Even before Brett Myers limped off the mound Wednesday night, the Phillies were looking to improve their starting pitching rotation.

Myers' hip injury, which will require surgery and likely end his season, makes the search for pitching more urgent, and the need to improve it more imperative.

Jake Peavy, the National League Cy Young Award winner in 2007, is the people's choice. It's no secret that the San Diego Padres are trying to unload their high-priced ace.

The Phillies have been in contact with the Padres, but team insiders say it's a long shot that a deal would be struck between the two clubs. The $63 million remaining on Peavy's contract is a big hurdle. About $8 million of that is due over the rest of this season, and the Phils' payroll is already $133 million, up $30 million from last year's World Series championship season.

Peavy's no-trade clause is another hurdle. The 28-year-old righthander would like to stay in the NL, with a contender, but staying closer to the West Coast seems to be his preference.

There are other impediments to the Phillies' landing Peavy. The Padres are likely to ask for catcher Lou Marson and pitcher J.A. Happ in the deal.

The Phils might listen on Marson, but Happ is cheap and under control for five more years - there's great value in that - and the Phils need him in their rotation now.

There is something else that would likely thwart the Phillies' pursuit of Peavy:

Citizens Bank Park.

Peavy is a critic of the place. We've heard it - firsthand.

In August 2007, during Barry Bonds' quest to break Hank Aaron's all-time home run record, this scribe participated in an interview with Peavy at San Diego's Petco Park. Peavy spoke of how Bonds would have to really hit the ball to get it out of Petco Park, and how that stadium differed from so many of the bandboxes that had sprung up around the league.

Here's what Peavy said:

"You won't hit cheap home runs here, but if you square it up, it will go," he said. "If you hit a home run here, you have hit a home run, and that's the way it should be.

"Hitters will say this is a terrible place. They think it's a graveyard. But it's fair."

Peavy then launched into an entertaining rant about the dimensions of some other more hitter-friendly parks in the NL.

"Arizona, Colorado," he said. "Are you kidding me? Cincinnati. Look at the parks in the Central [Division]. Houston. You stand in the outfield shagging and you feel like you're at deep short."

Then Peavy moved eastward.

"That new Philadelphia park might be the worst in baseball," he said. "Look at Shane Victorino. I love Vic to death. He's a great baseball player. He's got 11 or 12 homers [already]. He's not a 20-homer guy."

Victorino finished with 12 homers that season - six at home.

Again, Peavy made these comments two years ago. He has never officially said he would not come to Philadelphia. But judging from those words, it doesn't sound like a place he'd want to be.