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Au revoir, Roy O

By Tom Kirkendall

Inasmuch as the Stros have been one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball in three of the past four seasons, it?s understandable that longtime Stros ace Roy Oswalt has asked the club to trade him to a contender.

Although it almost happened one time before, I was hoping that Stros management would somehow pull a rabbit out its hat and cobble together a club that was good enough to entice Roy O to muddle through for a couple more seasons until the Stros? youth movement in the lower minors progressed to the big league club.

Alas, this season?s club is on track to be one of the worst ? and quite possibly the worst ? in Stros? history. So, that hope didn?t pan out.

But I will always appreciate Oswalt. As a lifetime follower of baseball and a 40-year follower of the Stros (and a season ticket holder for the past 25 seasons), Oswalt is the best pitcher that I?ve had the pleasure of watching live on a regular basis. He is likely the best pitcher that any of us Houstonians will ever watch live on a regular basis.

Drafted by the Stros in 1996 and developed within the Stros' heralded (at the time) minor league pitching program, Oswalt jumped from AA ball to the Stros in 2001 and quickly became one of the best pitchers in the National League. Remarkably durable throughout his career to date, Oswalt pitched the key win that vaulted the Stros into their first World Series in 2005 and has developed into one of the best pitchers in MLB history at this stage of his career.

As regular readers of this blog know, I think the statistic of runs saved against average (?RSAA?) provides the best measure to evaluate a pitcher during his career and against pitchers from other eras. RSAA measures how many more (or fewer) runs that a pitcher saves relative to a league-average pitcher during each season of his career (an exactly league-average pitcher RSAA is zero).

Thus, not only does it provide a good indication of how a pitcher compares to an average MLB pitcher during his career, RSAA provides a useful comparison across eras because it shows how much better (or worse) a pitcher stacked up against an average pitcher during his era. That's really the best way to compare pitchers from different eras because comparing other pitching statistics -- such as earned run average, wins and hitting statistics against -- is often skewed between pitchers of hitter-friendly eras (i.e., the era in which Oswalt has pitched) versus pitchers of pitcher-friendly eras (i.e., such as the late 1960's and early 70's).

Oswalt is 32 years old and has saved 229 more runs than an average NL pitcher would have saved in the same number of innings during his career. In the history of Major League Baseball, that?s the 32nd best performance for a pitcher 32 years and under. To give you an idea of the pitchers comparable to Oswalt at this stage of his career, Dodger great Don Drysdale is tied with Oswalt at 32nd and both Sandy Koufax (36th) and Bob Gibson (37th) are behind Oswalt. Within his next few starts, Oswalt will probably pass Ferguson Jenkins, who is 31st.

Since his debut in the 2001 season, Oswalt is 3rd in RSAA among MLB pitchers:

1    Roy Halladay                304  
2    Johan Santana             263  
3    Roy Oswalt                   229  
4    Brandon Webb             199  
5    Tim Hudson                  194  
6    Randy Johnson             193  
7    Mark Buehrle                181  
8    Curt Schilling                178  
9    Mariano Rivera             177  
10   C.C. Sabathia               172

And it really isn?t even close that Oswalt?s stellar RSAA makes him the best pitcher in Stros history:

1    Roy Oswalt                  229  
2    Roger Clemens            114  
3    Billy Wagner                  99  
4    Dave Smith                    75  
5    Octavio Dotel                67  
T6   Mike Hampton              60  
T6   Nolan Ryan                   60  
T8   Andy Pettitte              56  
T8   Wade Miller                  56  
10   Don Wilson                   55  
11   Joe Sambito                 53  
12   Brad Lidge                    46  
13   Larry Andersen             45  
14   Shane Reynolds            43  
T15  Mike Cuellar                 40  
T15  Mike Scott                   40  
17   Ken Forsch                    39  
18   Larry Dierker                 36  
19   J.R. Richard                  34  
20   Joe Niekro                    33

But beyond the statistics, the things that I most appreciate about Oswalt are the intangibles. His teammates and spectators love to watch him pitch because he wastes minimal time in between pitches. My sons and I over the years have coined games in which Oswalt pitched as ?Roy O Specials? because they often last less than two and a half hours, which has become a rarity in Major League Baseball.

Moreover, Oswalt is the quintessential gamer. He continues to challenge hitters with the inside fastball and he has no problem throwing his wicked curve at any point in in the count. As they say in baseball parlance, Roy O ?has a little turd in him.?

I am going to miss Roy O.

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on May 22, 2010 (boomark / email).