Rich Harden to the Cubs

I like the move for the Cubs, but best 1-2 I will have to hold off on. Both are great regular season pitchers, but Beckett has more postseason wins than Harden and Zambrano have postseason starts. Pitching to NL guys I love these two, against the American League I will hold judgement.

 

Thats a really nice move for the cubbies. Id love to see them end this drought of theirs this year...

 

As long as Harden stays healthy its a great move by the Cubs to keep pace and remain the best of the NL.

However, any issues by Harden, and the 4 players the A's received can be looked at in the future as the best side of the deal no doubt!

 

It's a tremendous move for the Cubs...if Harden stays healthy. And since I don't think he will, I still think the Brew Crew will win the Central. Still, I give Jim Hendry serious credit for the counterpunch. He couldn't have done a whole lot better than this.

 

Actually, I'd go with Jon Lester, who should have been named to the All-Star team. He's been tremendous. But over Zambrano-Harden? Probably not.

 

Well you didn't mention Lester, who I think will be a top 5 lefty starter in all of baseball by the end of the year (if he's not already). And maybe I'm a homer but I might take the Beckett/Lester combo simply because of Beckett's post season domination (which no one in baseball comes close to that's not named Rivera, Smoltz or Schilling) and Lester wasn't so bad himself in the 2007 playoffs, plus he's a lefty. And yes I realize it's probably a homer comment and I admit it.

Either way I'd love to see a Sox/Cubs WS or even a Sox/Brewers.

 

They are the Cubs something will go wrong along the way.

 

It wasn't too long ago that's what people said about the Red Sox.

 

True, how quickly one is to forget.

Two World Series titles could do that too you.

 

I am beyond livid!!!!!!

Most baseball fans on this board that know me, know how I feel about Rich Harden but I'll try and voice my opinion at this time rationally, even though this tore my heart out. I pulled over my car on the way home after I heard about it.

My team trades my favorite player (and throws in a very functional arm that can start and go in relief) for...well....not a lot. No TOP prospect coming back, I'm talking an "A" prospect (like Carlos Gonzalez who came back for Dan Haren).

The Haren trade was GREAT. Beane fleeced the D-Backs IMO and the Swisher trade looks better and better as time goes by but this trade puzzles me. I trust Beane, he's the best GM in baseball (IMO) but I don't like this move at ALL. The A's are still in it even with all their injuries, what kind of message does this send to the club?!?!

The plus side of Harden (I've seen him pitch probably 50 times)?

Electric stuff, top 5 pitcher in the whole league stuff. For those who have not seen a lot of him, watch him set up his change up (which is the BEST change up in the game). He'll throw 93, then 95, climbing the ladder and then throw the change at 85 and make hitters look foolish. He's still young and has a decent contract (with a club option for 2009). He's also fairly decent with the bat which will help in the NL.

Down side?

Obviously the injury history, he's made of glass BUT, so was Jim Palmer until he hit his late 20's. At this stage you have to be very careful with him. He throws a LOT of pitches, making him a 6 inning guy. He's been kept at 95-100 pitches since coming off the DL earlier in the year.

If the guy could ever stay healthy he's a Cy Young candidate every year.

The Cubbies just became my 2nd favorite team while they have Rich. Good luck!

 

I hope this is the year for the Cubbies. Very good move so far. Harden's been healthier than before (doesn't say much but still) and it effectively counters Sabathia and the Brewers.

 

Good luck Cubs...I'm sure gonna miss Harden


While I'm disappointed to see Harden go,I do realize hes very injury prone.this could be a good deal for both teams.only time will tell.

 

Sean Gallagher is likely the centerpiece of the deal from Oakland's point of view and the 22-year-old right-hander looks capable of stepping into Harden's rotation spot right away. However, he projects as a solid mid-rotation starter rather than an ace, so it's somewhat surprising that he's the premier player coming to the A's. Along with Gallagher, Oakland's haul also includes Eric Patterson, Matt Murton, and Josh Donaldson.

Murton and Patterson both deserved far more of a chance than the Cubs seemed willing to give them, but neither projects as a star. Murton is a good defensive corner outfielder who's batted .294/.362/.448 in 971 career big-league plate appearances, which made it so absurd when the Cubs repeatedly sent him back to the minors. With that said, he's already 26 years old and has limited power, so he won't be much more than a quality regular.

Patterson gets a bum rap because of how his brother turned out, but has more discipline at the plate than Corey ever did and has hit .308/.363/.474 with 22 homers and 42 steals in 194 career games at Triple-A. That gives him plenty of fantasy potential, but he's already 25 years old and is sort of a tweener position-wise, offering either shaky defense at second base or mediocre offense in an outfielder corner.

Donaldson was the 48th overall pick in the 2007 draft out of Auburn University and crushed the ball at low Single-A in his pro debut, but the catcher has struggled this season at high Single-A. Gallagher, Patterson, Murton, and Donaldson is an interesting mix of current value and upside, but strike me as an underwhelming package for a potential stud like Harden, not to mention Gaudin. Of course, the deal will ultimately come down to whether or not Harden can stay healthy.

If Harden stays relatively healthy this year and next-when the Cubs hold a reasonable team option-then the deal will end up being a steal for them. In that scenario the A's gave up an elite pitcher-and another very solid 25-year-old arm in Gaudin-at a sizable discount.

If Harden instead continues to struggle with injuries and offers only glimpses of greatness in between stints on the disabled list, then the A's at least picked up some useful depth, including a solid young starter to replace him. Even in that scenario the Cubs won't end up getting burned by the deal unless Gallagher develops far better than his track record suggests or Donaldson gets his bat on track and becomes a power-hitting catcher. Overall, it's a great gamble for Chicago.

Bottomline, because of his lengthy injury history the Cubs were able to add Harden to their rotation without giving up a single elite prospect. But all 4 could improve the A's in the long term far more than the injury risk Harden remains.

 

If he stays healthy, its something he can't do.

But if he does, its a great add.

 

I feel your pain bro. My problem with Oakland is that if you are going to trade away your best players (or allow them to walk in FA) as they have done in recent years (Pena, Hudson, Mulder, Zito, Haren, etc) how do you expect to put together a championship caliber team?

I realize Beane is only doing the best he can with the money the team has to spend, but I say the same thing to Marlins fans. If you cant afford to keep your superstar players when contract time rolls around how can you compete with the larger market teams?

Prospects are great but are eventually going to wanna get paid. Its a serious Catch-22. Im not so much ragging them for trading Harden. The guy is injury prone and it looks like they got some nice pieces in return.

I think Gaudin is a serious X-Factor for Chicago. Remember they traded Will Ohman (Lefty) to Atlanta for Jose Ascaino (sp?) a RHP for some added depth. Ascaino has been hurt all year so Gaudin gives them a great arm for middle to late relief.

 

Being an A's fan I've come to live with, and expect the yearly sell off. They just don't have enough money to pay massive dollars to their free agents and/or sign big ticket free agents.

This season was supposed to be the rebuilding year. The minor league system was VERY thin and Beane needed to reload. I don't think he thought (like myself) that the team had any chance what so ever of contending but here we are in mid-July and they are right in it.

Beane is building towards 2010. He wanted to build the foundation and in 2010 contend. They will have a new stadium by 2012 at the latest (if the ****ing state of California ever gets their damn environmental survey done) and that will help. I understand that line of thought....

Looking back now though, some of those trades look damn good now. The Mulder trade brought back Barton, Haren and Colero. The Haren trade brought back Carlos Gonzalez (who WILL be a star) Dana Eveland and Greg smith (who are in the rotation and pitching pretty well) and Brett Anderson who is lights out in the minors right now.

Letting Zito walk was something I agreed with at the time and it looks REALLY good right now.

The Pena trade was, IMO, Billy Beane's biggest mistake as a GM and one that he has to regret to this day. Pena was the future at first base but was a typical inconsistent young hitter but even when he was not hitting he was playing a great first base. Beane got impatient and shipped him out because he wanted a starting pitcher for the stretch run (Ted Lilly). He also traded Jeremy Bonderman in that same deal....yuck.

The Tim Hudson trade was one of those things that went bad. At the time I liked it a lot better then the Mulder trade. Dan Meyer was a #1 prospect, Charles Thomas was supposed to be the corner speed outfielder the A's had needed for a long time and Juan Cruz could have been a lot of things. Meyer is toiling in Sacramento, Thomas got shipped out in a minor deal last year (and is still in AAA) and Cruz is a pretty decent reliever for the D-Backs.

My anger has subsided today. I realize that Beane pretty much had to make this deal. Harden, for all his greatness, is simply to brittle to rely on anymore.

 

Ziegler clinches A's history Monday: A's RP Brad Ziegler pitched two shutout innings Monday against the Mariners to extend his scoreless streak to 18. It's the longest streak by a pitcher to start his career in Oakland history.


not sure where he came from but the kid looks really good.

Go A's