Roy Oswalt Is Pitching Tonight

When Roy Oswalt went on the disabled list earlier this month, everyone assumed that his season was over. He's got a back problem that lead to a hip problem and the Astros season has been in the toilet since late May, so there's no use in hurrying him along, right? Wrong. He's pitching tonight and to hear Cecil Cooper tell it, the team isn't entirely convinced he's healthy:

"I'm confident that (the injury) is gone, but if he does say he feels something, you have to be extremely cautious," manager Cecil Cooper said. "You don't want to have a reoccurrence. They'll watch him real closely in the bullpen when he's warming up."

This all sounds like part of Ed Wade's gonzo plan to win the National League Central this year. In the past week, the Astros have traded for a worthless starting pitcher and hurried their ace back from what seems like a pretty serious injury. And they're still 11.5 games out of a playoff spot. I've seen some bad GM work in my time, but the speed with which Wade is destroying the Astros is alarming. At this rate, they'll be a AAA team by 2010. Or they'll just finish behidn the Pirates again and again.