Roy Oswalt and the Astros: What happens when the dust settles?

When reports surfaced that he had said some of his teammates needed to be traded away, with the implication being so that he (Roy) could win now. Then came the Towles thing this year.

We can only speculate about the specifics of what happened, but the smoking gun is that we had reports of a “prominent” pitcher being unhappy closely following obvious communication problems on the field between Towles and Oswalt. Maybe there was more to it. Maybe more guys than just Roy were unhappy. And yet, I can’t escape the gut feeling that instead of sticking up for his teammate (a young kid tenuously holding onto a chance at a major league career), Roy decided to go to his manager and ask for J.R.’s job… possibly, though I hope not, ending his last chance to make it in the Majors.

On top of that, there are all the things you mentioned, Stephen, which I agree with entirely and don’t need to repeat.

Roy has lost a lot of his luster as a “hometown hero” for me over the past year or so.

In fairness, Roy O wasn’t totally to blame for the incident this week, since the league apparently chastised the umpire for his role in the affair. However, the point still remains that Oswalt was not blameless either, since he did show displeasure with strikes/balls calls earlier.

I’m not trying to pile on, but Richard Justice claimed that Oswalt was the subject of a Mills’ team meeting early in the season to address “pulling for teammates.” Justice surmised that it had something to do with Oswalt’s reaction when an error or bad play was made behind him. I’ll add that Justice said the he isn’t 100% certain about this story, but he thinks it likely is true. What makes it believable is that Oswalt had those incidents last year where he showed disgust when Tejada couldn’t get to groundballs.

Despite all of this, Oswalt is still one of my favorite pitchers. Sometimes a super-competitive personality causes problems when the competitive fire gets all bottled up. I would also suggest that Oswalt should be careful what he asks for. He may have worse reactions if he goes someplace to be with a contender and they fall out of contention, and I’m not so sure that the fans and teams elsewhere will give him as much of a pass as he gets in Houston (due to his status as a favorite here).

It all started last year like clack said with his disgust for poor infield defense. It’s sad to say, but Oswalt does not have the Ace attitude he used to have. I was disappointed in his attitude last year and how he handled the situation with Coop last year. Although I agree that Coop was a pretty terrible manager and does not know how to handle his pitching staff, you still don’t attempt to turn a clubhouse against the manager.

This year, it has gotten even worse. He may not have turned the clubhouse against Mills because there isn’t much fault in Mills at this point. Instead he’s partly going to the media and wanting out. That isn’t what a team leader does. Berkman’s quote basically says it best. The team follows the attitude of the pitcher that day. While Oswalt only pitches every 5th day, since he is the “Ace” he is the team pitcher and the team follows him.

I really wouldn’t be surprised if this team performed better if Oswalt is traded away. It seems like a lot of guys are getting tired of his attitude and would probably enjoy getting rid of the bad energy (I kind of sound like the weird guy on Happy Gilmore-“You gotta harness the good energy and block the bad, Harness-Good-Block-Bad, its circular, all good things”). Heck, that might even allow Towles to come back up and get rid of Cash, cause he isn’t even playing that great of defense at catcher which is what he’s supposed to be good at.

Sadly, Myers has turned into our Ace. He may not have the stuff to be an Ace but he’s playing like one. Sure he gets hit a lot, but he gets the groundballs and he gets outs. He fights out of a lot trouble because he does get hit, but he has the attitude we need right now. If this team is going to win games, it will be a lot of 2-1 games with our poor offense. The pitcher needs to put it on himself to make sure the ball stays in the park and get outs. If there’s an earned run, its on him and Myers accepts that. He had 10 Ks in his last outing, so maybe he’s just now getting warmed up and really can step in to be a poor mans Ace.

I don’t see anything that is too far out of the ordinary from Roy. Remember he was the one that got into with the cubs back in 05 and sparked some strong comments from Bagwell of all people. Also many folks are taking things a little too hard considering few know the whole story. Personally, I’m grateful that he has slapped the Astros in the face. Maybe they will wake up and realize how broken they are. And before any of you get too hurt or offended by Roy remember that this is HIS life and HIS career… but it’s just our hobby. And who knows, maybe the fact that his home town got smashed up earlier in the year reminded him that his time is limited.