I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a potential trade involve this many teams in the discussion.  Obviously, the Padres and Cubs are involved.  Then we heard about the Pie for Olson swap with Baltimore, and then come Philadelphia rumors involving Mark DeRosa and JA Happ.  The Rays were talked about briefly as a third party.  When the Twins heard DeRosa might be available, they decided they wanted to join the party.  I think this really shows you that both parties most involved are motivated to get the Peavy trade done.  There are plenty of things standing in the way, but if two GM’s want to get something done, they usually do.  Regardless of what happens, if someone writes a book about the past month or so of Peavy talks, I guarantee you I would read it.

The last day of the Winter Meetings is upon us, and so is the Padres deadline for knowing whether a trade will happen.  If the Padres are being honest about this deadline, then today becomes a pretty important day.

Let’s get to what we know (or at least what we’re told that we know) entering Thursday:

-Cubs bear down-Jayson Stark has gotten in the habit of doing a “state of the trade” piece late every night of the meetings, and last night’s tells us that that talks between the Padres and Cubs are at about the same place they were yesterday, and that the Cubs are taking a hard line on who exactly they will include in the trade.  The Cubs have the high ground in this trade: their rotation is already really good, the Padres really need to shed salary, and Chicago looks like Peavy’s only potential destination.  It would be silly for the Cubs to bow to the will of Kevin Towers, they’re holding the cards.  This article also mentions that the Cubs seem to be balking at the notion of trading DeRosa.  His availability seems to have surprised a lot of teams, and I imagine Hendry is getting a lot of interest and would consider a separate deal.

-Deal lives or dies today-More quotes from Towers, who seems to always be willing to talk.

-Cubs’ budget has room-No new rumors here, but some good number crunching and discussion of what’s on the table.

-What Sweet Lou is up to-Still no direct comments from Lou on Peavy, but suggests openness to adding a pitcher.  He also shows how involved in these talks he is…he was watching horse races at the sports book at the Bellagio during the interview.

-Phillies mum-This article discusses the deal from the Phillies’ point of view.

I’ll be back at some point(s) during the day if there is any significant news either way on this deal.  It’s been a pretty exciting week!