braves already had LaRoche once, and dumped him. Now adding this .263 hitter back in place of Casey Kotchman makes the Braves a winner? What's this Demarco smoking?

[Beninator]

DC, I have to say that I agree with you... I think that it is interesting to analyze trades after they happen.... that being said...

I think that the White Sox gave up too many good pitching prospects to land an injured Jake Peavy. But, the one good thing about the Peavy trade is that the front office sent a message to their players that the management want the Sox to win it all this year and next year with this trade.

I also like the Cubs trade... that is if Gorzelanny retruns to his old form which I think is possible. We need bullpen help and Grabow is an attempt to fill that need.

I also think that the Cardinal trade to land Matt Holliday is a too soon to tell trade. From what I have read, St Louis gave up a pretty good prospect to land Holliday. Somehow I think that the Cardinals could have traded for a person with equal talent to Holliday without sacrificing a top prospect...

[Da Coach]

Being a White Sox fan, I am also not sold on the Peavy deal, though it's rare to get a Cy Young caliber pitcher who is signed for 3 or possibly 4 more years (through 2012 with a club option for 2013).

Of the pitchers the Sox gave up, Poreda and Richard have the chance to be solid major league pitchers someday, but nothing is guaranteed. Russell is a big (6'9") hard thrower who has always had good success in the minors, but his fastball doesn't move at all, and he had gotten lit up by major league hitters. I don't think the White Sox see him as any loss. The wild card could be Dexter Carter. He has been sensational at the lowest level, but the Sox do not project him to be as successful at higher levels, because he hasn't developed an offspeed pitch. But he still could turn out to be very good. Time will tell.
However, none of these pitchers are rated the best in the Sox system. They are stocked with a bunch of great young arms.

The other thing that author did was to bring up the money the White Sox would have to pay Peavy. That shouldn't be considered by fans when they judge the success of trades. He didn't bring up the cost of the Cardinals keeping Holliday, or the Red Sox keeping Martinez on top of their already bloated payroll. I just thought it was a poorly written analysis.

[DUBrave5]

Being a Cubs fan I was a little disappointed to hear about Peavy going to the South Side. But that trade will put them in a good spot come September as long as they can stay contendors until that point. Buerhle, Danks, Floyd, Peavy, and even Contreras, if he can keep form and throw consistent quality starts, pose a very intimidating rotation and if and when they get to the playoffs, they'll only need 4 of those guys.

The did seem to give up a lot but when you want to land a guy of Peavy status you are going to have to. Hopefully this will help draw more fans to the stadium for their games because Williams and Reinsdorf just showed that they are serious about winning now and not a couple years into the future.

As far as my Cubs go, I am glad they got some more left handed pitching. Having only Sean Marshall in the bullpen really puts a lot of pressure on the Cubs and forces Lou to use those substitution antics that cause Marshall to play Left Field for an out or two. The addition of Gorzelanny will cause an interesting dilemma when Ted Lilly returns because the Cubs will then have Zambrano, Dempster, Wells, Harden, Lilly, and Gorzelanny so somebody will have to go to the pen but who do you put there? Wells has pitched fantastic this year but he may be the low man on the totem pole. Or do they ask Dempster to go back to being a closer? Should be interesting but like people say, pitching is what leads teams in the postseason so if both our teams can somehow make it there, they should be in good shape.

[Beninator]

Wells has pitched fantastic this year but he may be the low man on the totem pole.

I know where you are coming from,but I hope that the Cubs keep Wells in the starting rotation. I saw Wells pitch for the first time last week. I may be a little premature here, but Wells reminds me of a very young Greg Maddux! What happens for the rest of his career who knows... but I very much like what I have seen so far!

[Chico]

Did I hear the FOX annoncers say today that Peavy won't pitch for awhile? If so, IMO they gave up too much because Richard has been pitching good as a fill in starter.

[sam hannam]

Peavy is on the DL. He could be ready to pitch in late August.

[Chico]

Peavy is on the DL. He could be ready to pitch in late August.

A month too late. Bad trade, unless the Sox can hang close.

[thefish7]

Chico,

I think the reason that they pulled the trigger on that trade, despite Peavy being on the DL, is because Richards would have only started 3 times while Peavy is on DL since the 5th starter slot is skipped whenever possible. I'm not a big Sox fan (they're like my 4th or 5th favorite team... well above the Cubs or Cards despite my being a Peoria-area guy), but I think this was a great trade for them. Peavy's the real deal and should be for a few years yet, and the White Sox surrendered decent, but not great, prospects in exchange. There's a chance one of them will turn out to be a decent player, but not much chance that any of them will be as good as Peavy.

[Beninator]

My concern about Peavy is that he has had some type of injury for the past two years... time will tell....