The Red Sox haven't discussed a contract with Roy Oswalt, but GM Ben Cherington didn't deny that the team watched the free agent right-hander work out. That's the essence of yesterday's Oswalt rumors; now on to today's…
- Some rival executives fully expect Oswalt to sign with the Rangers, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports (Twitter links). The Rangers play relatively close to Oswalt’s home state of Mississippi and he might want to join pitching coach Mike Maddux and CEO Nolan Ryan in Texas. To this point the Rangers haven’t made Oswalt a formal offer, Olney notes.
- Manager Ron Washington said on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Ben & Skin Show that GM Jon Daniels and the front office will make the final decision regarding the right-hander. "Oswalt has to want to come to Texas and we have to get him ready. The guy is a quality pitcher. But I'm more than certain there are other teams trying to do the same things," Washington said, according to Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas.com.
- Keep in mind that the Phillies have also been linked to Oswalt.
I’d guess that the Sox would have to outright Buchholz if they were to sign Oswalt. There isn’t much space in the rotation at the moment, though Bard’s struggles should make the Sox pull a Phil Coke and put him back in the pen.
” though Bard’s struggles should make the Sox pull a Phil Coke and put him back in the pen.”
“A winner everytime.. No blanks” to quote Curly.. Yep.. If it’s not too late already. The walks, lack of command of his change, thereby making him a 2 pitch pitcher, inability to throw his slider for strikes.. Drop in velocity of his FB from 97+ to 91-93.. SCREAMS BP.
When you take one of the most dominant setup guys in the game and make a back end 5IP starter out of him who’s barely able to hang onto THAT? It’s time for return to old role before it’s too late and he gets injured.
Chalk this one up in the UTTER FAILURE column.
Exactly. He projects to be a 2.0 WAR starter over 200 innings. He also projected to be a 2.0 WAR reliever in 75 innings. Certainly there is a better-than-replacement level starter in the Sox system (i.e. Cook, Matsuzaka, Duckworth, Ohlendorf) that can eat the remaining 150 innings. Oswalt would just be icing on the cake.
That is not right. You should give some respect
The thing is if Roy Oswalt were ready today, he would probable be signed!
Also, does anyone think Oswalt will do the same kind of job that Cliff Lee did for the Rangers run to the Series if he does indeed sign? If I remember correctly the Rangers were not selling out games until Cliff Lee joined the party. They were doing well, just not selling out. I just don’t see Oswalt helping the same way, I just don’t.
The Rangers are selling out all weekend games (48K) and pulling 40k for the weekday games. They don’t need to make a move for the sake of driving attendance. Cliff Lee drove attendance for his first start after the trade but not much beyond that. Winning solved the attendance problem, much as does with most of the other franchises.
They only need Oswalt if their scouts determine he will be a better option than Scott Feldman, combined with the expectation Feliz will not return to the rotation this season.
sorry to say i called feliz injury before the season started. you can not just take a closer and expect him to throw 6 or 7 innings every 5 days and expect it to work with out injury. yeah it worked with Wilson, but wilson crawled into the starting role. taking on more pitches before he was throwin into the rotation. just to much stress on a closers arm going from 1 inning of pitches to 7 innings. alot of people would say there isnt a difference in the world on it but there is when your throwin a max of 20 pitches in the 9th inning and 100 pitches in just 5 or 6 innings.
What did Cliff Lee do? (Nothing)!!!
He isn’t meant to come in and do what Lee did. We already have more sell outs this year (12 or 13 and the three game series this weekend is all sold out) than we had all of last year (11). Lee came in and was expected to be the final hurdle to get us to the post season. The thing Oswalt adds is some stability and a veteran who has been through the wars and be a solid pitcher. If he could contribute as a solid three, we would be good. We have Darvish as an ace (yes, I am annoiting him) and Holland, Harrison, and Lewis who can pitch like 2’s some days and fours others. We aren’t looking to go to the post season, we are looking to win it all and have our young guys healthy and rested by the time we get there.
“Some rival executives fully expect Oswalt to sign with the Rangers”
Which of course means he will sign with anyone BUT the Rangers….