Ken Rosenthal has a new piece up that focuses on the potential market for Jake Peavy, and includes the Rangers in about a dozen teams that could be in the mix:
The Padres surely are intrigued by the Rangers' farm system, but moving from pitcher-friendly Petco Park to hitter-friendly Rangers Ballpark would not be Peavy's idea of fun.
Rosenthal says the Astros don't have a chance because they have nothing to trade, and quotes a g.m. as saying that the BoSox could possibly do something with an Ellsbury/Lowrie/Masterson package, which the Rangers could conceivably top by offering Borbon/Andrus/Feliz (or Holland).
The problem with Boston, of course, along with Texas (and the Yanks and Mets and some other teams) is that Peavy has a no trade clause and is supposedly not that interested in playing in the A.L. Atlanta, I think, would be the favorite to land Peavy, since he's already said he'd waive his no-trade clause to go there, and the Braves have some tasty pieces they could dangle to make a real strong package.
But this is a place where I think the Nolan Ryan factor could come in to play. If the Rangers had a strong offer on the table, such that the Padres were willing to let the Rangers have contact with Peavy to discuss waiving the no-trade, don't you think that having Ryan pitch Peavy on coming to Texas might have some influence? Yeah, it is a bitch to pitch here, but you've got the big offense, some good young talent coming up, and Nolan Ryan personally asking you to come play here?
And I've seen some comments, both here and on the DMN blog, suggesting that we should forget about Peavy, that he'd just be Chan Ho Redux, but I think that's crap (and I'll address why sometime this coming week).