Thursday, December 11, 2008

Pet Peavy

The Peavy deal is dead and I for one say…meh.

I like Jake Peavy and think he is as accomplished as any of the current Cubs starters. But is he worth losing the six players the Cubs might’ve lost in the two or three team deal? On paper, based on the numbers we know, many argued that the Cubs would have the most dominant rotation in the BL with Peavy as their number 1.

But they don’t play the games on paper. Games are played on a field and that is sort of my point.

Don’t be confused, I am not about to argue that Wrigley is too much of a hitter friendly park for Peavy and fly balls will be leaving the yard left and right on this guy. But after considering Jake Peavy’s Home and Away splits in 2008, he has an impressive 1.74 ERA @ sea level in SanDiego. But get Peavy on the road and his ERA jumps up to 4.28. Opponents hit 58 points higher against him when he dons the road uniform. This translated into only one fewer win on the road last year, but the Padres hit pretty well for Peavy on the road last year.

The Padres hitters were probably thrilled to be away from their home turf where the curveball bites more and the balls don’t travel quite as far…

At Wrigley and throughout the NL CENTRAL parks Peavy would not enjoy the advantages he had for more than half of his starts last year.

I like Peavy. I think the Cub rotation could be improved with his acquisition. But, I am not sure that he was worth all Towers wanted for him. I am fairly sure that as a Cub he would not have the same production as he did in SD. This is not because of any curse…just part of the telling numbers of baseball.

Peavy or no, the Cubs should be the favorite to win the NL Central again. Maybe they should pick up (or is it cowboy up) Derrick Lowe just so they don’t have to face his ass in October.

Just a thought…

3 comments:

santipissed said...

He would have been handled much like Harden - pitching every 8-10 games. His shoulder is a concern. His innings and strikeouts were down quite a bit last year. The NL central is a much stronger division than the West. The Giants and D-back cannot hit and the Dodgers only hit when Manny was in their lineup.
Colorado had a weak year offensively as well. The Brewers, Cards and Astros would not mind seeing that fastball every week.

Anyway, we need left handed hitting. I am glad that we did not send away Vitters - Lee and Ramirez are getting older and we need to have these positions filled in a year or two.
I am for trading Lee right now and signing Giambi for one year until Hoffpauer is proven.

edP said...

Me and Santi on the same page with Peavy. We should kiss!

edP said...

You can trade Lee if you want he will veto it. D-Lee has a no trade clause and I believe he will want to end his career as a Cub.

I am not saying it is wrong to trade him, I just think it will be difficult and maybe impossible