Beane supposedly already asked for both Joba and Hughes when Cash asked about blanton.

I kid you not.

It’s not going to happen.

No one is going to trade them a quality #3 unless it’s a heist for them.

Who has an extra #3 quality starter lying around?

I agree on Oswalt - I would be very,very weary.

Houston is going to ask for Hughes and they’ll at least want a package starting with Kennedy, Horne, and Austin Jackson and perhaps Tabata.

If Oswalt is right they are going to ask for the moon. They have him signed at a reasonable contract (reasonable if he’s pitching to a ERA+ of 140) long term.

They have no reason to just dump him without auctioning him off to every possible suitor. Houston is so bad he might wave his no trade.

However, Roy Oswalt ain’t the answer. He’s in the midst of his worst career stretch and his stuff has diminished.

We’ve been down this road before with Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson. Heck, even Jack McDowell to an extent.

We don’t need pitchers whose best work is far behind them.

The guy to try to get, in my opinion, is Blanton from Oakland. He would slot in perfect as a #3 here, he’s still young (27) and he’s used to pitching in the AL.

Is he an Ace or a former Ace? No. He will never be one. But he’ll give you 7 innings a start at an ERA in the low 4’s which is good enough to me.

Sadly, Beane will ask for Joba, Hughes, IPK, Cano and Arod for him, so it will never happen.

When Beane trades Blanton, Harden and Street to Boston later this season, he’ll do it for Coco Crisp and the ghost of Doug Mirabelli and Gammons will praise Beane for ripping off the Sox by getting them to include an actual Phantasm catcher and a guy named after a sugary sweet breakfast cereal.

He’ll wax on how Theo had to do it in order to keep pace with those slick big money NY Yankees. He had no choice. He wanted to keep Crisp and the Ghost desperately, but the Yankees made him trade his two biggest assets.

Bizarro what?

Don’t you know that you need to be able to throw at least a 97 mph fastball, a 90 mph slider, and am 84 mph curve ball to get through the 3 outs of the 8th inning?

If you don’t have at least that three pitch combination you can’t possibly pitch the 8th inning effectively?

Hmmm, maybe Wang can take over that crucial 5th inning setup role. The Wang-Sabathia-Oswalt-Joba-Mo chain could be unbeatable.

Innings 1-5 are more about positioning anyway.