Roy Oswalt

plus the fact that he’s clearly on the downslope of his career. For fireballing pitchers, I suspect those “downslopes” are about as difficult to predict as the career of a high school pitching prospect. In short, I think there’s a lot of risk and limited upside to Oswalt’s current deal. We could acquire a bandaid-type for the rest of this year and, if we still somehow have $15m/yr to spend on a pitcher, likely get an equivalent or better pitcher in free agency next year.

If we trade Miller (and I would be happy to, for the right piece) I think the return needs to be someone who’ll either come in and be a legitimate star player and get us type-A comp now (i.e. the Holliday deal last year), or someone who’s got a lower ceiling than Miller but who is competent and (ideally) under team control and reasonably cheap for the next year or two. If the Twins weren’t in their pennant race (or if they’re ready to throw in the towel, which I seriously doubt) I could see sending Miller for someone like Kevin Slowey – slightly above-average MLB ready pitcher who’s got 3 years of relatively cheap team control left through arby, and a guy who seems tailor made for Dave Duncan (i.e. good K rate, excellent control, but totally unable to generate groundballs). If he could raise his GB rate by 10% or so by learning a good sinker and a better approach, I’d think he could be a 3-4 win pitcher going forward. I’m sure there are other, similar guys who might be available somewhere. I’d rather trade for someone of that ilk than a guy like Oswalt.

Also, IF we had the money to afford Roy, I’d much rather go after Haren, even if it costs Shelby +. He’s better, younger and cheaper, and the fact he’s under team control for 3 years with an option (IIRC) means he fills a hole in our rotation for the foreseeable future.

but yeah, and Hawk

oswalt or hare pushes lud out