Rich Harden | The Baseball Zealot

Throw Another Log on that Old Hot Stove

curtis-granderson-steals So far, the biggest trade was the three-way deal involving the Yankees, the Diamondbacks, and the Tigers. New York got All Star centerfielder Curtis Granderson, enough said, they got the best player in the deal. Arizona got starting pitchers Edwin Jackson & Ian Kennedy. While Detroit landed centerfield prospect Austin Jackson, starting pitcher Max Scherzer, and a couple of lefties for their bullpen Phil Coke & Daniel Schlereth.

The Texas Rangers traded starter Kevin Millwood to the Orioles in exchange for reliever Chris Ray and Rule V selection Ben Snyder, the move was designed to free up money so Texas could sign free agent starter Rich Harden. The Rangers had enough money left over to acquire thirdbaseman Mike Lowell for catching prospect Max Ramirez from the Red Sox. Boston is interested in signing free agent thirdbaseman Adrian Beltre.

Pirates reliever Jesse Chavez has to be wondering whether it’s safe to unpack his bags, as he’s on his third team this offseason. He was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays, who just dealt him to the Atlanta Braves for reliever Rafael Soriano. The Braves no longer needed Soriano, since bringing in Billy Wagner & Takashi Saito.

The Chicago White Sox brought in former Seattle Mariners closer J.J. Putz to replace Octavio Dotel, whom they chose not to retain.

Cubs’ Harden taking off the rest of the season

Rich Harden and the Cubs have agreed that the right-hander will take the rest of the season off.

“He doesn’t want to pitch and we respect his wishes,” Piniella said. “I spoke with him briefly and he’s not going to pitch any more. He’s done a real nice job here and the staff has done a nice job of keeping him nice and healthy.”

In an email, my friend DonS explained his thoughts on the matter. He senses a little behind-the-scenes agreement between the two. Here’s his speculation:

The Cubs agreed to let Harden take the rest of the year off, in exchange for a promise. Under the secret agreement, Harden declares for free agency, the Cubs offer Harden arbitration and Harden turns it down, as promised.

That way, the Cubs get the draft choices that the present team gets when the free agent turns down arbitration and Harden gets the rest of the year off with pay and becomes a free agent.

Thoughts? Is DonS on track or just a conspiracy theorist?

Cubs show reason not to give up

The Cubs managed to avoid a sweep and more embarrassment as Rich Harden pitched a gem of a game against the Padres. Harden only allowed a hit in seven frames.

The best part of it is that Cubs came through with some offense too. Milton Bradley and Aramis Ramirez both banged out homers for the good guys.

Bradley, though he gets a lot of flack, has improved over the season. His second half number are looking a whole lot better. Since the All-Star break, he’s hitting .301 and perhaps more importantly, his OBP is .431.

Wednesday’s win is just one game, yes, but I think if it was a loss, we’d be seeing a whole lot more about the Cubs in today’s sport columns. And it wouldn’t be a fun read.

That’s not to say there hasn’t been calls already by the sports media for this season’s demise for the Cubs . Some of it probably fueled by GM Jim Hendry’s statement to the press that sounded almost apologetic:

”If things don’t go well, certainly it’s my responsibility. ‘That being said, we’ve got a real good team. We just haven’t played up to our capabilities. It’s kind of a mystery to all of us. We’ve got a lot of guys that have hit their whole lives who haven’t hit. We’ve done a very, very poor job all year of hitting with men on base. So it’s frustrating.

Before Cub fans start pushing the panic button, they should consider this:

The Cubs have a winning record in the second half of 2009 UNLIKE the first half.
It was not two weeks ago that the Cubs finished their best run of the season when they went 14-6.
The Cubs remaining schedule is full of teams they can beat up on. Washington, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St Louis (yeah, I said it, St Louis)

Right now though, the Cubs need to focus on the here and now. And the here and now is the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tom Gorzelanny will be facing Jeff Weaver tonight.

Interesting pre-game stat: Aaron Miles is 6 for 15 lifetime against Weaver.

Go Cubs!

Cubs at a low point but hey, the Pirates are comin’ to town

I’ll go on record here. If, god forbid, the Cubs don’t win the NL Central in 2009, the 2010 review mags and books will point to their series with the Philadelphia Phillies in mid-August and call it one of turning points of the season. A “lowlight” if you will.

And there would many reasons to do so.

The Cubs extended their losing streak to five games after getting swept by the Phils. When they lost 4-3 in a heartbreaking 12-inning affair in which Rich Harden was perfect into the sixth and the Cubs outhit the Phils 10 to 3. And when they were out-slugged 12-5 on Jeff Samardzija’s first career start.

And today, when Ryan Dempster saw his August ERA go sky high (Kudos to Jeff Baker, though who went 2 for 2 and has 11 hits in his last 5 games). Today’s rout of 6-1 puts the Cubs at 4.5 back in the NL Central.

No timing, no patience, no luck, and no clutch.

Oh as if the players weren’t having a tough enough time, who invited this fan into the park??

God, this kind of stuff puts me in a bad mood. There’s nothing anyone can say (including “I was drunk”) that excuses this.kind of behavior. If you can’t treat people with decency, then stay home. Chicago, the Cubs, and baseball doesn’t need need to make the news for this kind of crap.

But all will be fine again. Word has it Ted Lilly is ready to come back on Monday after his surgery. He threw five scoreless innings in Peoria A ball.

And this weekend, the Pirates are coming to town. This year, they’ve gone 4-2 against them. The last three years? Same ratio… 26-13.

So say it loud, Cub fans, The Pirates are comin’ to town and all will be fine again!

Rejoice!

Rich Harden: Has he matched the hype?

Let’s take a mid-"half "-season look at Rich Harden since he’s been acquired by the Cubs and see how much he’s helped the team.

Looking at the Stats

Ok, first the easy stats: Since coming to the Northside, Harden has been 4-1 with a nifty 1.50 ERA in 9 starts for the Cubs. Not bad at all. Actually very good and probably more than we Cub fans could expect.

Looking at his K/BB ratio, it gets even better. Harden has struck out 75 batters in 54 innings. In five games, he has KOed more than 10. On the other hand he’s done his best to keep the runners off the bases. He’s walked only 18 in the same period. Only twice he has walked more than three (today was one of them when he walked four Philles). Oh, one HBP and two wild pitches for those keeping score.

The most interesting about Harden’s stats is this: He has given up six homeruns so far with the Cubs yet only allowed 10 runs. I thought surely he must be giving up only solo shots. I checked his gamelog and sure enough he has only given up one homer with a baserunner on (a one-run home run to Geoff Blum of Houston on August 5).

Endurance?

One concern regarding Harden was his endurance and that isn’t totally unfounded. But I think all thinking Cub Fans didn’t expect Rich Harden to go out there and pitch nine innings every time. And well, he isn’t. Do the math. He’s averaging an even six innings per start which to be honest is almost better than what I expected. He almost established a pattern of pitching 5, then 7, then 5, then 7 again etc.

Run Support

The most frustrating thing about Harden is something that is really not in his control. Run support. That was evidenced in today’s game against Philadelphia when the Cubs could only give Harden one offensive run while he held the Phils to 2 runs (one earned). Fortunately, the bullpen held while the offense came alive and the good guys won 3-2.

That wasn’t the case earlier in the season when we first got Harden. In Harden’s second and third starts for the Cubs, he allowed one run each in seven and five innings respectively, only to have the Cubs lose both games due to lack of run support (Harden got the loss in the second).

Since then (today’s game notwithstanding) the run support has gotten better and the Cubs won the next 5 games that Harden started.

Is Rich Harden the next ’84 Rick Sutcliffe? Maybe not. But boy, I don’t want to think where we’d be without him.

Go Cubs!

Welcome to the NL, Mr Harden!

Glad to have you onboard the World Series Express. Cubs win 8-7 against the Giants. Three points I’d like to make.

1. There are three numbers that sum up Harden’s first appearance for the Cubs.

0

Zero runs given up. He did spread out five hits and three walks but none reached home plate. Awesome job.

10

Ten strikeouts, an impressive performance.

5 1/3

The number of innings pitched. Harden’s pitch count was still 96. That’s the important one. Piniella knows not to stretch him

2. Carlos Marmol. Our trusty righty from the pen blew up and allowed five runs to almost lose the game (and certainly take the well-deserved win from Harden). Do I fault Marmol? Not necessarily. Piniella needs to use him less, plain and simple. Pick and choose the spots where he best suited, Lou. He’s getting worn out.

3. My last point… Jim Edmonds hit his 10 homer of the year. ~~I only bring this up because the day~~ ~~I did a writeup on Edmonds, I got a text message from DonS that simply said, “He’s still a punk”. It took me a half a minute for me to actually get who he was referring.~~

The linescore for Diamond Jim today: 2 for 4, 2B, HR, 2 runs and 4 rbis.

~~My kinda “punk~~. DonS was actually referring to A-Rod in his text message.

Update: Looks like the some of the guys they got did pretty well, too.

Harden, Gaudin to the Cubs

“I like our team. I like it even more now with this addition.”

Cubs manager Lou Piniella

The Cubs wasted no time in turning the focus in the NL Central away from the Brewers and the C.C. Sabathia deal by making their own blockbuster deal. On Tuesday, they acquired Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the A’s for Matt Murton, Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, and AAA prospect Josh Donaldson.

What are your thoughts on the deal?

As for me, I’m pleased. I have the normal reservations about Harden’s endurance and health issues but aside from that, I think this helps the club tremendously. The fact that we got Gaudin is icing on the cake, in my opinion. We need some help in the bullpen and Gaudin is no stranger to the starting rotation.

I was listening to Episode 419 of Cubscast today and they had on Jordan Stepp from the Athleticscast podcast. It’s Jordan’s feeling that A’s fans are quite unhappy with the deal. To be fair, the kind of trade where a big ticket player is traded for several players with potential would be hard to be excited about. It’s possible in two years (two months?) Billy Beane would be hailed as a hero. For now however, he’s the one who selling away their best players.

One more note on Harden, it should be worth mentioning that he has a 17-10 record on the road. Perhaps that didn’t escape the Cubs attention either.

Will I miss any of the players given up? I think Matt Murton has reached his ceiling. Cute red hair can take you only so far. I honestly don’t know a lot about Josh Donaldson but he put together a good year while in Boise last year.

The two key players in the deal were Gallagher and Patterson and I’m sure Billy Beane knows it. Gallagher is a solid pitcher with a good K/BB ratio. Patterson has some good upside and it really depends how far he wants to take himself and how long he’ll take to get there (see brother Corey).

The key for the Cubs is Harden’s health. If he stays healthy, this is will pay big dividends for the Northsiders.