That would be fine, too. I don't think Paulino is untouchable. He's only 16 months younger than Peavy, if you can believe that, and is still completely unproven. Mediocre in AA in 06 and 07, hurt in 08. He could move from 'could be' to 'never was' in a hurry.
The Padres are going to want prospects for Peavy, but thats the problem the Astros have no prospects to give them. Our farm system is crap so its a pipe dream to think of this happening.
that's why i think the only chance of this happening is if valverde goes, too. because valverde could easily be flipped for prospects.
i'd worry about that after i paired two potential cy young candidates in my starting rotation. jake peavy for 5 seasons > jose valverde
Thought this nugget from Alyson was interesting. We knew we were on the list, but apparently we are No. 1 on the list. Not that that means anything in negotiations, obviously, but it's intriguing. http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/...t_id=3629172&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou
We would have to involve another team to get them what they want. Pence definitely fits the CF requirement, but who could we move where to get 2 pitching prospects? I'm not getting my hopes up.
If I were GM of the Astros, I'd be calling every team possible to see what they can do to make this happen. Flip Valverde to another team for prospects that the Padres want (or work out the 3-way deal for them). See what you can muster out of the "talent" that you do actually have in the minors. Find out if Wiggington has any value at all for prospects the Padres may want. Same goes for Tejada. All-in-all, when an elite pitcher says he wants to go to your team... you exhaust all opportunities in an attempt to make sure it happens.
Especially when he's 27 years old and signed long term at a relatively reasonable price. The posts screaming "who will be our closer?" in response to the prospect of trading valverde remind me of the popular "who will be our backup center?" argument by the pro-francis crowd prior to the mcgrady trade.
Here's a toughie, would you trade Pence, Valverde, prospects (not that we have many to begin with) to get Jake, or would you sign a top tier pitcher (i'm thinking Sheets might be the one we would target) and not have to worry about filling the gaps. So: Peavy - Pence or Sheets + Pence and everyone else I dunno....
Sheets may not pitch next year. He never pitches 200 innings anymore. Of course, that might mean you could get him cheaper than you'd expect. But Peavy for 5 years would just be amazing.
Peavy. Sheets may be the worst example to cherry pick in presenting this dilemma to us. Geez, I can have Pence, plus two months of Ben Sheets at $12 million dollars. Maybe he'll sign a four year deal and we can watch him a third of the next three seasons after that!
Absolutely. And what people don't realize... if you have Pence penciled in as a RF, you can find a bargain basement corner outfielder to give you almost identical production. (At least to the 2008 version of Pence.)
Hmm... it definitely isn't a good sign when the opposing team's GM is willing to go on the record and state that the Astros aren't a good match. Not that I expected it to happen anyway, but... http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2008/oct/17/padres-padsweb1718101/?padres
Another article that at least gives the Astros a fighting chance, though probably still unlikely ... http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/sullivan/20081019-9999-1s19sullivan.html
The only pitcher out there at the Peavy level as a free agent is CC Sabathia. If you can get him instead of Peavy at a rational price, you absolutely do it. But Sheets is a step below that - both in terms of talent and health.
