Name:
Location: Metro Phoenix, Arizona, United States

I'm too lazy to type anything about me. Read my blog and I'm sure you'll eventually learn a few things.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Cubs Acquire Harden

I have some mixed feelings about the Harden acquisition. On the one hand, he can be quite dominant. On the other, he's often injured. As a Cubs fan, I've seen this a lot recently with Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. After both being reasonably healthy in 2003 (healthy enough to only narrowly avoid a trip to the World Series), the last four years have seen plenty of injuries to those two, and Prior hasn't thrown a pitch this year, and won't -- but he's not our problem anymore.

I like Matt Murton, and because of that, I was actually glad to see him go. I know that sounds odd, but the Cubs have misused him and he deserves a shot to play regularly, which I think he'll get in Oakland.

Sean Gallagher is the one player I have some regrets about giving up. He's pitched fine in ten starts this year (not great -- don't misunderstand me), and he's only 22. In fact, compare the season he's had so far with Harden's season when he was 22: 58 2/3 innings with 58 hits, 6 homers, 22 walks, and 49 strikeouts to 189 2/3 innings with 171 hits, 16 homers, 81 walks, and 167 strikeouts. Also, Oakland's park is pitcher-friendly, while Wrigley Field is hitter-friendly. Gallagher has a much smaller sample size, of course, but his rates compare pretty well with Harden's from the same age. I'd also like to point out that Harden's age-22 season was his only, as yet, "full" season, when he made 31 starts (he has yet to make 20 in any other season). I've seen the Mulder trade mentioned, in which Oakland traded the big-name pitcher and got Dan Haren back (who has since made his own name big). Gallagher is the one player who could make the Cubs regret this trade. The Cubs should have tried some sleight of hand to get Billy Beane to take Jason Marquis instead.

Eric Patterson had only very limited major league playing time with the Cubs. He didn't hit particularly well (.239 AVG, .348 SLG in 46AB over the last two years) but did draw five walks this year, which makes him better qualified to bat leadoff than Alfonso Soriano.

I don't have much to say about Josh Donaldson, the minor-league catcher the Cubs gave up; I heard that he wasn't performing up to expectations, but he was only drafted last year (I think), so we'll see.

As for Chad Gaudin, the reliever the Cubs also acquired in the deal, he doesn't seem particularly special. He's not a bad reliever, certainly, but not someone who has me particularly excited, either. He was used as a starter earlier in the year, and had four quality starts (three of which were good) and two starts in which he fared ... less well. He wasn't severely pounded in either of those two starts, though.

As a side note, I noticed that ESPN has already changed their picture for Harden to reflect his new team, but has not done so for any of the other players.

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home