The Jake Peavy-Cubs trade talks have reached a point where it will be a stunner if the Cubs don’t acquire Peavy, who immediately would become the best pitcher on a staff that already boasts Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly and Rich Harden.
That’s because two general managers -– the Padres’ Kevin Towers and the Cubs’ Jim Hendry -- are working hard to make it happen. If it doesn’t happen, it’ll become one of the few trades -– maybe the first -- that couldn’t be made when BOTH general managers were motivated to get it done.
Towers told reporters on Monday that the Cubs were the only team he is continuing to talk to about Peavy and that making a Peavy trade was his full focus at the winter meetings. He then went out and proved it by working to facilitate a potentially four-team trade that would send Mark DeRosa to Philadelphia and Felix Pie to Baltimore and bring back pitchers Garrett Olson, J.A. Happ (the Northwestern product) and Sean Marshall for the Padres.
The key for that deal to work is for the Phillies or Orioles to take Jason Marquis, with the Cubs agreeing to eat some of his salary.
DeLuca from the non-bankrupt Sun-Times: (again, italics mine)
Cubs and Baltimore Orioles sources confirmed that one element of the deal is virtually set, with the Cubs sending outfield prospect Felix Pie to the Orioles for pitcher Garrett Olson, who would be shipped to San Diego in the Peavy swap. A second team, believed to be the Philadelphia Phillies, also could help beef up the package of prospects. The Phils reportedly have interest in Cubs utilityman Mark DeRosa.
Hendry has not been as willing to discuss the negotiations as Towers -- and the Padres GM's frankness has irked the Cubs -- but sources say the Cubs would first like to land the left-handed bat they need and clear salary space by dealing right-hander Jason Marquis before closing the Peavy deal. Marquis is set to earn $9.875 million in 2009, but a source said the Cubs might eat $4 million or more of that salary.
Peavy talks hit a recent speed bump because there hasn't been much of a market for Marquis, a source said. Look for the talks to heat up over the next 24 hours -- and possibly include Marquis landing in San Diego as part of the package.
One report Monday night had right-hander Angel Guzman also included in the discussions.
So it looks like Pie and Marquis are definitely gone from the Cubs, DeRosa and Marshall most likely out, possibly Guzman as well.
If we get the left-handed bat and Peavy? I'm loving it. We may have to eat salary, but still.
Here's another article from MLB.com (Barry M. Bloom and Marty Noble) about how the Phils are looking to get DeRosa as a replacement for Utley. Utley is expected to be out for about 2 months of the season after offseason hip surgery.
Ron Santo doesn't make the hall, because people don't understand diabetes.
''Getting in or not getting in is not going to change my life at all. I'm going to be me, and that's it," Santo said, according to the Sun-Times. "But I feel I deserve this. I put up Hall of Fame numbers during the greatest era of baseball for pitchers, and I played with diabetes. Only diabetics can know what I went through. It would have just been satisfying [to be elected].''It's obvious to me that, despite what he may say publicly, the two things Santo wants most in this world are a Cubs World Series and a place in Cooperstown. To come so close to the Hall so often and still be left out would take an emotional toll on anyone. This was supposedly his year, when they reformed the Veterans Committee.
Again from Rogers at the Trib.
Trying to understand the Hall
After three consecutive ballots in which the living Hall of Famers rejected all the candidates before them, the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors revised the voting procedures, seemingly in an attempt to get someone elected.
Logic would dictate that the person who would benefit the most would be the guy who had been the closest –- Ron Santo. But when the new procedures were put to work, Santo went backward -- he finished nine votes short this time after missing by five votes two years ago – and someone else got elected. That was second baseman Joe Gordon, who had finished 19th on the previous Veterans Committee ballot.
Nineteenth? That’s amazing.
Gordon leap-frogged the other candidates because the Hall instituted a second ballot for players who played before World War II. It established a 12-member historical review committee –- similar to the old 15-member Veterans Committee, which was abolished a decade ago – to evaluate those candidate. Gordon not only was elected but Allie Reynolds (182 career victories) missed being elected by only one vote.
What do Gordon and Reynolds have in common? They played the majority of their careers in New York.
I think I understand the frustration he must feel. But giving out soundbites like calling the Hall of Fame voting "ridiculous" and saying "[o]nly diabetics can know what I went through" is not the way to earn votes. Santo's always been Santo, wearing his emotion on his sleeve, and that may rub voters the wrong way in what is essentially a popularity contest.
But, Santo, don't go calling for the voting process to be changed every year you don't get in. Don't tell the voters they don't understand what you had to go through. Just be the bigger man and take it in stride. You had a great career, Hall of Fame or not. But your career is over, your stats now are your stats 50 years from now. The only major changes in the number of votes you receive will be voter turnover, or a major overhaul of the voting system. You have control over neither. Sure you can lobby for change, but do you really expect the Hall of Fame committee to adapt the system to obviously benefit you? You had a great career playing, you have a new job as radio broadcaster, be content with that. But don't expect the call. Buck O'Neil took it in stride, and he STILL wasn't elected. Save yourself the disappointment, and reflect on what you have. Maybe you'll even get a pleasant surprise one day.
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