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Trade Bait: Oswalt to Philly
UPDATE: The Astros have flipped Gose to the Toronto Blue Jays for Brett Wallace. This makes the trade look a better as Wallace could become a Berkman replacement. He’s turned into a good power bat this year and could eventually be a good anchor to the middle of the lineup. Defensively, there’s some questions about him, even with his switch to first base. But he should be able to stay there.
Interestingly, they are two TOTALLY different propsects, as defensively, offensively, and overall refinement. But I do like the prospect-for-prospect trades. This is Wallace’s second in this type of deal. After being sent to Oakland in the Holliday deal, Wallace was traded again for Michael Taylor in a prospect-for-prospect deal.
The speculation on where Roy Oswalt will be traded to now can stop. The Phillies in need of deepening their rotation for the stretch run, have brought in Oswalt to pitch behind another Roy, Halladay. Roy has agreed to be shipped to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for three players.
Months worth of speculation have gone into this trade as numerous team have been rumored to be in on the trade for some time. Yet Oswalt has been picky as to where he wants to get traded to and whether or not the new team will be forced to pick up his 2012 option. However, Oswalt approved of the deal to Philly anyway.
He’ll likely slot in between Halladay and Cole Hamels in the not-so-deep Phillies rotation. With Jamie Moyer on the DL and Joe Blanton pitching horribly this season (though he does have a 3.60 ERA in the second half), Oswalt will be a much welcome addition to the rotation.
The first player coming to the Astros in the deal, pitcher J.A. Happ, is a lefty that had good success with the Phillies last season. He posted a 2.96 ERA in 166 innings, obtaining a 12-4 record in the process. He’s been out with an injury this season, but scouts have liked what they’ve seen in his return. Though I highly doubt that he’ll be a sub-3.00 ERA pitcher over a full season again, Happ should be a good #4 starter, or passible #3 on a rebuilding team.
The Astros will also receive outfielder Anthony Gose in the deal. Gose is a speedy outfielder with a strong arm that was taken by the Phillies in the second round of the 2008 draft. He’s currently hitting .263/.325/.385 in High-A. All of which are the “best” numbers he’s put up in his career, not exactly something to write home about. His calling card is his speed as he stole 76 bases in A-ball last season and has 36 stolen bases this season. However, he was caught 20 times last season and an appauling 27 times this season.
The third player is outfielder Jonathan Villar, another speedy 19-year-old. Ben Badler calls him a “SICK athlete with a cannon arm and good range”, calling him a solid prospect. Defensively, scouts rave about the shortstop’s skills, but his 42 errors this season are quite ugly. With the comments about his tools, those errors may be just due to inexperience and are likely to reduce as he ages and moves up through the system. Offensively the statistics aren’t really tantalizing either as he is hitting .272/.332/.358 in A-ball this season.
Although both prospects are very raw, they are also young, so they could still develop into solid offensive contributors. But I’m not sold on it.
When you take Oswalt’s trade demands and his contract out of the deal, the look horrendous for the Astros. But considering those two impacting factors, the deal doesn’t look as bad. Still, you’d think they’d get a little better prospects with the $11 million that they threw into the deal as well.
Oswalt had said a while ago that he wouldn’t leave the Astros unless the trade would make them a better team in the long run…..what happened to that thought?
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