A healthy Peavy clears the air

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For the first time since coming to Chicago, Jake Peavy hasn't had to worry about rehabbing anything during the winter. While that usually would lead to some sense of normalcy, Peavy won't know exactly where he's at until spring training. After all, he's five years removed from his last 200-inning season -- a number Kenny Williams fully expects his starter to reach in 2011.

"I'm as sure as I'm going to get that I'm as good as I'm going to get, so I gotta find out where I stand," Peavy said Friday. "I've let it go and I've done everything I can to hopefully get back to close to, if not the form I had when I got here."

That form, though, has escaped Peavy in the last two seasons. Just as he was turning a corner in 2010, his latissimus dorsi muscle tore clean off his shoulder. In 2011, he struggled through and up-and-down campaign that saw him sputter to a 4.92 ERA.

"The last few years haven't been fun," Peavy admitted. "There've certainly been times when I've asked myself, 'are you really going to go on like this?' But, at the same time, you gotta push through. As an athlete, I love this game -- I want to do what I got traded to Chicago to do, and that's be healthy and help this team win.

"I haven't really been able to be that guy," Peavy continued. "I'm not going to blame it all on injuries, but we all know I had some pretty significant injuries that hasn't been fun. But at the same time, I am who I am, I'm gonna go out there and give it all I've got to give."

Peavy's preached optimism in the last couple of years, but he has yet to revert to his former self on a consistent basis. For every shutout of a strong Indians lineup, there was a shellacking at the hands of a generally-hapless Twins offense.

But perhaps this year will finally be the one that's different -- after all, it's the first normal offseason Peavy's had in years.

Well, normal on a preparation level. His "feud" with Ozzie Guillen, of course, was hardly normal.

"I love Ozzie Guillen. A lot of that stuff was taken out of context," explained Peavy, referring to his comments about Ozzie quitting on the 2011 White Sox. "Ozzie knows I love him, I gave Ozzie everything I had to give him, and he knows that. When people were saying he was going to come out firing, I said there's nothing he can say about me unless he wants to not say the truth, because I truly gave him everything I could give him as a player. He did the same for me as a manager. I never spoke bad about Ozzie as a manager at all.

"I love Ozzie and we wish him the best in Miami. I'm glad that's over with."

So outside of that little blip with the maybe-not feud with Guillen, everything's been great for Peavy this winter. That normalcy could go a long way. He doesn't feel any trepidation regarding his arm -- it's not going to be any better, but it certainly won't get any worse.

And there's one other positive to take away.

"My offseason's great," said Peavy with a grin. "Alabama just won their fourth national title."

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