The Pecan Park Eagle

Joe Morgan: Little Joe was the key figure in the worst Astros trade of all time.

Count me among those who feel OK about the Roy Oswalt trade with the Phillies. When a player says he’s ready to move on, for whatever reason, you’ve already lost him. From there it’s just a matter of whether or not your club is going to find any takers on a deal – and if you are going to get any value for him in return. In my opinion, Astros General manager Ed Wade did as good a job as possible in working out both those ends, plus the other contingency in Oswalt’s case – gaining the support of owner Drayton McLane on the matter of eating a big part of Oswalt’s contract for the sake of making any move palatable to another club.

Oswalt was always a fast-working, even-steven guy on the mound, but I really didn’t see his heart or usual confidence working all that much in recent outings. With three chances to tie and break Joe Niekro’s all time franchise record of 144 wins before the July 31st trading deadline, Roy blew two of those “ops” and then left the third one dead-still on the table tonight. Instead, Roy will be in Washington this evening, going for his first win as a Phiilie, while J.A. Happ makes an attempt at his first Astros victory at Minute Maid park.

Two minor leaguers,  shortstop Jonathan Villar and Michael Bourn model outfielder Anthony Gose were the two decent prospects that came with Happ to Houston from the Phillies, but Wade quickly did a turnaround trade with Toronto, acquiring minor league hitting prospect Brett Wallace, a first baseman, from the Blue jays for the Michael Bourne-redundant Gose. That secondary move made good sense from the standpoint of meeting another potential position need down the road.

Happ looked good in his first outing back from a flexor stress injury this year, a no-decision outing against the Rockies and he says he feels fine now. Last year he pitched well enough to earn runner-up honors in the NL Rookie of the Year award. At 27, the lanky lefty who relies a lot on location pitches, could be a quality starter here for years, if he stays healthy.

The eleven million that the Astros have to kick in to help pay Oswalt’s salary commitment is just part of the cost of doing business in this case. They had to pay more than that amount, if Roy stayed, and his age and damaged motivation would hardly have seemed worth the price. With the trade, money, players, and all, at least, the club gets something of apparent good value in return that fits in with our plans for the future.

Good luck to Roy in Philadelphia! Even better luck to J.A. and company in Houston!

As for our worst Astros trades ever, it’s going to take an incredible GM someday to surpass the efforts of the Rembrandt of Incompetence, former Astros General Manager Spec Richardson. Singlehandedly, Spec cost us the losses of Joe Morgan, Rusty Staub, Mike Cuellar, and Jimmy Wynn  in four of the worst deals in Astros history.

Some of our other bad trades have cost us people like Kenny Lofton, Curt Schilling, Ken Caminiti, Steve Finley, and John Mayberry, but we did pick up Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen once upon a time. That one worked out pretty well, didn’t it?

Oswalt for Happ, Wallace, and Villar – younger talents with fresh energy, younger men who all want to be here? I’ll take my chances on this one.

Nice going, Ed Wade!