no offense was meant to you by those comments, jim. you take pride in the way you deal with people, and that's fine. you're at least not reckless with your comments towards people. they are always aimed exactly where you want them to be, and i can respect that. i also wholeheartedly agree with all three of you that the team winning is the most important thing. i played baseball as long as i could, and it definitely instilled that sentiment in me. i do, however feel for oswalt, who (even though i'm sure he cares more about the team win) has to have some feeling of disappointment with the streak that he and the bullpen have been on this season. they routinely blow games in which the astros were leading when he left the game. that's all i'm saying. bitch about it if you will.
back to baseball. do you think the bullpen's propensity to get hit hard after oswalt leaves a game has anything to do with the fact that oswalt, wheeler, qualls, and lidge have similar pitching styles and "stuff"? a team gets used to the velocity and aggresiveness of oswalt, and by the 7th inning is ready for the bullpen.