Ok, Roy Oswalt has made news by surprising some people and making a trade request. Surprising, I guess but the gist behind it was that the Astros aren’t going anywhere and he wants to play on a postseason team.
Since that request, Oswalt pitched a dynamite game which he won against the Brewers. Fox Sports Houston had an interesting twist on that game as it pertains to Oswalt in their opening sentence:
Roy Oswalt made a convincing argument for the Houston Astros to keep him in his first start since the team publicly acknowledged the ace’s trade request.
Funny, I saw it differently. If I was a reporter and looking for an angle, maybe Oswalt was showcasing his talents for any takers out there in the market for a quality starter. The cynical side of me, I guess. In either case, both sides are downplaying the trade thing at the moment anyway.
In related news (maybe more related than we think) Andy from Baseball Reference has a post on how little support Oswalt is getting from the Astros’ offense. Here’s the gist of it:
According to his neutralized pitching stats, Roy Oswalt deserves a .731 winning percentage this year, which projects to a 19-7 record for the season. Instead, he’s actually 3-6 with a .333 winning percentage.
He’s got the numbers to back it up on his post.
I think good ol’ Roy wants some decent offense. Maybe this is his way making his wished heard.