It’s official: The San Diego Pirates

Earlier this week, I learned that the San Diego Padres were ready to move All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, a ridiculous notion no matter how you shake it with Gonzalez being the best financial bargain in baseball.

I wrote that they would become the West Coast version of the Pittsburgh Pirates (read: complete laughingstocks) if they traded Gonzalez, the lone reason to even care that the Padres exist in the summer of 2009.

But the Padres proved that they are indeed the Pittsburgh Pirates of the West Coast on Friday anyway by giving away 2007 Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy to the Chicago White Sox shortly before the trading deadline.

The Padres received one major-league caliber pitcher (Clayton Richard) and three I-sure-hope-one-of-you-pans-out pitching prospects from the White Sox, who pulled off one of the swiftest and boldest trading-deadline moves of this decade.

But perhaps that’s why the White Sox can look back on a recent World Series title and the Padres can look back on … um, well, all the Padres have to look back on is all the top talent they’ve given away over the years as they wonder how come they have ZERO World Series titles to crow about.

Jake Peavy, in the prime of his career, is the big winner in this whole deal. Hey, he’s going to an organization that actually wants to win. The Padres are doing all they can to prove they have no interest in winning — hey John Moores, you broke every promise you made about how Petco Park would allow you to retain key players.

Let me spell out the word that describes you: L-I-A-R.

You will never heard such sentiment from the soft San Diego media columnists, who are more interested in sucking up to the bad pro sports owners in town than bucking up and writing the truth. Hey, the Padres and Chargers have won the same number of World Series and Super Bowl titles as the local bus driver: None.

Peavy is in Chicago because there’s a owner (Jerry Reinsdorf) on the South Side of Chicago more interested in winning than hosting fireworks nights or having his players wear ugly camouflage uniforms.

I love the fact that Reinsdorf was orginally against trading for Peavy on Friday when general manager Kenny Williams approached him 90 minutes before the deadline. But upon hearing out Williams and assistant GM Rick Hahn, Reinsdorf signed on and approved taking on the financial commitment. (http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090801&content_id=6181978&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb)

That right there is the difference between an organization committed to winning and an organization now mentioned along with the Pittsburgh Pirates as the two biggest laughingstock teams in baseball.

Somehow, I get the feeling that Padres general manager Kevin Towers called Williams up and pleaded with him — “come on Kenny, please, come on, please do the deal” – under orders from the cheap Padres management.

Peavy will earn $15 million in 2010, $16 million in 2011 and $17 million in 2012 with the White Sox holding a $22 million option for 2013 (or they can buy out Peavy for $4 million). And now that he’s teaming up with All-Star lefty Mark Buehrle (he of two no-hitters, including a recent perfect game), I can predict a World Series ring in Peavy’s future.

I sure couldn’t predict that for Peavy if he had stayed in San Diego. Oh, no, not at all. You see, the Padres are run like the Pirates — you know, a minor-league franchise.

So say hello to your new franchise — the San Diego Pirates.