"Sources" tell me Jake Peavy is a Pitcher

I do love the undiclosed sources tit for tat that we get this time of year. It seems like so many people hang on the latest rumor from the nether regions of the internets. I can never tell if, on the third consecutive day, when yet another story is published by yet another news outlet that confirms the original piece, that third story is just an echo of the first story from a publication that doesn't want to be left out of the rat-race. Such seems to be the case with the Jake Peavy story.

Dave O'Brien wrote about it, so Buster Olney wrote about it, which prompted some New York papers to write about it, which prompts everyone else to chime in on the subject; things like this:

Major League sources told MLB.com that Peavy is strongly believed to be drawing the most interest from the Dodgers and the Braves, and that a deal could be completed in the very near future, possibly in the next week.

How vague is that? "Sources" told us it is "strongly" "believed" and that a deal "could" be "possibly" next week. The beat writers certainly have their thesauruses working overtime this time of year.

I'll admit to be one of those who has a tendency to hang on the edge waiting for the next rumor to filter through the wire, but I think it's important to step back and not get tunnel vision with this or any rumored trade.

In the end it all comes down to money, and just as Ken Rosenthal stated today on BDD Live, "it's all about the financial incentive" and that all teams are in play. When a player says he will only go to a particular list of teams, he's not thinking ahead to the moment where a team outside that list has the opportunity to sweeten his contract. So Peavy won't go to the Yankees or the Mets, how about four million more dollars a year, will that change his mind?

Rosenthal, like many people around baseball, believes that the Braves are the frontrunner. Rosenthal lists the Braves, Cubs, and Yankees in that order, and says not to rule out the Red Sox, who are no doubt preoccupied right now.

Will a trade happen fast? I think so, but the Padres have to get exactly what they desire in return.
Are the Braves the front runner? At this point I'd have to say, yes, they've shown a willingness to trade top prospects in the past and they seem to match up well with the Padres rumored needs.

I really don't think the above line of thinking has changed in the past week and I don't see it changing in the coming week or two, so I for one am not going to get too excited about the latest "rumor." (Well, yes, I probably will, and I'll probably post it here... but dammit I'll put it in perspective!)

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