It’s no big secret that the Philadelphia Phillies are in trouble this year. Simply put, this team has underperformed. I can smell the awful stench of the bullpen through my home theater system and the lineup has been equally horrific (considering the names in it of course. Seattle would be thrilled to be so terrible). Kyle Kendrick got sent to Triple-A Lehigh Valley this week (that‚Äôs what those “in the know” call a demotion) and Jamie Moyer left Tuesday night‚Äôs game with an apparent elbow strain.
In other words, they need some help.
Could that help come in the form of Mr. Roy Oswalt of the Houston Astros? Surely Amaro can fleece Ed Wade, right? According to Jayson Stark of ESPN, the Phils are spending quite a bit of time looking into acquiring the stud righty.
“Follow-up on Phillies tweet: Phillies have talked about lots of starters. But hearing they’ve spent a lot of time exploring an Oswalt deal,” Stark tweets.
This doesn‚Äôt mean that anything is imminent. For crying out loud, he‚Äôs due to make $16 million this year with a club option for $16 million next year (with a $2 million buyout). This payroll is already stretched pretty thin, and while it would be nice to add him (6-11, but with a 3.12 ERA. He’s clearly not the reason for his W/L record), I‚Äôve heard he‚Äôs not that good of a hitter, so that’s a problem you would still have.
First of all, the Phils really don’t have any more prospects to shop around the league. Dom Brown is an elite prospect, but he is the only decent player they have left in their farm system. They can’t move him, because he’s going to take Jayson Werth’s spot when he is either traded or leaves via free agency at the end of the year.
We’ll see what happens, but if this trade did go down, it would create quite a starting rotation for the Phils. Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt? But it might not matter, the bullpen might still be too unlucky (to use a soccer term) and the lineup too cold.
We can point fingers in a lot of directions, but at some point Amaro only has so many fingers to stick in the various streams of water busting through the dam.
I am still pissed off they traded Cliff Lee and got those Babe Ruth League players for our farm system as we sent 2 blue chip minor league rs packing when keeping him and letting him leave in free agency would have gotten us better picks
I liked Oswalt 2-3 years ago, he’s got a lot of mileage on that right arm (as does Halladay)
Moving Werth for him makes sense since Werth will be gone after the season anyways..
I don’t think having him though will make a difference for this year’s Team though.
Until the bullpen is addressed, it won’t matter.. What a lost opportuntity this 2010 Season has been..
i would rather still have CLIFF LEE!!!!!!!!
your killin me phils FO, your killin me. we wouldnt have had this prob in the first place if they would have pulled a “yankees move” and kept lee. *scratches head*