Atlanta Braves

The Cubs appear to have taken the lead in the Jake Peavy hostage crisis. Oh Joy. The Cubs should be right behind the Dodgers, when it comes to disavowing trading partners. 1984!! But hey, if the friars can use the lovable losers as tools to pry starting pitcher Tommy Hanson from the Braves filthy little fingers, all the better. Right?

Atlanta Braves General Manager Frank Wren, has confirmed a multi-year offer was made to Tazawa. The Braves expect him to make a decision within a couple of weeks. Wren apparently saw him pitch a few times when he was over in Japan scouting.

Seattle Press Interprise Mariners targeting Tazawa

American baseball teams continue to search for gold in Japan, and the latest nugget may be a 22-year-old right-hander who has never pitched professionally.
Junichi Tazawa throws a 97 mph fastball and spent last year pitching for the Nippon Oil team in Japan's Industrial League. The Industrial League is not a professional league, but scouts think highly enough of Tazawa that he likely will be under contract with a major league team by the end of the year

Well it is day two of the General Manager meetings, and by my count, day 35 of the emotional butt ache that has become the John Moores divorce.

The way I look at it, his divorce effected the payroll, the payroll effected the budget, the budget effected the players, and then Frank Wren, wisely picked up the phone about 35 days ago. It has been nothing but a butt ache since. Padre fans clamor all the time about wanting to be in the national spot light, but I am sure this is not what they had in mind.

as of November 4th 2008, 1:40pm est, Jacob Peavy is still a padre.

todays Kevin Towers radio show, here

Rosenthal Peavy could be the friars Opening Day starter

The best guess on Jake Peavy is that the Padres eventually will trade him to the Braves, who appear to be the most attractive suitor of Peavy's preferred teams. The Cubs seemingly lack the inventory to make such a deal work, but the Padres might need to turn creative if the Braves balk at their price. Dodgers GM Ned Colletti all but acknowledged that he is unlikely to acquire Peavy from a division rival, and two of Peavy's other preferred clubs — the Cardinals and Astros — are not factors in the discussions.

Peavy has the right to veto any trade, and Padres GM Kevin Towers acknowledged that the pitcher still could be the team's Opening Day starter. Such a scenario, however, is unlikely. The Padres want to purge the remaining four years and $63 million remaining on Peavy's contract.

I'll say yes, but he doesn't make it past Christmas.

the pundits

SDUnion Tribune In Peavy trade offers, quality is number one criteria for Towers

Towers said several clubs have shown interest in Peavy, He added that he is “focused on three” clubs that Peavy has said he might favor. Towers declined to identify the three but said that “if any is willing to step up, there's a deal there.”

The more I think about this whole ordeal, all these nasty Jake Peavy trade rumors, the more I realize Kevin Towers is probably spot on when he says, Jake Peavy has a no trade clause, and "he could put a stop to the trade talks right now." Instead Peavy is actually feeding the fires, by giving a list of teams, and even declining certain teams like the Rangers. Kevin Towers is just doing his job by finding out the value of his golden nugget. and its a big 'ol nugget.

a poll i hoped i would never see.

Cleveland Indians catcher Kelly Shoppach is 28 years old already. I find that some what shocking. I guess he has always had his career path blocked by two of the best in the game, Victor Martinez, and Jason Varitek, so I don't know if it is fair to say that Kelly Shoppach is a late bloomer or not, but it is sure a beautiful flower isn't it.

I snagged Shoppach up in two leagues when Victor Martinez went down. I'd even say that Shppoach is the reason for my rebound in the H2HWS. On that same Inglewood team, I also own Victor Martinez, who is currently residing on the DL with zero homeruns on the year. Martinez is going to have to show me a little something, once healthy, just to get a ride at utility. No way I am moving Shoppach. Eric Wedge could bench Kelly Shoppach, and I am not moving him.

I wonder if they miss Manny yet.

I didn't kick out a chatter yesterday. It was all drawn up, and I have a number of solid pieces in there, but it is all old news by now. Not only that, there is no chatter. No opinion, nothing. Just a bunch of links to day old news. So I didn't publish it.

So when I sat down this evening to pen out Wednesday's chatter, I figured why write two pieces, when I can just write one. Tomorrows.

I can just use yesterdays links out as a fake chatter. Just links mostly. Besides. I seriously doubt any of the guys i am linking to would be upset about being linked to. Know what I mean.