Baltimore Sun: Astros discuss Tejada trade for ROY OSWALT

There's no way they'd let him end up in Texas. That's not even in the realm of possibilities. Could you imagine if he landed with the Cardinals?!? We could pencil them in for the next 2-3 division titles right now. They've got to keep Oswalt and Berkman and Burke (and Lidge?!?) and have them be the path to the next generation of minor leaguers in my opinion.

Oswalt and McClain are said to be pretty good friends. I doubt Drayton wants to see his best pitcher (the one he just bought a tractor for) leave the organization.

A lesson for all your prospect mongers... how many of the "Big Four" of Oswalt-Miller-Redding-Hernandez are still contributing for the big league club?!?

Prospects are a crap shoot... carpe diem and give the vets a chance to get back and finish off what they started last year!

 

That's exactly my point - since they are contending, they are going to lose Zito for nothing, but they have to keep him. If they'd traded him in the offseason and gotten another SP and other pieces to better their team, they wouldn't be facing that situation.

The quality of management has nothing to do with it - all teams go through this. We got Randy Johnson and Carlos Beltran that way. Their value is lower if you teams know you have to trade for them. Their value is also lower if the team is trading for a 2 month rental - that's why Tejada, despite being an inferior player, can fetch far more than Soriano.

Trading Oswalt now (or this offseason) would fetch far more than next trade deadline. But trading him now means giving up on this season, essentially, which I don't think the Astros would (or should) do.

 

What makes even less sense is if you're going to trade Roy, why wold you trade him for Tejada who can just demand a trade himself this offseason? You can't be schizo about this like CD and the Rockets. If you're going to trade Oswalt, you trade EVERYONE and for prospects and call it a year. You don't trade Oswalt for a rental while still trying to contend. That makes no sense. They don't last a chance in a playoff series without Roy.

 

I think that Oswalt is much better than Zito or Lee. It's not like we won't get anything for him if we wait until the 2007 deadline. He's one of the most dominant pitchers in the league. If we're contending and we lose him for nothing, well that would suck. Silver lining though is that we were competing. I'm not at all convinced that he won't re-sign here. Trading him away means he won't. Obviously.

I agree if you get absolutely blown away by an offer, you have to consider it. But there's no way I'd trade him straight-up for Tejada, much less adding players on our end. There are two players in the league I'd trade him for-Pujols and A-Rod.

 

i don't think tejada's an inferior player, especially considering the positions they currently play.

.330/19/77/.900 v. .284/32/64/.945

finding a SS that puts up those numbers is much harder than finding a corner OFer who puts up comparable soriano #s.

i wouldn't trade oswalt for arod, but i'd send him to st. louis for albert, no doubt. also to florida for cabrera; to NY for carlos beltran or david wright; to minnesota for joe mauer or one of the two pitchers and possibly - possibly - to tampa or philly for crawford or howard.

 

Of the three teams, several baseball sources say, the Astros -- offering a package centered on third baseman Morgan Ensberg and shortstop Adam Everett -- have been the most aggressive. According to several reports the Astros at one point offered star pitcher Roy Oswalt, but no deal involving Oswalt had been presented to owner Peter Angelos as of 9 p.m. on Sunday, according to a high-ranking team source, an indication those talks weren't serious.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/30/AR2006073000404.html

 

For Beltran? are you kidding me? Beltran can't put a foot in Houston, ok.

 

Sure - but consider that Tejada's future seems to be at 3B, and Soriano is actually a 2B and that changes dramatically.

For the Astros, I tend to agree since we already have Biggio & Burke at 2B, and hopefully Tejada would play SS (at least this year). But in a general sense, if both were free agents, Soriano would fetch a whole lot more money right now.

 

exactly. if you trade oswalt, you might as well trade everyone.

 

says who? they're the same age; offensively, they're nearly identical; the biggest difference is tejada's a better player defensively. soriano's an adventure at 2b. ask any ranger fan who had to endure his tenure there (or someone who lived his dallas during his tenure).

so to label tejada "inferior" is simply not accurate. and to assume to know the market for either is ridiculous.

 

We should be building our pitching staff of the future (minus Pettite and Clemens) around Oswalt. For the love of God and all that is holy with this world..... Why piss off your best pitching asset??

 

Look, do you guys think Drayton and TP are really dumb enough to move Oswalt for Tejada? Come on now. We should know better. That isn't what happened there. What happened is the Astros were doing everything in their power to get Tejada after having been rebuffed on all their offers that they threw the door open and asked Baltimore what it would take to get Tejada. Baltimore then opened up with discussions centered around Oswalt, knowing full well, he is the #1 asset on our team.

Angelos is a r****d. He bought that team in 93 and has progressively ran them into the ground. He is not a baseball man. He's an ambulance chaser masquerading as a baseball gm. That's why they didn't deal Tejada. The only way they deal Tejada is if there is another Weisbrod type gm come along that is stupid to bend over for him. Our guys ain't that. They went as far as they could and be reasonable, I am confident of that. Baltimore is the idiots here, not TP. I"m sure we offered them plenty of talent.

We really need to go after Soriano hard. Linebrink and Blalock for Lidge and Morgan is a lateral move. It does not make us better. Just different faces. We need to add Soriano without subtracting any hitters or starting pitchers.

 

Tejada is considered terribly defensively right now at SS - thus the talk about moving him to 3B. And they aren't exactly similar offensively. Soriano has more power and more speed. Tejada's never hit 35 HRs. Soriano will have done it 4 times in the last 5 years. And Soriano is a potential 40-base stealer as well. Tejada has a higher average, but he gets his RBIs simply because he's consistently the #3 man in the order.

 

From Insider

Gauging Oswalt's value

Jul 31 - A baseball source says that Roy Oswalt is likely to not be traded, and that the Astros are shopping him to assess his market value, ESPN The Magazine's Amy Nelson reports.
The Astros have had preliminary discussions about a contract extension in the last week with Oswalt, and since then have begun shopping the right-hander to gauge his long-term value.

The Mets, Red Sox, Nationals and Orioles all have expressed interest in Oswalt.

 

Agreed. We saw hints of doom in the WS. Does this bring back memories ...

How many times did Lane or Ensberg leave RISP vs the White Sox.

 

why, what a random selection of numbers you've arbitrarily chosen to judge a player's worth... come on; you're selectivity is tipping your hand. here are all of their numbers since 2002:

soriano (age: 30)
.285/35/90; 36SB, 126K, .863 OPS (707 games)

tejada (age: 30)
.305/28/112; 6 SB, 70K, .866 OPS (744 games)

those are nearly identical numbers through the prime of their careers no matter how desperately you try to spin 'em (ie playing the line-up card - think soriano would be a 40-steal threat hitting #3?)

so, again, how is soriano "superior"? and who else is drawing that conclusion? and what teams have confirmed your opinion that he would be worth more on the open market this winter?

 

cuz he left for a better team and more money?

 

Nearly identical numbers? Huh? He hits 25% more HRs and steals 5 times as many bases. More power, more speed. How does that disagree with what I said? If Tejada was hitting in Soriano's position, he wouldn't be stealing 40 bases. If Soriano was hitting in Tejada's position, he'd be getting more RBIs. How exactly is that playing the lineup card? Are you trying to argue that Tejada could steal bases if he wanted to?

 

That is just good ole fashion spinorama.

Oswalt was on the verge of being moved and it is not to test our patience.

I fear that there is something Purp and his crew know about The Wizard that they are not telling us. Are so much afraid of his durability? Something is up - it just does not added. No, this was not a test either - I will suspect a flat out calculation blunder before considering the "gauging the maket spin".

 

speed and power are the only two ways to judge a player's worth? really? what about the 20-point difference in average? or the fact soriano strikes out far more frequently in fewer games?

tejada has a higher OPS since 2002; OPS is used to give a better representation of a player's overall production, major. i know you know this, so why am i having to explain it to you?