Why You Might Not Want Jake Peavy On Your Team

Jake Peavy, the 27-year-old right-handed pitcher, has had a lot of success in his MLB career. 

Peavy, the former NL Cy Young winner, has a win-loss record of 86-62, and an earned run average of just 3.25. 

He has some of the best stuff in the game, and sometimes makes the position players hit like little leaguers. 

If you just took his numbers into account, you would think a team would be crazy not to get him, but in the game of baseball there is many different factors that are involved. 

Peavy has pitched at Petco Park his entire career, which isn't exactly an easy place to get rocked.  So you have to take into consideration his road numbers, which last season was just average at best, by having an earned run average of 4.28.  That's a pretty high ERA for someone who will take a lot of prospects to receive.

Playoff time has been another problem for Peavy, as he has gotten hit hard by the Cardinals twice, and in 2007, the season which he won the Cy Young, he allowed six runs in a one-game playoff against the Colorado Rockies.

Another thing that you have to look at is his innings pitched.  In the last few season's Peavy has thrown many innings, including over 223 innings in 2007.  If I was a general manger for a MLB team who is in the Peavy sweepstakes I would be very cautious, especially since just last season Peavy was on the DL due to elbow soreness.

The St. Louis Cardinals know what can happen if you deal prospects for a pitcher, who has been pitched to death.  Mark Mulder was traded to the Cardinals in 2005, and they only got one season of use out of him. To make matters worse, the Cardinals dealt Dan Haren in that trade, which now goes down as the only big goose egg Walt Jocketty had in St. Louis.  

With all these question marks is it really worth it to overpay for a pitcher, which has so many ifs. 

Either way, fans will be excited about it now, and if he can stay healthy he can be a quality starter, but I'm not sure if fans should expect as dominant of numbers, as he's had in San Diego.