Roy Oswalt has pitched for the last time in 2009.The Astros have decided to shut down their ace, who has been dealing with a degenerative disc in his back, for the season.
"It just ain't going away," Oswalt said. "I've pitched with it for (four) starts, and it's just not getting any better. It's just kind of lingering more and more. If we were in contention fighting for the playoffs I would probably get up and just try to block it and ride it as long as I could. But I don't want it to linger on for next year."That is, of course, the prudent decision. Houston has long since been left for dead in the playoff race, 12 games behind Colorado in the wild-card race -- pending the result of the Rockies' game in San Francisco Wednesday night -- and five losses, or Rockie wins, away from mathematical elimination.
This year has to mark the worst season of a quietly very impressive career cobbled together by Oswalt. He's never recorded fewer wins (eight), only once recorded fewer strikeouts (138) and never had a higher ERA (4.12) than he has in 2009.
And yet even in the worst campaign of his career, Oswalt still managed to make 30 starts and have an ERA ever so slightly better than league average.
In other words, though he's rarely been mentioned as one of the very best pitchers in the game, that's exactly what he has been almost since the moment he arrived on the scene in 2001.
Oswalt is not considering a surgical procedure on his ailing disc, instead opting to strengthen the area in the offseason. Back problems aren't exactly the death sentence that a torn labrum or rotator cuff is for pitchers, but it's certainly worrisome, especially for a pitcher who turned 32 at the end of last month and still has $33 million guaranteed remaining on his contract.
With an aging core, the Astros absolutely need Oswalt to regain the form he's shown on the mound in every season but this past one.
