Our long national nightmare is almost over, in which "national" is defined as a niche news story of mostly regional interest. Roy Oswalt is close to signing with a team. From Jon Heyman:
folks think a roy oswalt deal will happen this week ... finally. #rangers #orioles #redsox #phillies
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) May 29, 2012
Lots of teams mentioned there. But according to Jayson Stark, there's one team that's pulling away from the rest of the pack:
The Los Angeles Dodgers watched pitcher Roy Oswalt throw last week in Starkville, Miss., but team officials are convinced that Oswalt is going to sign with the Texas Rangers -- possibly as early as this week.
Seeing as Jayson Stark is the lord and mayor and owner of that particular town, you'd have to figure he has a pretty good idea of what's going on.
Oswalt didn't sign this offseason because he was looking for a team close to his Mississippi home that was also a contender, and of the teams in the Oswalt market now, the Texas Rangers are the only team that still satisfies those desires. With Neftali Feliz on the shelf, the Rangers could sign Oswalt and rerereresend Feliz to the bullpen when he comes back from elbow soreness. Because the Rangers were running low on power arms in the bullpen. Gotta lock down that fourth inning.