Astros starters by WAR: Oswalt - 45.5 Dierker - 34.2 Wilson - 27.7 Ryan - 25.4 Scott - 24.8 Niekro - 23.0 Richard - 21.5 And for fun, other Astros "greats" Bagwell - 79.6 Biggio - 65.1 Cruz - 51.2 Cedeno - 49.5 Berkman - 48.1 Wynn - 41.4
And specifically, re: Ryan v. Oswalt:, Nolan's Astro ERA+ was 110; Roy's 133. Not only was Oswalt a better pitcher than Ryan, he was among the better pitchers in baseball as an Astro, which Ryan was not. I don't have an issue with Ryan's jersey being retired because, again, I think when it comes to this stuff, intangibles are important. But strictly from a baseball perspective, you could argue Ryan's jersey retirement is pretty flimsy. As an Astro.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Lance Berkman/Roy Oswalt Tribute video showed on <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23PumaOswaltNight&src=hash">#PumaOswaltNight</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23MMP&src=hash">#MMP</a> is now live! <a href="http://t.co/NLhUT9XOtP">http://t.co/NLhUT9XOtP</a></p>— Houston Astros (@astros) <a href="https://twitter.com/astros/statuses/456844397876097024">April 17, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
