Rosenthal's Latest: Griffey, Peavy, Dempster

Its gonna take more than Marquis if they are involving a third team. It's unlikely the Cubs are offering Vitters. Marquis has no trade value and they need to acquire chips that are attractive to the Padres.

It's starting to look like Peavy might not be going anywhere anyway... remember Brian Roberts last year? And I know this isn't the NFL but how about Chad Johnson

"Seems like with each passing day the chances of the Cubs having a dream rotation is getting better and better."

I'm not sure what about that story made you think the Cubs' chances got better. Ceda was an attractive piece for Towers and now he is gone. Unless the Cubs are willing to pony up Vitters they can forget about Peavy.

Sure seems like they did, if any of these rumors are to be believed...

I guess what made me think Ceda was an attractive piece for Towers was all the baseball pundits saying it was so. Who should I believe... Bdlugz and 100backeduptrucks or Peter Gammons?

LOL. Peter Gammons!? You have to be kidding me. He's about as reliable as Jhonny Damon's arm.

"It's starting to look like Peavy might not be going anywhere anyway... remember Brian Roberts last year?"

You forget that there's a slight difference between the Roberts situation and the Peavy situation: The Padres want to rebuild and get rid of payroll, and the owners have their approval; The owner of the Orioles, Angelos, always has to stick his nose in his GMs business, and he got in the way of the trade. At least, that's what the rumours were. It makes sense, as Roberts is a favourite of his, and, well, he's not a very good owner. Like James Dolan of the Knicks.

"Cubs receive: Peavy
Pads reveive: Pie/Marshall/Cedeno/prospects from team C
Team C receives: Vitters"

I agree that this is likely the only way in which the Cubs land Peavy. They would have to deal Vitters to a team that wanted an elite hitting prospect and had a little pitching to spare (Yankees? Twins? Giants?) and then go from there.

Basically something like this:

to Chicago: Peavy
to San Diego: Tim Alderson, Felix Pie, Ronny Cedeno and Sean Marshall
to San Francisco: Josh Vitters

Or in a magical Cubs world:

to Chicago: Peavy and Randy Winn
to San Diego: Alderson, Pie, Cedeno, Marshall
to San Francisco: Vitters and another young player (Micah Hoffpauir?)

so, before the cubs traded ceda for gregg, they were in the mix, but couldn't get a deal done. fine. then they trade ceda, one of their supposed high value chips, to another team, and towers comes out and says in a radio interview (i didn't hear it myself, i'm getting this secondhand) that he's "focused" on the cubs? AFTER they traded a rumored focal point of the deal? doesn't quite add up, does it? it's been said for how long, by towers himself, that a third/fourth team would have to be involved for the cubs to get him, and the ceda deal apparently hasn't changed that. the padres want young STARTING pitching, something ceda is not, and what the cubs don't have much to offer, if any. towers also said that for the cubs to give what the padres are asking for it wouldn't even be worth it at that point (i'm guessing guys like marmol and soto in that case). i found the link...

http://www.gaslampball.com/2008/11/17/663860/kevin-towers-it-s-been-pre

again, this isn't the gospel, it's just what i read. fwiw, if it's vitters making/breaking this deal, i make the deal, but i can understand those that don't. and now i've gone and speculated MORE on jake peavy, something i said i wouldn't do more of. oh well...

Scribbletone...
In order for the Giants to get involved and trade Tim Alderson to the Madres they would require the Cubs to take Winn's full contract and to get Kouzmanoff. Which will never happen. So forget the Giants.

"In order for the Giants to get involved and trade Tim Alderson to the Madres they would require the Cubs to take Winn's full contract and to get Kouzmanoff. Which will never happen. So forget the Giants."

I'm sure the Cubs would be willing to take on Winn's one year and like $9M. He would be an awesome fit for them, as a high OBP outfielder with some power and speed.

And just curious, but why the hell would the Giants want Kouzmanoff instead of Vitters, unless you meant to say they would want Kouz in addition? Kouzmanoff posted a .299 OBP last season and is a poor defensive third baseman, I don't understand why the Giants would have serious interest in him.

If San Francisco was okay with poor defense at third in order to get some power there, they would probably just stick Sandoval there and figure out how to get a hitter at first.

Right. And if you're willing to settle defensively then put Sandoval at third and add a (more common) good hitting 1B. Forget Kouz.

And a future lineup with Sandoval, Vitters, Villalona, Posey, Gillespie and Noonan would be very talented.

"As a phils fan when we put $25 million into ownership's coffers with a WS run and ticket sales/merchandise etc (and that's a conservative figure), I certainly hope they don't just give out arbitration raises and call it a day. I'm not saying they need to give Pat a 5 year $50 million contract, but the payroll needs to increase. I don't care if you go get an average left-fielder or make a trade for a Dye or a Magglio Ordonez and spend some on locking up Hamels and or Howard long term (Hamels before Howard please), but I don't want to see the Mets increase their payroll to $150-$170 million and see ours increase minimally."

The extra merchandise and price sales from the WS run will certainly be spent in arbitration (not even covering that). They already mentioned that they have no problem adding 40-50 mil pay raise at the least.

I like Burrell, he's a Phillie.. period.. but if he doesn't take a pay cut, then we can't take him. Wouldn't surprise me if they platoon LF this year, but hopefully they can deal someone like Jason Donald(SS) and trash Kendrick and get a young OF with potential.

I agree on Hamels before Howard. And Phuck the Mets.