Way to Go, Drayton--Oswalt Locked Up for Five Years
As I opened my Chronicle this morning, I was delighted to learn that the Astros locked The Wizard up for another five (5) seasons. $73 mil is a lot of cheddar, but if there's a pitcher that's worth it, it's Roy Oswalt. The guy is inarguably one of the best ten pitchers in all of baseball (I'd make the case that he might even be one of the top three), and he's only 29 years old. After the seemingly diastrous way the 'Stros handled him at the trading deadline, this amounts to redemption for Drayton & Co. They even gave him a full no-trade clause, for crying out loud. Choke on that, Beltrantichrist.Fortunately, Drayton didn't try to nickel and dime a guy he knew the team needed. If Oswalt had made it to the open market, he was as good as gone, so Drayton knuckled up and dug into his couch cushions to ensure Berkman and Oswalt are the faces of the organization for years to come. Kudos to the 'Stros for doing the right thing.
***Oh, and the 'Stros are only three (3) games back in the wild card hunt. Part of me regrets writing them off last week (see toe tag), but a bigger part of me wants to believe those guys read this site and got motivated. That's probably just the methadone talking, but whatever.***
posted by Anonymous | 10:15 AM
6 Comments:
Giving McLane and Purpura kudos for their handling of this deal is a bit of a stretch, in my opinion. I agree that Roy is an absolute keeper and one of the five best RHP in baseball, but the front office also possibly cost the organization somewhere around $10M-$20M by botching this situation so badly for so long.
If they had approached Roy O this spring, prior to Garner dissing him on the All-Star roster and prior to carelessly allowing his name to get out in trade rumors at the 2006 deadline, you quite possibly could have locked him up for something more along the lines of 3/$45m or $4/55m rather than 5/$73m. As we all know, those millions add up fast, and each dollar wasted will limit the pieces that can be added down the road.
I'm glad for the Astros that they kept Roy O, but let's not kid ourselves that the front office deserves a round of applause for their efforts. It seems clear to me by the length and $ involved in this deal that Roy O and his agents got whatever the hell they wanted, and that's never the way you should want your team doing business.
I agree with Chen. I think we're all guilty of taking McLane for granted; the guy has shown a real propensity for locking up homegrown star Astros regardless of the price of the ticket. Scott's right that they could have saved some money by knocking this out after last season, but the important thing is that Roy ain't going anywhere. Peace of mind is worth another few million clams in my book.
Peace of mind is fine, but bookmark this page for the stretch run in 2009 when the pursestrings are tight and Oswalt's large salary is cited as a reason. A couple million dollars goes a long way at the trading deadline when you're attempting to add valuable pieces to the puzzle.
Assuming we compete for the next three seasons, I'm willing to deal with the fallout in 2009. Unlike your beloved Reds, the 'Stros have shown a willingness to take on salary in an attempt to get over the hump when the situation warrants. Before you even start, I better not hear anything about Majewski or Hatteberg being proof of the 'Natti's commitment to winning.
Majewski, Hatteberg, Schoenweis, Guardado, Cormier, Clayton, Hollandsworth, Franklin, Lohse
All those guys cost money, and nearly all of them have contributed. Sure, they're not the '27 Yankees, but they've produced more than Aubrey Huff has and cost significantly less.
Ladies and Gentlemen...Mr. Wayne Krivsky!
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