Jake Peavy, anyone?

The local news is reporting the Padres are actively shopping Jake Peavy. Peavy, along with Trevor Hoffman and Adrian Gonzalez, is the face of this franchise, not to mention one of the best pitchers in baseball. Why ownership would be willing to part with a true Ace is beyond me, especially an organization coming off a 99 loss season.

The Padres have significant deficiencies all across the diamond they need to fix. Only 1B and RF are set for next year (RF is Brian Giles, BTW). Mozeliak did a good job of replenishing the farm system during last year's winter meetings. Here's a chance to grab lightning in a bottle. Trade some of that capital for Peavy. He's only 27. What a steal that would be.

In other news, the Rays HAMMERED Boston for a second consecutive night at Fenway, winning 13-4. Boston is down 3-1 again. There have been 4 teams down 3-1 in the ALCS who have come back to win:

1985, Kansas City (against Toronto)

1986, Boston (against California, er, Anaheim, er, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim)

2004, Boston (against New York, more famously remembered because they were down 3-0 as well)

2007, Boston (against Cleveland).

Kansas City and the 04 Red Sox managed to win Games 6 and 7 on the road. The other two teams won Games 6 and 7 at home. That KC team had some pretty good pitchers (Mark Gubicza, Charlie Liebrandt, Bud Black, some guy named Saberhagen), and the 04 Red Sox had a bloody sock (and some stalwart pitching too).

This Red Sox Team? Well, they had their best pitcher get bludgeoned at home in Game 3, their pitching hero from last year hasn't looked right all season (and especially since the end of August), they don't trust Byrd, Wakefield got absolutely HAMMERED last night, they're missing two big bats (one to trade, the other to injury), Ortiz isn't hitting....

They aren't coming back.

Tampa shifting Kazmir to tomorrow and saving Shields for Game 6 in Tampa - where he's 9-2 with a 2.56 ERA this season - was really smart. And then they've got Garza in Game 7 - he's 7-3 with a 2.89 ERA at home - in case the Red Sox start to come back from the dead.

They aren't coming back.