The rumor over the weekend was that Houston Astros’ ace Roy Oswalt, one of the biggest prizes being offered before this Saturday’s trading deadline, was on his way to the St. Louis Cardinals. Those reports were obviously onerous.

The Astros have said that they refuse to trade Oswalt, even though they desperately want to unload the 32-year-old, brilliant pitcher, unless they receive the following: a young player who is already on the trading team’s MLB roster, two high-level prospects and another prospect.

That’s a lot for teams to give up. The St. Louis Cardinals just don’t have it. The Cardinals also get the double-whammy because they are in the same division, the N.L. Central, as the Astros and the ‘Stros definitely don’t want a future team hall-of-famer throwing sliders and heat for a divisional rival.

The club in best position to grab Oswalt might be the Philadelphia Phillies who could give up J.A. Happ, the required young player on the MLB roster, and Class A’s John Singleton, one of the required high-level prospects, but Singleton is so highly regarded that the Phillies have already refused to consider him as part of any trade deals.

One team to keep in mind that has been shut down by MLB watchers already but could come up again in regards to a potential Oswalt trade is the L.A. Dodgers. As always, the Dodgers have tons of talent in their farm system to put together a viable Oswalt deal. The problem? Who would be that young player on the Dodgers’ current MLB roster, James Loney, Matt Kemp, etc., that Houston covets?

In any case, Oswalt is still being bandied about by the Astros. We shall see where one of the most gifted, and true sportsman, in MLB ends up at.