I think this really comes down to Peavy. The Padres dangled him and I think he officially wants out. Peavy's contract extension was based on the Padres staying competitive. I wouldn't be surprised if Peavy forces the trade to the Cubs. I've held firm all offseason that this deal will happen. I'm also expecting it to happen sooner now than later. Both teams still have work to do if Peavy isn't going anywhere, and less and less players will be available to either team the longer this deal takes. How would he do that? He could be a total jerk and go to the media and say he refuses to play another game in a Padres uniform, and he will only accept a trade to the Cubs, and force the Padres hand. I think if he went out in public and said he demands a trade but he can only be traded to the Cubs, the public would side the with the Padres without a doubt. You can't make a ridiculous request (ridiculous being limiting them to one trading partner) and not expect backlash. I highly doubt that, no way the public sides with the padres, even padres fans, if Peavy demands a trade. You have to look at the situation, Peavy gave the Padres a huge discount on his extension, the padres dangled peavy out there for more than three months. The padres ownership and general manager were openly talking about trading peavy. Peavy is probably the most loved padre in SD, do you honestly think the fans in SD would turn their back on Peavy after he was misled and pull back and forth in trade talks? Come on give me a break, if back in the day when Sosa was loved and the Cubs sucked, the cubs dangled him out there in trade talks for most of the winter and then decided to pull him back in only to have sosa demand a trade. I would no doubt be on Sosa's side because of the treament he got. It would be a different story if Peavy had an attitude problem or if peavy had been open about his dissapointment in how the franchise hasn't gotten better but yet Peavy hasn't done any of that and has been a good sport eventhough he's on one of the worst franchises in the MLB. So you think the Padres fans would side with Peavy even after he embezzles their favorite team out of any sort of leverage to get a decent return, thus ruining your biggest trade chip? How in the world is he going to embezzle them from getting a decent return? Its not like he would go to the Padres and Say, trade me to the cubs for Marshall straight up. The Package the cubs would offer wont be overpaying but will probably be fair. You act as if getting Vitters and prospects is a garbage package. The Fans wont turn against Peavy because as it mentioned above, the padres gave peavy the NTC and you make it sound as if peavy is telling the padres who gets traded for him. You're not going to get any sort of fair value for a player of Peavy's caliber if you only have 1 team that you *have* to trade him to. Peavy would be forcing the Padres to trade him for less than he'd be worth on the open market. So why wouldn't fans be mad when Peavy screws his former team into getting much less than he's worth?