Odds & Ends: Padres, Maddux, Anthony Reyes

A few Odds & Ends with a San Diego focus:

• Tom Krasovic of the Union Tribune notes that the Padres are close to completing a trade for a reliever with "good stuff" according to Kevin Towers.  It does not say who it is, but it should be someone better than LHPs Joe Thatcher, who would be sent down, and Glendon Rusch, who was just outrighted yesterday.  Rusch has 3 days to accept his assignment.  He most likely will as he signed a minor league deal after missing all of ’07.  Stay tuned to see who the Padres acquire.  Any guesses?
• "If [Anthony] Reyes enjoys success as a major-league pitcher, it will likely occur elsewhere," writes Joe Stauss of the St. Louis Dispatch.  This is old news – two years old actually, if you go back to a March ’06 MLBTR post.  We’re just waiting for Cards GM John Mozeliak to lower his price…
• Tim Sullivan brings us a quote from Jake Peavy, "He can help somebody. It sucks that this is probably the last year of his career and he’s got to sit here and be a part of this and have (this be) the last thing he remembers in baseball — if this thing doesn’t turn."  Sullivan seems to think he could net a couple prospects in a trade, which seems reasonable.  Maddux can certainly reel in some ticket sales, if nothing else – I would love to watch the Professor cap off his legend with my team.

By Nat Boyle