Welcome, Jake Peavy

A couple of months ago, I was not crazy about the idea of the White Sox trading for Jake Peavy, who despite being a former Cy Young winner, also seems to get injured frequently (though not his arm... yet), and seemed hesitant to come play for the Sox and compete in the American League in general. I also didn't want to see the Sox give up both promising lefties Clayton Richard and Aaron Poreda.

Now that the Sox have snared Peavy in a last-minute trading deadline, I'm still nervous, though I have to admit there is a lot to like and little to complain about when you land a 28-year-old superstar pitcher who immediately becomes the rotation's only true power pitcher. Of course, we'll have to wait another few weeks for Peavy to come off the DL to see how much help he can be in this year's quest. Things could be very interesting in particular if the rotation gets lined up so that both Peavy and Mark Buehrle face the Twins and Tigers on what could be very decisive series late next month.

Meanwhile, the Peavy era started for the Sox with a bt of good luck, as they beat the Yankees 10-5 last night in a game that they almost forfeited at the start. Because Richard was the scheduled starter, the Sox had to send out middle reliever D.J. Carrasco, who looked uncomfotable from the very beginning, not covering 1st base quickly enough on a ground ball by Derek Jeter. But, the Sox piled on the hits, and the bullpen held. They have now won the first two games of a four-game series against a team that entered with the second best record in baseball.