This is coming from a Richard Justice Blog http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2006/07/oswalt_lidge_te.html Baseball people gossip. That's the tough lesson Tim Purpura has learned in the last week. Now he's dealing with an entirely new dynamic with some of his players. Roy Oswalt won't ever feel the same about the Astros. Maybe he was going to test the free-agent market after the 2007 season regardless of what happened. Knowing his name was thrown out in discussions with the Orioles almost guarantees it. If I'm Drayton McLane, I approach Oswalt immediately and try to sign him to a three-year extension. Besides, trading the Astros doesn't make the Astros better. Tejada is good, but he's not that good. He comes with baggage (like routinely showing up late, not running out ground balls and not hitting with power). I can't believe the Orioles didn't jump at the deal. If Tejada has all these issues, why would the Astros want him? Because there are no perfect players or trades. Only sportswriters are perfect. Even if Pupura goes to Oswalt and insists he was never going to trade him, the damage is done. Guess what? I'm skeptical he would have traded Oswalt. He might have been throwing names around to get a reaction, to get the Orioles interested. If they bit, he could then rearrange the names. On the other hand, why not throw his name around? How much worse can it get? Maybe it's time for a major roster reconstruction. If I'm the general manager, I'm not trading Oswalt unless I'm getting someone really special in return. Miguel Tejada is not that guy. Oswalt already knew baseball was a business. If McLane believed the bulldozer would buy a hometown discount, he was kidding himself. I'm told Drayton McLane ordered Purpura to trade Brad Lidge. I got this information from an official with another team. I would expect the Astros to deny it. I was also told the Astros are frantic to make a trade after Roger Clemens urged McLane to do something. McLane, perhaps overreacting, practically ordered Purpura to do something. I'll never again crticize Purpura for being timid. No general manager has been more aggressive the last two weeks. Why are so many people writing in and calling the Astros stupid? When did that happen? They've been one of baseball's most successful teams the last decade. Wasn't last season pretty good? Same front office. I'm glad people are more patient with me. Well, except for that guy with the nasty letter in the newspaper today? Hey, buddy, I've been called worse.
Justice is a a-hole. He has no inside sources. He makes up stuff like this all the time. But I hope he is true for once because I want Lidge gone.
Exactly, the moment I saw Richard Justice's name, I cringed a little so take this whole thing with a grain of salt. That being said, as much as I want to trade Lidge, I'm shocked that Drayton would unilterally order a trade. I think its probably best for the team and the player. Lidge needs a fresh start and we need a new closer.
not that he's much better, but Ortiz confirms it in his blog as well: http://blogs.chron.com/baseballblog/
Oh yeah? Well I was told that the sports editor at the Chronicle ordered Richard Justice to stop making sh*t up. I expect both the Chronicle and Dick Justice to deny this.
This story of course gets RJ much run on espn (Patrick's had Olney on talking about it & will have RJ on later). This is all RJ is interested in...self-promotion. "I would expect the Astros to deny it." How convenient, eh RJ? It's the perfect rumor, with any contravening evidence discounted before the fact. Sports journalism has become very tabloid-esque the past few years. Infuriating.
i loved that part. that way you can always look right. "I just learned that Elvis Presley is alive living with Adolf Hitler in a nudist colony in South America. I expect Elvis will deny it, though." Thanks, Dick.
As much as I hate Justice, I have to agree with his take on Oswalt. This vastly hurts the chances of a hometown discount like Berkman got. Lord knows what the Yankees would offer a guy like Oswalt in a bidding war...
Well, there goes the Astros leverage for trading Lidge. If Uncle Drayton has indeed told Timmy P to trade Lidge by the deadline then other teams are going to start low balling us.
I hate Richard Justice, what a douche. I don't understand how he still has a job when he manages to write himself into every single one of his articles. He's the most narcissistic journalist I've ever seen. They're citing Justice on this on ESPN right now. Edit: I just read Ortiz's blog in one of the other threads, which is just as bad. Ridiculous. They need to hire a couple of college kids that will just write the facts.
Agreed. If true, Dick just bit the hand that fed him. McClane needs to roll up a newspaper and smack him on the nose. EDIT: I'm *this* close to declaring an all-out Photoshop war on Richard Justice.
Does that make Hirsh absolutely untouchable now? In two years we could potentially have no Clemens, no Pettitte, and no Oz. That's scary.
Buster Olney just reported that in the last 30 minutes a team called us about Lidge and we said we're not dealing him.
