The only SS that’s remotely available that’s possibly better than Yunel right now is Hardy, which requires significant prospects. Lilli can’t hit big league pitching yet. Renteria is no good unless he’s going to have a BABIP of .375 again and even then his defense is gone. Yunel is better defensively than Furcal and their bats are close. Considering that Yunel is in his athletic prime, there’s a good chance that he hits better at this point. Furcal stealing bases at a 75% clip does not nearly make up for any of that.

I somehow completely forgot to mention Gorkys in all this talk. Still a good deal, I think.

I agree, although I’m already glad that they favor Gorkys over Schafer. I would hate to have to part with Jordan as well as Escobar, so I consider this aspect a win as well.

But it is an assumption that its Locke…a good one, but an assumption nonetheless. I’ll be much more upset if its Rohrbourgh.

This to me is the biggest point in the arguement, that a Braves lineup without Yunel Escobar is more desireable than a Braves rotation without Peavy.
Without Escobar, the lineup still includes stars Chipper Jones and Brian McCann, as well as above average Kelly Johnson. Casey Kotchman, though not exactly what you want out of a first baseman, is a major league hitter. So you’re left with Francoeur in right, which is a huge question mark, some form of Gregor Blanco and Josh Anderson in center, probably getting slighlty below average production, but both are young and have the potential to grow, and Brent Lillibridge, along with Omar Infante, at short, again, probably looking at below average production, but with room to grow. And we’ll get to left field in a minute.
Without Peavy in the rotation, there is Jair Jurrjens and a ton of question marks. In house options currently include Charlie Morton and Jo-Jo Reyes (one of whom may end up with San Diego) and James Parr, with Tommy Hanson likely to provide some starts later in the season. Jorge Campillo was pretty effective this season, but he wore down late in the year and there’s no gaurantee he can repeat his performance. There is also a chance that Tom Glavine and John Smoltz could return, but that seems like wishful thinking, as does a return of Mike Hampton, who seems destined to be paid more by some other team.
The arguement against getting Peavy is that there are plenty of free agent pitchers available. That’s obviously ture, but there are also plenty of teams that need starting pitchers. Add in the fact that the Braves have targeted adding two pitchers to their rotation, it seems unlikely that they would be able to not only keep one of Derek Lowe, AJ Burnette, Ryan Dempster away from the big spending teams that need pitching, but two of them. It seems equally unlikely that they’re going to be able to fill one of those voids by trading for another pitcher, if only because no other names, certainly not the quality of Peavy, have been mentioned as being available.
It seem much more likely that the Braves will be able to aquire a power bat for left field though. There are free agent options, Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn, Juan Rivera (each with their own set of issues), and trade options, Magglio Ordonez (I’d come up with more but I dont’ want to start random speculation), but the bottom line is that good hitters are much more readily available than front of the rotation starting pitchers, particularly if a team is willing to take on their salary, as the Braves are in position to do this offseason.
And there’s also the argument against trading minor leaguers or young, controllable players. Well, that just baseball. You gotta give up something to get something. Is Escobar a valuable commodity? Sure. But he front a rotation and, at the moment, neither can any of those minor leaguers. I’m a Braves fan and I want to see a winning team. I also want to see a team building for the future, and I don’t think this Peavy trade is going to ruin that.

Then I bet Yunel vs his replacement is superior to Peavy vs signing a good free agent. Peavy will be cheaper money-wise than a FA signing, but not by much since he’s averaging a $15M salary. Throwing in Peavy’s injury risk just makes it worse. He’s not as much of a solid ace as someone like Sabathia, who has more ability and durability. I’m not saying sign Sabathia, but I’m saying Peavy is not as great as everyone thinks.

The fact that we still are 3-4 pieces from contending makes me hate the trade more because we’re trading a major piece which creates another giant, gaping hole. As much as I like Lillibridge, if people think he’s ready to play SS full time next season then that means Schafer is ready for full time CF duty and that’s just not the case.