Report: Oswalt leaves Phillies for personal reasons

Multiple outlets are reporting that Roy Oswalt has left the Phillies for personal reasons, and there is no word on when he will return.

According to Twitter reports, Oswalt, who was taken out of last night's game in the third inning following 57 ineffective pitches, left the team last night. The veteran right-hander suffered his shortest start as a Phillie and allowed five runs, fueling speculation that he was still feeling the effects of a sore back. Oswalt was unavailable for comment because he had already left the clubhouse by the end of the game and was not available to reporters. Because of off days on Thursday and Monday, Oswalt's next scheduled turn falls Tuesday in Philadelphia, which would allow time for Oswalt to attend to his personal matter, get healthy, or both. The Phillies finish their series in Arizona today at 3:40 p.m. before flying back to Philadelphia for a weekend set with the Mets beginning Friday.

Update: Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. tells CSN's Jim Salisbury that Oswalt's health is fine.

Update: As readers have pointed out, a series of severe and deadly tornados ripped through the county in Mississippi where Oswalt is from on Tuesday.

Comments

[clout]

BAP: Long fouls are not compatible with the LG stat.

Although, if you knew much about baseball, you'd know that loud fouls down the line don't mean the pitcher is making bad throws. Fouls behind the batter do.

Suggest you read yourself some Rob Neyer.

[bay_area_phan]

"Although, if you knew much about baseball, you'd know that loud fouls down the line don't mean the pitcher is making bad throws."

I've already conceded the point in my 1:45 post. The pitch was clearly designed to produce a 500-foot shot to right field, which hooked foul at the last second. It was a perfect pitch.

[clout]

DH Phils: I agree with you. Results are meaningless. It's how a guy looks. It's for fans like you I created the LG stat.

[clout]

The shame is that Lee's bad back was contagious. I hope it doesn't spread to Roy & Cole.

[curt]

No Raul? The game thread will be lucky to reach 100 posts.

[Cyclic]

So that means we can throw out last night's start along with his first start with us (since he came out amped up)?

OSWALT STILL UNDEFEATED AS A PHILLIE STARTER

[Willard Preacher]

JW, I, too seem to be having some issues with the site lately. Not sure if it's my browser or network connection, but for some reason or another, all of the info on BL has been extremely depressing. I haven't even seen a CJ or shmitty's stache post to tell me I have nothing to worry about and how great this team really is, in about a week or so.

I'll start by contacting my IT dept here at work, but just wanted to let you know.

[Get Rube A Beer]

Cyclic: I think he was undefeated at home as a Phillies Starter

[Willard Preacher]

clout, Cole has a personal chiropractor traveling with the team. His back should be fine.

If he wasn't such a selfish, stuck up, Hollywood prude, he'd lend his chiropractor to Roy O.

[Bob]

Several of us commented last night about some concern with the ViceRoy and it was expresed earlier on BL.

Lots of little things were off. No command, seemed to have limited mobility, little life on the fastball, almost shuffling to first base to run out a grounder. He seems pretty stoic, but nothing seemed to be working right for him last night.

If it were just a back issue, one would think it would be reported that way to quelch speculation. Let's hope it's nothing serious. Take care of yourself, Roy.

[Lake Fred]

Raul got benched because he couldn't produce his long form birth certificate for Cholly. Manuel suspects that Raul might be younger than he says he is. Since Cholly prefers playing older players, Raul must sit the pines until he can prove to his skipper that he is. indeed, an old geezer!

[rauls grandpa]

From wikipedia..."In 1999, when Oswalt was with the Class A Michigan Battle Cats in the Midwest League, he suffered an apparently serious shoulder injury. After a month of pain in his upper shoulder, Oswalt was convinced that his shoulder was torn. Shortly thereafter, he was checking the spark plug wires on his pickup truck. He touched one of the spark plug wires, causing the truck's engine to start. The truck's electric current flowed through Oswalt's body, and consequently the muscles in his hand tightened on the spark plug wire. Unable to let go of it, Oswalt grasped the wire for almost one minute. Oswalt then claimed his foot slipped off the truck's bumper and he was finally "thrown off." After the electric shock, Oswalt told his wife that his shoulder's condition improved and that he no longer felt any pain. According to Sports Illustrated, he reported it thus to his wife: "My truck done shocked the fire out of me, and my arm don't hurt no more."[2] Apparently, the electric charge loosened accumulated scar tissue in the shoulder. Oswalt claims he has not felt any pain in his shoulder since the incident.[3] He finished 1999 with 143 strikeouts and a club-high 13 wins."

[lorecore]

Electro-shock therapy for everyone!

[Dukes]

I don't know if it's just me, but I've sensed the BL environment to be particular negative this year, even ruthless at times. I don't know, maybe it's becuase JW has gone corporate. Either way, the fact that there is exactly one post concerned about how Oswalt is doing personally is a new low. Lots of talk about a bad back being contagious, even a post that compares this situation to Manny's, but leaving the team for personal reasons means it could be something more important than a bad back or baseball - something could be wrong with his wife or kids or he could have lost a parent. We should be wishing him well and hoping for the best. All speculation about when he makes his next start is unimportant. No wonder players keep their distance from fans.

[Cyclic]

Gelb- "As many have pointed out, a terrible storm hit Choctaw County, Miss. -- where Oswalt is from."

[NEPP]

@cyclic: Hopefully that's what it is and hopefully everyone in his family is okay. Cant imagine it would be easy to pitch knowing that was happening at the same time.

[MG]

No idea what Oswalt's situation is. If he misses his next start and the Phils are close-lipped, then it is time for some concern.

[Marley]

Dukes, agreed.

[No-Doubles Defense]

From 5 years ago:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3673258

[Jack]

No point in speculating. Hopefully everything is good with him and his family.

[bay_area_phan]

Dukes: I do wish him well & I do hope it's nothing serious with him or his family. If I ran into Roy Oswalt on the street, I would tell him this. I would also write it in a post if I had reason to believe that he reads Beerleaguer or cares what its anonymous posters have to say. But, since I rather doubt that to be the case, I would only be saying it for the benefit of the other posters. So, what's the point?

[Heather]

From High Cheese: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillies/oswalt_personal.html

Anyone get the sense that Murphy thinks the Phillies PR folks are a bunch of egotistical morons?

Also, BAP: Good point re: wishing Oswalt well on BL is a bunch of posturing.

[NEPP]

Sounds like Murphy feels like getting blacklisted by the FO.

[bay_area_phan]

Here's some good news. Domonic Brown is making his first rehab start at Clearwater today. He has 2 hits and a homerun. It's only Single A pitching, but you can't really ask for more than that.

[Jose Mesa]

Hey BAP,
Why did you never write anything nice to me?

[dbuck]

http://www.wunderground.com/tornado/?show=now&lat=33.40622&lon=-89.08264&zoom=9 his hometown is in the center of those tornado(s).

thats just todays reports..

Just sayin.

[curt]

bap - the rare caring, sensitive lawyer not into sharing his feelings with strangers.

[Jack]

Just in order to stop people from making ridiculous reasons up, it's almost surely because of the severe weather in his home town. His whole family lives there and he owns lots of property there.

[petey]

The same exact thing happened almost exactly 1 year ago:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/astros/2010-04-24-roy-oswalt-tornadoes_N.htm

[rauls grandpa]

" Struggling Raul Ibanez gets the day off" = Elephant in quicksand has two foot long piece of twine thrown to him

[HammRadio]

I like Murphy. But his response to the Phillies vague message is as condescending as he thinks the Phillies are being.

He's better than that.

If someone is leaving a major league team for personal reasons, its not because he's buying a truck and has to get to the delearship before the 0% financing is over. (or avoiding reporters because he's hiding an injury or to run away because he had a bad performance).

He even says... "its obvious a delicate time for Oswalt". If its that obvious, why the snark???

[NEPP]

Actual Headline should be, "Struggling Raul Gets Day Off, Still Goes 0-4"

[Heather]

Hamm:
The press HAS to ask unless they're specifically told not to. To then get mad at the press for doing their jobs and asking is pretty stupid when the PR folks could have forestalled all of it.

Now, should Murhpy have taken his ire out in print? That's debatable. But I can definitely see his side of it.

[Cyclic]

Mayberry will hit a HR today.

Anyone know if the roof will be open?

[Jack]

More importantly, Dom Brown.

[Crotchbat]

Phils just issued statement saying Oswalt is checking on family and they hope he'll be back for next start

[HammRadio]

No... I get the fact that he has to ask the question. I have no problem with that.

Its the ire and his condescending attitude about it. Sports reporters get their backs up when this stuff occurs. But when the situation involves PERSONAL MATTERS. An adult (no matter what their job is) should side with the fact that the matter might be a private difficult time.

Having the Phillies have to see... its a private difficult time, is redundant and unneccessary. And Murphy is just being a baby.

[st]

it's not health. it's weather related and his family.

[Will Schweitzer]

Just read a column about the Marlins taking a flyer on DeRosa and wondered if Amaro could work something out with the Giants involving DeRosa, Rowand, Ibanez and maybe another contract or two in a deal that would leave each side with roughly the same money to be paid.

[Heather]

"An adult (no matter what their job is) should side with the fact that the matter might be a private difficult time"

Yeah...and I don't think Murph was pissed about that. He was pissed because they didn't make it clear up front that there would be no questions and then got angry when (suprise, suprise) there were.

[gobaystars!]

According to Gelb, the Phillies said it was due to the storms. Reporters who complain about teams not telling them everything are idiots. Stop tryng to turn fans against the team because they made you work.

[Willard Preacher]

So, Brown has had his first good game at the plate in about 9 months?

He's the savior again!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!

[3r0ck]

Good for Oswalt - there are higher callings in life that supersede everything else. One of those is most certainly family.

Best wishes to Oswalt and his peoples.

[PhilliesDude]

The Phillies could have helped communication by stating up front that this private matter is not due to any health related issues regarding Roy Oswalt rather than making reporters have to press to confirm that point - especially in light of his recent back problems. Good communication between people is often a work in progress. Posters on BL should recognize that need.

[Cyclic]

There's a baseball game in 20 minutes btw.

[PhilliesDude]

Roy Oswalt's necessary absence from the team to attend to important personal matters does lead to the question - if this game goes into into extra innings and we use up all of our position players - which pitcher will we now have play left field?

[3r0ck]

There's a baseball game in 20 minutes btw.

Posted by: Cyclic

A 12:40pm start time? I wouldn't mind a few of those in the summer in Philly

[3r0ck]

ESPN:"A source who was in attendance at Chase Field on Tuesday told ESPN.com's Jayson Stark that Oswalt was observed speaking on the phone in the dugout for a long time before the game.

Players rarely bring phones onto the field at any point in the day, and many teams actually prohibit that practice. "

I wonder why the Phillies started Roy O when it seems it was apparent his mind was elsewhere.

[sdphillie]

I noticed that the FSArizona crew last night showed him and Cliff talking on several occasions non-stop as if they weren't paying attention to the game, and that certainly makes much more sense today.

Best wishes to Roy's family, town, and all affected.

[GHD Straigheners]

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