Roy Oswalt to the Braves? Great idea. Won’t happen
There’s this All-Star player, see? And he wants to be traded, see? And he has apparently told folks one of the places he’d be willing to work would be Atlanta, see?
Too bad it can’t happen.
Our story so far: Roy Oswalt, the fine Astro hurler, last week requested that Houston deal him away, according to Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. (Apparently Oswalt has watched the Astros play this season.) Back in April, Jayson Stark of ESPN.com reported that a friend of Oswalt’s claimed the pitcher’s preferred destinations would be Atlanta, St. Louis or Texas.
Sounds promising, huh? It’s not, alas.
Oswalt is under contract through 2012 (the final year is a club option) for roughly $16 million per annum. That’s Derek Lowe money. And what did the Braves spend most of December trying to do? Trade Derek Lowe because he makes too much money. (As we know, they wound up trading Javier Vazquez instead, thereby treating us to the inspired outfield play offered up by Melky Cabrera.)
A decade ago, the Braves would have been all over Oswalt. Rule 1 in the Baseball Manual: You can’t have too much pitching. But the Braves and Frank Wren just told us that, with this club and its finances, you can have too much pitching.
The Braves believed shedding Vazquez wouldn’t hurt their rotation. And it’s true that he has been terrible as a Yankee. But he’s also pitching in the American League, which is a whole ‘nother ballgame. Ask Roy Halladay if switching to the NL is like going to pitching heaven.
Regarding the Braves, the reality has been rather different. Only Tim Hudson, who’s 5-1 with an ERA of 2.09, is having a big season. As for the other starters:
• Tommy Hanson is 3-3 with an ERA of 4.18.
• Jair Jurrjens is 0-3 with an ERA of 6.38 and is hurt.
• Lowe is 6-4 with an ERA of 5.30.
• Kenshin Kawakami is 0-6 with an ERA of 4.98.
Taken together, the Braves’ starters are 14-17. (Kris Medlen has had three no-decisions as a starter, though he has pitched well.) Could this team use Oswalt? Oh, yes. Will it happen? Oh, no.
Watch him wind up in Philly.
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203 comments Add your comment
Roy Oswalt Will Not Be Traded For Stephen Strasburg, But Where Will He Be Going? | astros.baseball-news-update.com
May 26th, 2010
1:57 pm
[...] for $16 million in 2012. Also remember that Texas just filed for bankruptcy and, according to Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Braves can’t afford him either. So who does that leave? It leave St. Louis. It makes the [...]
Mike D-O-double G
May 27th, 2010
2:07 pm
I’m starting to get a little better feeling about this season because of our hitting. If we keep tearing sh** up, and if JJ gets back to pitching well, we’ll be close to the end, probably win the WC.
Steve
May 28th, 2010
2:05 pm
I would love to see Oswalt in Atlanta, but only if we could shed Lowe or Kawakami in the deal. Otherwise, I am like the majority of folks here in saying that the Braves need to trust their system. We got in our current state of average baseball by trading away prospects for rentals of less than one or two years and getting very little value back for them when they left. We need to stop pretending throwing away our talent.
Sure, only a small percentage of prospects end up playing worth a darn, but every time we shrink our numbers of good prospects it makes it less likely we will have any decent ones come up.
Lowe is pitching MUCH better as of late. In his last 5 starts he has 4 very solid appearances. Maybe he is turning it around. Kawakami on the other hand is imploding. You can’t keep blaming run support when the Braves are routinely behind by 3-4 runs after a couple of innings. That can sap the life out of an already feeble offense.
Rotation until Jurrgens returns should be (not picking the order, jsut the pitchers):
Hudson
Hanson
Lowe
Medlin
Venters
After Jurrgens gets back you can move Venters or Medlin back to long relief, or maybe even use Jurrgens there until he proves he has figured out the issues he was havingbefore he got injured. In other words, let’s remember Jurrgens wasn’t pitchign well at all before his injury.
Then you look at what we have still in the minors and you notice we have more pitching on the way, with Minor likely to be ready by next year and a couple of others by 2012. Oswalt would help, but we have plnety of pitching .. IF the Braves would stop screwing around with vets and let these kids have a shot. I really like Bobby Cox, but his tendencies towards playing decaying or terrible veterans over up and coming rookies is annoying. He basically only plays a rookie when there is just no other choice or the fans would beat him down. Need I bring up all the crappy vets we have continually put on the field for no reason in the past.
Leave Medlin in the rotation. Drop Kawakami for Venters. See how things go.