New column from Jayson Stark where he separates reality from illusion to this point in the baseball season. Fun, right? I don't imagine he has much else to do. But then he started messing with Roy:
After two messy starts, Oswalt threw six shutout innings against the Reds on Friday. But the baseball community no longer talks about him with anywhere near the reverence it used to. "He's definitely now more heart that stuff," one NL executive said. "I love him, but I think the arrow is pointing down. He used to have an overpowering fastball. Now it's not there. His curve is still a good pitch. But it's not a power strikeout pitch. He still has good enough stuff, but he lacks that put-away stuff he used to have."
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
