Spring Training Notes: Jake Peavy

Jake Peavy comes into the 2008 season as the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, have we seen the best from him yet? Maybe time will tell.

He reported to camp last Thursday and covered topics like winning the Cy Young Award, Greg Maddux, Randy Wolfe, his new contract and becoming a full time San Diego resident.

On getting back into camp: "Always feels good to come back to spring training, fresh start, new year, a lot of new faces. We're baseball players and this is what we love to do, play baseball. It's always exciting these first few days of spring."

On winning the Cy Young Award: "That was special, there's no doubt. 2007 was a special year for the Padres as well as myself. That was last year, we're going to try and put that behind us, great offseason, but it's time to go, it's 2008 now. I'm going to try and get back out and do the same thing we did last year and help this ballclub win."

On Greg Maddux: "Having Greg around, no doubt, has made me not only a better pitcher but a better baseball player in general. Greg prides himself on being a great fielder, running the bases and hitting. Having him around to lean on and for advice, to ask him how to go about getting certain hitters out, to game planning, how to throw a certain pitch. Greg has helped, not just me, but everybody."

On the new pitching acquisitions: "I'm excited. Randy Wolf, I think, is going to add a lot as a left handed starter, when he's been healthy he's shown he's a very good major league pitcher. Hopefully get a healthy Shawn Estes back, he's been very good at times in the major leagues and hope to have him back ready to go. Obviously getting Mark Prior healthy, we all know what a healthy Mark Prior is capable of. We've got some young faces in and around this pitching staff, they can make a difference. I think we're going to be just fine."

On his new 5-year deal: "I'm very excited to be a San Diego Padre for the next 5 years. At the end of this contract it'll be 11 years as a San Diego Padre and that's pretty special to me and my family.

This organization drafted me and gave me a chance to play in the major leagues and we've went on to do some special things in this uniform. I hope it's another stepping stone towards some great Padre moments. My family and I are full time San Diego residents now and we couldn't be happier."