Peavy Odds

Everything I read says it's about 50/50 right now that Peavy decides to join the Sox. I put it at 85/15 leaning towards no. The reason I say this is because if he actually wanted to join the Sox it would be done already. He wouldn't have needed 8 hours or so to decide.

Peavy has made it clear that he wants to stay in the National League, and I don't think you can blame him. It's not bad to get one basically automatic out every 9 and then I'd say more than half the NL teams have a patsy 8 hitter as well. He also says he likes to hit. I don't know how true that is. He's a career .178 hitter and doesn't have a hit this year.

But I think this is a great situation for him. The Sox are not a great team, but they are surely better than the Padres. And with Peavy on the Sox roster the pitching staffs effectiveness increases tenfold. He has never pitched in the Cell, so he can't say he's historically bad there. I know it's a hitters ballpark, but if that's truly the case how is Mark Buehrle one of the best pitchers in the AL and why are the Sox the 2nd worst hitting team in the league?

Also the rumors of him not wanting to leave Petco are bogus. It's definitely true that Petco is a great place to pitch, but it's also true that if Peavy wants to win Petco is not the place.

If I had my chance to talk to him right now I'd tell him this, "It's time for you to step up and truely validate your career. You have your money and no one is going to take that away, no matter how you perform. This is your chance to come to a great baseball city on and off the field. Stand up, be a man, and drop this need to be in the NL thing. Take the deal, get yourself out of San Diego, and take a shot to learn what a real baseball town is like. Come to Chicago Jake, we need you. And remember, if you turn this down, the entire South Side is going to be out for your head."

UPDATE - ESPN has just reported that the hold up for Peavy is the length of the contract. This is actually good news for the Sox. If Peavy was just sitting there weighing why he doesn't want to come to Chicago, eventually I think he comes up with enough reasons why not to. But if he's worrying about contract, I think he may actually have come around to the idea of moving and now it just hinges on how sweet the Sox can make the deal. Come on Jake, make the right choice.