Roy Oswalt is nearing a return to the big leagues and could be with the Colorado Rockies as soon as this weekend, reports Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post.
Oswalt will make one more minor league start, likely this Friday for Double-A Tulsa, before being added to the Rockies' 25-man roster. In his last start, Oswalt took a loss despite allowing a single earned run in seven innings of work. That earned run came via the long ball, a problem that has plagued Oswalt in a 25-inning sample size in the Texas League.
Oswalt has allowed five homers, good for a HR/9 rate of 1.8. That matches up closely to the 1.7 taters per nine innings he gave up last year, which was a career high. Oswalt's propensity for surrendering home runs -- and solid contact in general -- wasted what were otherwise solid peripherals and turned his 2012 season with the Texas Rangers sour.
Of course, Coors Field is not an ideal place for a flyball pitcher with home run tendencies to reside (see Guthrie, Jeremy). So, despite reports that Oswalt has been working into the mid-90s with his fastball at times, the 35-year-old Mississippi native taking the rotation spot of a guy like Jeff Francis may not turn out as well as the Rockies' brass and fans would hope.
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Troy Tulowitzki leads all National League shortstops -- and is second in the league overall to the Giants' Buster Posey -- in All-Star votes with just shy of 1.7 million. Carlos Gonzalez moved up to seventh among NL outfielders but is still shy of a million votes.
If you have a few extra minutes, why not submit a ballot or two? The All-Star Game isn't what it once was, but it's still a lot of fun to see your favorite players representing your hometown squad.
Troy Renck wrote about Nolan Arenado's amazement-inducing performance at the hot corner.
Cee Angi has an excellent piece about fantasy baseball, for those of you who play. Her approach the first time around is very similar to how I still play. Ain't nobody got time for that.