Today’s Sun-Times posits Sox starter Jake Peavy has not just declared but also proven himself worthy of playing with the big kids in the American League. How has he done this? Guns blazing, that’s how:

Just in case one more statement needs to be made, Jake Peavy hopes to make it with his start Friday.

His wish is that the game still will mean something for the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central race. But even if it doesn’t, Peavy would like to end the perception that he originally turned down the trade from the San Diego Padres in May because he was worried about a skyrocketing ERA in the AL — just in case his 2-0 record and 2.25 ERA in his first two starts aren’t enough proof.

First things first: Peavy is a good pitcher, possibly even a great pitcher. Everyone knows this, and while the NL-to-AL adjustment has never been kind to even the best of talented arms, even a Peavy taken down a peg was (and is) reason for great hope on the South Side.

But to call a Cy Young winner shutting down the dregs of the American League as some kind of declaration of awesomeness is almost an insult to Peavy himself. Wait until he matches up against the Yankees, or the Red Sox, or any non-joke of a team because here’s another statement: the Royals and Tigers are garbage.

Peavy held the Royals to three runs? That’s great. So did Todd Wellemeyer, Trevor Cahill and Matt Albers.

In all fairness, Peavy did shut out the Detroit Tigers (correction: division-leading Detroit Tigers!), and this grace under pressure should bode well for No. 44’s American League future, shouldn’t it? Of course it should, just as it did for fellow Tiger slayers Carl “1.35 WHIP” Pavano and Phil “lost my spot in the rotation” Hughes.

All told, it’s not just a bogus assertion but a dismissive one as well; two garbage-time starts’ worth of Jake Peavy mean nothing just yet, especially against the backdrop of his less-than-stellar splits away from his old stomping ground. Common sense and all the available signs indicate he will do just fine, but to say he’s already established himself would mean we, not unlike reporter Cowley and the team he covers, have simply given up.