Houston could still be a dark-horse candidate for Jake Peavy. Roy Oswalt has been telling Peavy the two of them could make Houston contenders together. I can’t see a sensible package coming from Houston without opening new holes, however.

Somehow, I don’t put too much faith in what Roy tells Peavy on their hunting trips. While Bagwell and Biggio might have had enough pull in the organization to force Hunsicker to trade Mitch Meluskey for Brad Ausmus, I don’t think that Oswalt has that kind of power. Particularly when the Astros don’t have anyone to trade with. Peavy isn’t Ausmus – you can’t get him for a fighty young catcher and Jose Lima.

He says “some people in Houston” are getting optimistic about the Astros pulling off a Peavy trade. Without knowing whether those people are credible or not, this doesn’t mean much.

However, the longer the Padres go without trading Peavy, the more I see a glimmer of a possibility. I have a sneaking hunch that Wade is still working behind the scenes on pursuing a Peavy trade, and is keeping it secret. It would probably take a multiple team deal or a sequence of trades to get the prospects necessary to make a deal. It might depend on what you can get for Wigginton and/or Valverde.

He said he is holding out for a deal to the Astros. These “other teams” his agent said he might agree to play for… well, he just said those teams so he wouldn’t seem like he was being a jerk and shoehorning the Padres into making a deal with the Astros.

and he really…and i mean “really” wants to pitch with Roy. Not sure if this angle has been covered, but apparently they hunt together*.