Jake Peavy - Buyer Beware

Jake Peavy turned down a trade that would have sent him to the Chicago White Sox. This may have been a good thing - for the White Sox.

Baseball-Reference.com has a nifty feature called Similar Players. Here are the 10 most similar players to Jake Peavy (according to Baseball-Reference.com). I added some notes after each name and similarity score:

1. Brandon Webb (983) - is 30-years old and has not thrown a pitch this year because of shoulder problems
2. Josh Beckett (956) - not going to comment on Beckett out of fear of jinxing him
3. John Lackey (945) - age 30-years old and has missed the first month and a half of this season before making his first start recently
4. Doug Rau (944) - only made 11 starts as a 30-year old, then missed the entire next season before trying to comeback. Only made 3 more starts the rest of his career. Out of baseball before he turned 33.
5. Pat Jarvis (937) - only made 29 starts after turning 30-years old. Out of baseball by the time he turned 33.
6. Teddy Higuera (934) - missed the entire 1992 season with shoulder issues. For all intents and purposes - he was washed up by 33-years old.
7. Carlos Zambrano (931) - only 28-years old. Ask any Cubs fan if they fear Zambrano going down with a major injury.
8. Orlando Hernandez (930) - Cuban physical freak.
9. Ben Sheets (930) - needed elbow surgery at age 29 and is not expected to pitch at all this season
10. A.J. Burnett (929) - if a team trading for Peavy hopes he can be as healthy as AJ Burnett - then that's a giant red flag right there.

Peavy is signed through 2012 with a 2013 $22 million club option. If the most similar players are any sort of guide then the team trading for Peavy can expect him to spend some significant time on the DL before his contract is up and probably be out of baseball by the time he turns 33.

Buyer beware.