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Sports Briefs: Peavy likely to be traded before the winter meetings
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Published: November 7, 2008
Jake Peavy probably will be traded by the San Diego Padres before the winter meetings next month.
After spending four days at the annual general managers' meetings, Padres GM Kevin Towers said it is unlikely the 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner will remain with San Diego, which signed him out of high school in 1999.
"The train's kind of left the station," Towers said yesterday.
Guaranteed $63 million under a contract that runs through 2012, Peavy is relatively inexpensive when compared with what CC Sabathia is likely to get on the free-agent market. Sabathai, a right-hander, is a free agent, so he can also determine where he winds up.
"We're not in control of the speed or the train," Peavy's agent, Barry Axelrod, said in a telephone interview. "The only thing we've got is a brake."
Peavy's initial list of teams San Diego should concentrate on included Atlanta, the Chicago Cubs, Houston, the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis. The Braves, Cubs and Dodgers appear to be the most likely candidates for a trade.
Towers, cutting payroll following a last-place finish, anticipates a trade before the winter meetings open in Las Vegas on Dec. 8. Given the lack of pitching, Peavy, 27, is highly prized. He was 10-11 with a 2.85 ERA in 27 starts last season.
"We're not to the point where we've agreed on who the players are coming back. We just have an idea of who's available to us and who's not," Towers said. "Now it's just a matter of looking at three priority teams that are involved and trying to figure out what our optimum deal is. Some of them involve third teams and potentially fourth teams, so it becomes a little more complicated."
More baseball
■ No more flip decisions in the major leagues.
Rather than heads or tails, baseball general managers plan to recommend that sites for division and wild-card tiebreakers be decided by wins and losses, rather than coin flips.
"The team that performed better against the other team I think is the one that deserves to have home-field advantage, not an arbitrary coin flip," San Diego Padres general manager Kevin Towers said yesterday as the annual GMs meeting ended.
MLB staff is drafting a proposal for the GMs to consider next month when they gather at the winter meetings in Las Vegas, according to Jimmie Lee Solomon, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office.
Head-to-head record between the tied clubs appears likely to be the first tiebreaker.
"I think it's better to decide it on the field," Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels said.
The advantage of coin flips -- or drawing of lots in the unlikely event of three- or four-way deadlocks -- is that the clubs know the site of tiebreaker games in advance. Under a performance-based system, the sites might not be decided until the final day of the regular season.
■ The Boston Red Sox are wrapping up almost a decade of renovations to Fenway Park that should keep their venerable ballpark open for another 30-50 years.
"We are committed to Fenway Park -- short-term, middle-term, long-term," team president Larry Lucchino said yesterday as the Red Sox unveiled their winter renovation plans. "We're going to be here. No thought has been, or is being given to a new ballpark."
Past years' renovations have included the Monster Seats above Fenway's famous left-field wall, new and improved luxury suites and expanded concourses that have given Red Sox fans room to roam. This year's more modest goals are to waterproof the concrete under the lower deck sections, replace and repair the seats from first to third and add upper deck seats down the first-base line.
While the legal capacity -- including those who work at the ballpark -- will remain 39,928, the net result of the changes will be the addition of about 350 more seats and a sellout crowd of about 37,750 for night games.
■ Reliever Damaso Marte's $6 million option was declined yesterday by the New York Yankees, who chose to pay the left-hander a $250,000 buyout.
Marte was obtained with outfielder Xavier Nady from Pittsburgh on July 26 for pitchers Ross Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens and Daniel McCutchen and outfielder Jose Tabata. Marte was 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA in 25 games with the Yankees and 5-3 with a 4.02 ERA overall.
Marte had filed for free agency provisionally on Wednesday.
The Yankees' decision completes $5 million, two-year contract Marte agreed to in November 2006.
■ The Arizona Diamondbacks have a new sponsor for the swimming pool beyond the center-field wall at Chase Field.
RideNow Powersports has signed a three-year deal through 2011. Financial terms were not disclosed for the deal with the company that sells watercraft, ATVs and motorcycles.
RideNow Powersports is the latest in a line of sponsors for the popular ballpark feature. It replaces Riviera Pools, which filed for bankruptcy protection.
Olympics
■ Tony Andre Hansen will fight to keep the Norwegian jumping team's Olympic bronze medals Saturday in Geneva, Switzerland, when he answers charges that his horse was doped.
Hansen faces an International Equestrian Federation tribunal for the second time to examine why Camiro tested positive for a banned pain reliever after the team jumping competition in August. He was suspended and did not compete in the individual jumping class.
The federation panel must decide whether to disqualify Hansen and Camiro from the Beijing Games.
Hansen was the best performer on a four-rider Norwegian team that won the bronze under a scoring system where the top three count.
Without his scores, teammates Morten Djupvik, Stein Endresen and Geir Gulliksen would drop out of contention, and the fourth-place team from Switzerland would get the bronze medals. The United States won the gold, beating Canada in a jump-off in Hong Kong, where Olympic equestrian events were held.
Soccer
■ Michael Parkhurst, a former Wake Forest standout and member of the New England Revolution, was named the MLS Fair Play Award winner for the second year in a row yesterday.
Parkhurst started in 28 games and played 2,520 minutes, while committing nine fouls. He did not receive a caution or red card for the second season in a row.
Tennis
■ Venus Williams defeated her sister Serena Williams 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 to reach the semifinals of the WTA Tour's season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships yesterday in Doha, Qatar.
Venus Williams won on her fifth match point, and is 3-0 in round-robin play of a tournament that features the top eight players. Serena Williams dropped to 1-1, but can still advance to the semifinals if she defeats Elena Dementieva today.
Dementieva defeated Dinara Safina, 6-2, 6-4, in yesterday's last match, eliminating Safina from the championships.
■ Cory Parr of Wake Forest defeated Chris Clayton of Harvard 6-4, 6-0 in the first round of the National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships yesterday in Charlottesville, Va.
In a first-round doubles match, Parr and Steve Forman of Wake Forest defeated Jason Jung and Mike Sroczynski of Michigan 8-5.
Recruiting
■ Charles Anthony, a senior left-handed pitcher at Reynolds, has committed to Mars Hill, Coach Doug Welch of Reynolds said.
Anthony (5-11, 150) was an All-Central Piedmont 4-A selection last spring when he posted a 3-6 record with six no-decisions. He pitched 461/3 innings with 62 strikeouts and 25 walks and had a 4.08 earned-run average.
Anthony, who has played on the varsity since his freshman year, will sign a binding NCAA letter of intent next week during the early-signing period, Welch said.
-- Mason Linker
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