Sometimes, it’s just best to say nothing. Otherwise, if you’re Steve Phillips, and you say something like the Nationals should consider trading Stephen Strasburg for Houston’s Roy Oswalt, then people might, you know, start to wonder about every other decision you’ve made. And the list would not look good.
But let’s not get started on that. Let’s just look at the idea that the Nats should consider trading their top possession for Oswalt.
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And we’ll make an immediate conclusion: Are you nuts? It doesn’t matter how good Oswalt is; he’s an excellent pitcher with 139 career victories and a career 3.21 ERA. He’d be a fantastic upgrade to the Nats’ pitching staff.
Phillips’ notion is that it’s better to trade for what you know than to rely on Strasburg ever reaching his potential. So if he had selected LeBron James, he would have traded him for Chris Webber after the 2003 draft?
Listen, we know the likelihood of a No. 1 pick fulfilling the hype is low. But don’t you have to at least see what you have? Don’t you owe it to yourself and your fans to let it play out with Strasburg?
Strasburg’s arrival promises packed stadiums, a buzz unlike any seen around the Nats. And Phillips, the former GM and ex-ESPN analyst, would give that up? For a guy who might leave after another year?
Tickets for the June 4 game — his supposed, but not confirmed debut — are selling at a brisk rate. There’s an eBay auction involving one of his cards — a 2010 Bowman Chrome Superfractor — that already is at $10,600 (with four days remaining, FYI).
The Nats are not an aging team looking for one shot at glory. They’re a young team hoping to build for the future. Strasburg is not just a cash cow, he’s a symbol of hope. We know how good Oswalt is and if Strasburg reaches his level, the Nats would be thrilled. We also know what Oswalt’s ceiling is; we have no idea how high Strasburg can climb. But we do know we want him to max out in Washington. Suggesting anything else is just ridiculous.
