J.A. Happ should only get few more starts before we pull the plug. He needs to work on his stuff down in the minors. He is starting to look like the old 2011 J.A. Happ real quick and thats not a good thing!
He's had a couple of decent starts, and a couple of poor ones this year. With Weiland hurt, it opens a spot in the rotation, so I'm less inclined to worry about finding Lyles a rotation spot. At the end of May, if he is still getting outperformed by Harrell and the OKC starters keep pitching well, I think they go ahead and bite the bullet. J.A. Happ is a replaceable starter at his best, and is 30 (or soon to be), so losing him doesn't hurt us.
In truth, I am not high on Harrell, Happ or Weiland. But with Wandy probably as good as gone, it means gutting our entire starting staff except Norris. I dont believe in bringing guys up before they are ready, so we will just have to keep an eye on the minors.
Happ is a #5 starter at best. I doubt that Luhnow will let Happ block anybody's development. That said ... Luhnow et al are now scrambling to find a replacement for Kyle Weiland. Jordan Lyles was given the first shot and Anuery Rodriguez will be given the next shot. If Happ is jettisoned, that means that there will be two slots to fill. I am unsure if AAA has two starters who are ready. There are certainly AAA pitchers that be brought up, despite their readiness. Luhnow has shown more willingness to not rush prospects than his predecessor, Ed Wade. At the start of the season, Luhnoiw sent boith Lyles and Wallace down to AAA for more seasoning/development, even though Wade had promoted them last year. How Luhnow handles the MLB starting pitching rotation should give us insight into how he plans to run his ship.
Irrelevant. He would have been a FA either way. If we kept Anthony Gose, would still be a solid trade. The mistake in hindsight was flipping Gose for Wallace.
As of now he is not pitching. Whether or not he intends to pitch again he currently isn't web pitching on a team. As I said I do not the think the trade is good but it didn't work for either team so it really doesn't matter.
You do know that the year of the trade, Oswalt was ridiculously dominate for the Phillies, right? They were trailing the Braves at the time, and ended up winning the division by 6 games. I'd say the deal worked out for them.
Given his rapage of the Phillies a year later, I tend to believe he really got the best deal he could for Oswalt.
The only reason Gose still looks good is because he is still in the minors and being rated as a high prospect as such. If Wallace had never made the majors, he would still be ranked in the minors top 50 too. Gose stinks, just as Wallace does. Gose makes Villar look like Willie Mays.
I obviously can only conjecture on the goal of Astros office at the time. But Oswalt trade screamed of immediate return, players that can help the team immediately. Happ and Wallace seemed like "safe" players with limited potential but fairly high floor. While Singleton and Cosart were "long term" prospects but a while away from reaching the majors, if at all. It's quite possible that Wade wanted immediate impact for Oswalt and got the best players at or near the major league level. But at the same time disregarded more highly touted players in the lower minor league level. Perhaps this was Drayton's orders. Perhaps he honestly felt Wallace and Happ were sure things. Regardless, the trade failed both in terms of improving Astros long term future, and failed in its goal of getting MLB-ready guys.