Written by Evan Jacoby - July 29th, 2010

Teams around the National League fear seeing the name "Roy" when they play a series against the Philadelphia Phillies. Roy Halladay is the ace of the Phillies' pitching staff, having another Cy Young-type season for the defending NL Champions.

But these same teams also know that life gets a lot easier after they pass by Roy, as the rest of the Phillies' rotation has struggled mightily throughout this season. Jamie Moyer, Kyle Kendrick, and Joe Blanton all have ERA's above 4.60, and Cole Hamels is having a down year for his standards. Hamels has a respectable 3.48 ERA with a high strikeout rate (128 total K's), but his 1.30 WHIP is higher then he'd like and his 20 HR allowed is the 5th most in the National League. Overall, the Phillies have been very hittable after Halladay.

But that's about to change. On Thursday, the Phillies acquired 32-year-old ace starter Roy Oswalt from the Houston Astros in exchange for young starter J.A. Happ and two minor-league prospects.

Suddenly, the Phillies have two big-time aces to head their rotation. And their opponents will be even more fearful of the name "Roy" on the lineup card.

Roy Oswalt brings veteran experience and reliable talent to the Philadelphia rotation. He had been having a very solid year in Houston, but has just a 6-12 record to show for it, playing for the worst offensive team in the National League.

Oswalt has a 3.42 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, .229 batting average against, and nearly 4:1 K/BB ratio on the season, all of which now rank 2nd on the team behind Halladay. He is a veteran pitcher that knows how to win in the postseason, but his goal is just to help his new team make it that far. The Phillies currently sit 3.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East standings.

"I'm glad it worked out for both of us. I wanted to go to a contender, and Houston gets some good prospects in return who will hopefully allow them to build a winning team," said Oswalt.

Roy O had to approve the trade and waive his no-trade clause in order for the deal to be completed, and the Phillies had to give up some significant talent in return. Leaving Philadelphia is the 2009 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up, J.A. Happ, who has been hurt for much of the 2010 season but is ready to contribute for his new team. Happ is a great talent that made big contributions last season in both the regular season and postseason for the Phillies. He will be a welcome addition to the Astros.

Houston also picked up two minor league prospects in the deal, outfielder Anthony Gose and shortstop Jonathan Villar. They were able to then trade away Gose, a speedy OF in single-A ball, to the Toronto Blue Jays for Brett Wallace, a big-time 1B prospect. It's unclear how the Astros pulled that off, as Wallace is a 23-year-old with great power potential and was hitting over .300 with 18 HR this year in AAA ball. All in all, the Astros got plenty of talent in return for their departed ace.

But the Phillies are the big winners on this day. They have needed another reliable starting pitcher all season, and Oswalt is the perfect man for the job. Philadelphia sits 3.5 games back of first place, which is very within striking distance. Just 3 weeks ago, Philadelphia was 6 games out and not looking nearly as competitive as the Braves. Now, the gap in pitching talent has been shortened just as the gap in the standings has.

The Phillies, 2-time defending National League Champions, needed to make this kind of move to give themselves a chance at 3 pennants in a row. Their new roster on paper certainly looks worthy. Oswalt gives serious credibility to a rotation that needed it, and Chase Utley is less than a month away from returning from his lengthy DL stint.

If Philadelphia wants to make a run at the Braves and keep their hopes alive of another NL pennant, the time is now. It's up to the new look Phillie Roy-tation to make it happen.