The Peavy Sweepstakes Vol. 7: Nov. 13 Edition

Attention mortgage lenders in Atlanta: male, turning 28 at the end of May, looking for a nice, home in suburbs. Has $8 million to spend. Needs a place to live by Apr. 1.

Attention Cubs fans: Don't waste the tears Kerry Wood deserves on Jake Peavy.

And free agency doesn't start until tomorrow (well, a little over four hours from when I'm writing this).

The Jake Peavy Saga has taken a turn in a unique, "Scott Boras Plays The Rangers For A-Rod" direction. In his press conference to accept the National League Manager of the Year Award, Cubs' skipper Lou Piniella apparently let the cat out of the bag: The Cubs have very little, if any interest in acquiring Peavy.

So not only are rumors that the Cubs don't have the enough young, major-league ready pitchers to make the Padres happy and would need to involve a third team to make a deal happen, but now the Cubs' No. 1 priority is a bat, not an arm.

And yet the Braves are still trying to put together enough pieces to "satisfy" the Padres' request to deal the 2007 Cy Young winner?

This much is clear: The Chicago Cubs and General Manager Jim Hendry have started 2009 with a loud thud. The trade of one of the perceived top pitching prospects in the organization, Jose Ceda, for a major-league experienced arm signals a number of ideological shifts in Chicago.

First, experience, no matter the quality, is king in Chicago. And, secondly, the team is just as interested in cherry-picking arbitration eligible, middle-of-the-road players off mid-market teams as they are shelling out big money for big names.

Meanwhile, the the Braves continue to turn over boxes full of jigsaw pieces trying to figure out the puzzle of Peavy.

In Chicago, Hendry and Piniella have three cannon arms in their bullpen in Kevin Gregg, Jeff Samardzija, and Carlos Marmol. Marmol has yet to have the chance to be a full time closer, Samardzija is still being reminded of what it was like to be a full-time wide receiver, and Gregg was tied for the major-league lead in blown saves in 2008.

There are as many question marks for the Cubs pitching staff now as there have ever been.

The Cubs no longer have Wood, they will have to compete to keep Ryan Dempster, and are about to enter a bidding war with the rest of baseball for anyone who can find a strike zone. A.J. Burnett, Ben Sheets, Derek Lowe, and a host of others will (hopefully) be courted by Hendry to join a rotation headlined by the incredibly talented Carlos Zambrano, Rich Harden, and somehow 17-game winner Ted Lilly.

If the Cubs are lucky, they might get someone to take Jason Marquis and his expiring contract while they're at it.

While all of these decisions are being debated in Chicago, Frank Wren is trying to mix up the right amount of mojo to get a headline starter to Atlanta via trade.

The Cubs are having internal discussions debating the merits of Raul Ibanez versus Adam Dunn versus Bobby Abreu, the potential move of Kosuke Fukudome into a platoon in center field with Reed Johnson, and how to get more playing time for Mike Fontenot, Felix Pie, and Micah Hoffpauir. Can Mark DeRosa play right field?

And yet in Atlanta, the Braves are putting their first-born children up as collateral in order to make the whatever-it-takes move to acquire the pitcher they think will get them back into contention with the free spending Mets and World Champion Phillies.

Yes, I said it. World Champion Phillies.

So what's wrong with this picture? A hero's farewell is taking place in Chicago, as a changing of the guard takes place with the team's leader of the last decade leaving. Everything coming from the Cubs' camp is that Jake Peavy is the third, maybe fourth or fifth thing on their "To Do List." And yet the Braves are still scrambling to try to make a trade happen.

Either Hendry has something up his sleeve and has a full organizational buy-in for an end around on the media, or the Braves are getting played as hard as any franchise in the past decade.

Smart money, and all the experts, are saying Peavy will go to Atlanta. What for is a different story, but that's where he'll be shopping for his next house.

Let the spending begin...