Does Getting Oswalt Make Up For Lee Trade?
No, Roy Oswalt isn't Cliff Lee, and may never be Cliff Lee. But he's pretty damned close to it, and he was the best option available for the Phillies to acquire just before the trade deadline. Maybe that's why it's so baffling to hear the number of Phillies fans that have come down hard against this trade, preferring instead to retain J.A. Happ as opposed to acquiring Oswalt.
Oswalt may be 6-12 this year, but when you peel through that mess, it's very misleading. The right-hander has a 3.42 ERA. Opposing teams are hitting a paltry .229 against him and in five of his 12 losses, the lowly Astros were shut out (one alarming note is that Oswalt is winless lifetime against the Braves, 0-3, with a 7.58 ERA; but on the plus side is a combined 33-5 lifetime against playoff contenders Cincinnati and San Diego). The most important record right now is that Oswalt is 0-0 as a Phillies' starter--and in joining Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels--the Phillies have arguably the best starting pitching in Major League Baseball. No opposing manager would want to face that trio in a playoff series.
Kudos to Phillies' general manager Ruben Amaro for the gutsy move--and the tacit acknowledgement that he screwed up when he let Lee go seven months ago for what amounted to be nothing. Amaro had the audacity to ask the Phillies' buying public to accept his reasoning for the salary dump as "restocking the minor league system." Who was kidding whom there, Rube? Kudos to Phillies' fans for not buying it. In some respects, Amaro owed it to the Phillies' faithful who have zipped through the turnstiles this summer at an alarming, record-breaking pace. He owed it to you, and you, and you who have stood by this team when it wasn't so easy, surviving two months of drudgery, stemming partly from Amaro's Lee faux pas, and partly because this team was showing cracks of playing more games than any other team in baseball over the last four years.
It's why the time is now that Amaro act--as he did--in acquiring someone like Oswalt. All indications show, if the Phillies can somehow remain buoyant while Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Chase Utley mend, that this team is primed to make another deep run into October. Throughout June and July it didn't look like that at all. Inconsistent (many times non-existent) hitting, a porous bullpen (which still has to be a major concern) and the injuries made it appear as if the wheels were about to fall off at any time and the Phillies would be left for dead.
August is here. The masses haven't wavered. They continue to fill Citizens Bank Park up every night, which could mean over 3.5 million in attendance by season's end. You, and you, and you, you all kept coming, despite key components of the star-studded infield going down. Despite a team that didn't hit each time one of its two bulls, Halladay or Hamels, were on the mound. Despite what's been the accurate shouts for Domonic Brown to be called up. With Oswalt, with the resurgent offense, all of those previous woes seem to be getting smaller in the rearview mirror as MLB's dog days approach.
No, Roy Oswalt isn't Cliff Lee, and he may never be Cliff Lee. But with Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels, no team the Phillies face will get a break from here on out. Amaro made the right choice. The alternative could have been 36 starts divided between Happ, Kyle Kendrick and Joe Blanton over the last 61 games this season. Think about how that could have ended. We'll take Oswalt, call him Cliff Lee-light, and see how things could possibly turn out now. The Phillies won't win 100 games this season, as many of the pundits had predicted. Though the clouds are beginning to part and it's looking like a brighter path to October for the Phillies.
Did you think you'd witness it from this club a month ago? Don't feel bad. Not many did.
