The Padres opened bidding on ace Jake Peavy earlier in the week, and his agent, Barry Axelrod, has responded with a list of destinations to which he would approve a deal.

"Jake has a strong preference to stay in the National League," Axelrod said. "It is hypothetical, but Jake, by any measure, has had a great deal of success in the National League. He has a comfort level with knowing how to approach hitters here."

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Axelrod made one concrete stipulation to any trade scenarios: "Jake would only approve a trade to a team with a solid chance of winning and a winning tradition. Those teams in the National League may be in locations that are more acceptable, or would be."

He said "the ability or opportunity to win is very important to Jake, and hopefully some sort of coincidence with his and his family's lifestyle."

Among the cities Axelrod mentioned were Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and St. Louis.

It's not certain based on this article how much say Peavy really has over a trade, but the Padres would be daft to send him to the Dodgers without a serious gutting of their farm system. Similarly, it's not clear that the Astros or Cards have enough to get a deal done, and likewise Atlanta. For all I can tell, this may simply be a bluffing maneuver on Kevin Towers' part, but one thing is certain: Peavy is going to get very expensive in a hurry ($15M in 2010, and $22M in 2013 if the team owning his contract picks up that year's option). The Padres, with a moribund farm system and one of the lower payrolls in the game, won't be able to improve on their 63-99 record any time in the near future, and keeping an expensive ace like Peavy around might actually delay that process.