Roy Oswalt Surprisingly Didn’t Hate Philadelphia, Wants To Return

During last night’s 7-2 loss to the Mets at Citizens Bank Park, ESPN’s cameras caught Ruben Amaro using his Twitterberry phone to either send some kind of email, text message or tweet. To whom that message was sent remains a mystery.

But it’s no coincidence that Roy Oswalt got himself on Twitter last night and informed the world he’d like to come back to the Phillies.

So yeah. One-quarter of the greatest pitching staff ever assembled wants to come back to Philadelphia.

Where do we sign? Or, more accurately, how do we quickly sign him, right Philly?

Sep 26, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers pitcher Roy Oswalt (44) pitches in the first inning against the Oakland Athletics at Rangers Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

At 35 years old, Roy Oswalt is exactly the type of player Amaro loves. Really, really old.

But, he’s a VETERAN. And as we all know, VETERANS add about two or three WAR points every time they play a season with leadership and hustle and grit and grind and determination and it’s called the Chad Durbin Corollary and oh holy crap Roy Oswalt is going to be a Phillie, isn’t he?

Halladay pitched for the Texas Rangers last year, going 4-3 with a 5.80 ERA in 17 games (9 starts). He gave up 12.1 H/9, but also averaged a strikeout per inning. He was hurt by a .378 BAbip, but also saw his home run ratio increase dramatically, with 18.6% of all fly balls hit off him leaving the yard. Opponents hit .316 against him last year.

During his year and a half in Philly, Oswalt went 16-11 with a 2.96 ERA, and made four postseason starts (1-2 record), including a very disappointing Game 4 loss to the Cardinals in the 2011 NLDS that could have clinched the series for the Phillies had he won.

And while it might sound like fun to get the band back together, it’s highly questionable to wonder if Oswalt has anything left, despite his claim of feeling better than at any time since 2010.

Of course, the struggles of Roy Halladay have collective imaginations running at a high rate of speed right now. It’s also doubtful it was coincidental that Oswalt’s tweets came on a night Halladay was struggling mightily.

Sometimes, timing is everything.

So, maybe Ruben Amaro was texting good ‘ol Roy during last night’s disaster against New York. Maybe he wasn’t.

At this point, I wouldn’t put anything past a general manager who truly understands the importance of VETERANS.