I doubt very much anything happens soon. But when it becomes clear this team is awful and has no real hope of accomplishing anything, the Astros would be foolish not to consider trading him. Their sorry farm system needs help and a king's ransom for Oswalt would go a long way towards fixing that problem. His affordable contract makes Oswalt very attractive to other teams. The only significant player I wouldn't expect to be on the block is Berkman. But maybe if he shoots his mouth off again...
His affordable contract is the reason he isn't gonna be moved. Drayton has a top 10 pitcher who is priced at a great salary. Plus, he knows it would be seen as a move indicating the team is "giving up", and he's always going to be a win-now guy who doesn't want that kind of press.
Last year. We sucked, we weren't competitive and as a result, we traded Roy to the Mets in a 3 team trade with the Rangers. Don't you remember?
Forget about the fact that Roy Oswalt is involved. If you have a team with a relatively high payroll that's not really a contender and doesn't have much of a farm system, with zero blue-chip prospects knocking on the door, you're basically stuck in baseball purgatory. Trading an established star won't make you better right away... but it does give you some additional flexibility currently with the payroll, while adding some pretty good prospects/young established everyday players (which would be the asking price for this established star). All this being said, I don't want to trade Oswalt. I would, however, trade Carlos Lee in a second if it allowed us to get some young quality pitchers.
Same here. I'd be happy trading anyone on the team that's not Oswalt. The only thing worrisome about Oswalt is him saying in the past he doesn't plan to pitch too far into the future. If that was indeed true, I would consider trading him.
I wouldn't dismiss Oswalt's on the trading block. But the article makes it seem like the Yankees are the ONLY team interested. It just says the Yankees are interested. That doesn't mean Boston, SF, Oakland, etc. are not interested as well. I think Wade is seeing what he can get for Oswalt. Maybe a bunch of young arms to spread the talent out overall, instead of having just one ace and a bunch of 4th starters. A trade is highly unlikely since I don't think Wade can get a group of young pitchers. But it doesn't hurt to look. Just curious...would you trade Roy O. for young pitchers to spread the talent?
If anyone's on the block it should be Lee, Berkman, or Tejada. Trading Oswalt right now would be r****ded.
Except Oswalt's the most valuable of the bunch. Around July, when there are a bunch of teams in the playoff hunt, an ace is what those teams want. Hitting is nice - but teams with playoff dreams want an ace in their rotation to carry them. Oswalt would fetch far more than any of the other guys you mentioned.
Its always easier to fit a pitcher in to your team. To trade a position player you have to have somewhat of a hole at a postion they can and are willing to play. However since Drayton was so attached to Lidge even though he failed so hard, its basically a promise that he will never approve a trade with Roy O.
Its way too early in the season to start talking about who is on the block and who isn't, IMO. I highly doubt that the Wizard is traded, because Uncle Drayton loves Roy like he loved Bags and Bidge. I agree with CW that if anyone is going to get traded this year it will most likely be Tejada, Villarreal, Lee (if he waives the No-No) and Loretta barring the Astros falling out of contention; Which is at least two and a half months away from being determined. If the Astros do fall out of contention, if they decide to put up the fire sale sign, they should target prospects that are obviously rated high and that are less than two seasons from contributing. Along with what I think we all hope will be a stellar draft this season and next the Astros could build up their farm system and contend again for the next decade. I'd much rather the Astros contend this year and we don't have to worry about a fire sale. And for the record if the Astros were to trade Oswalt, they better get a Felix Hernandez, Francisco Liriano, Cole Hamels or young pitcher equivalent to those guys and I doubt that a team will part with such a prospect since good pitching is so scarce.
And exactly who would the Astros have pitch every five days...me???...you??? Roy has a no trade clause, and getting rid of him would be to take a shaky rotation and make it easily one of the worst in baseball. Not only that, but Drayton would be trading one of the "faces" of the franchise. Not going to happen.
I don't think you really get true value for a pitcher of Oswalt's caliber and contract situation. From a personnel standpoint it'll be easier for the Astros to replace the production from Lee, Berkman, and Tejada than it will be to replace Oswalt. Plus, Lee is overweight and has never shown a desire to get in real shape, Berkman might be on the decline, and Tejada is 2 years older all of a sudden. The money invested in those guys is a huge drain on the payroll and it's likely (perhaps except for Berkman) that all of their best years are behind them. You trade those three hitters, get a couple good prospect arms and a quality prospect position player or two in concert with the high draft picks we'll get from the draft and we're totally retooled to win this division in 2/3 years. We're not going to win this division in the forseeable future with this group. Look at the Diamondbacks. They completely changed their philosophy and they're going to dominate their division for the next 10 years because of it.
Just for kicks................. What do you think we could get for Oswalt, if say, the teams interested in him got into a bidding war? Teams like the Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox?
Not with Cubs spending more $$, not with Milwaukeee's endless supply of young players who are good, not with Tony LaRussa being Gm of St Louis.
Roy O is the last person on the list to get traded. An amazing pitcher with an even more amazing contract? Nope. This ain't going to happen. Keep dreaming NY.
