Buzz: Expect Harden, not Other A’s
In a mailbag for MLB.com, A’s beat writer Mychael Urban suggests that, if the A’s are going to trade a starting pitcher, it will be RHP Rich Harden, not RHP Joe Blanton or RHP Dan Haren.
As Urban points out, Harden has missed roughly 60 percent of his starts over the last three seasons due to injury.
Of course, during his last 38 starts, Harden is 16–7 with a 2.95 ERA, having struck out 197 batters through 200 innings, while opponents have hit just .193 against him.
…tough one…very tough, considering it will cost at least Lastings Milledge…i mean, this guy stinks of Mark Prior, or Kerry Wood, i.e., great when healthy, but never healthy…that being said, Rick Peterson drafted harden in 2000, while with the A’s, and say what you will about rick, but he and Ray Ramirez have seemingly done a very good job of keeping their young pitchers healthy, which is supposedly one of rick’s strong suits…
By the way, at Gotham Baseball Magazine, Mark Healey has repeatedly written that if the Mets were to ever make a deal with the A’s, including Milledge, it will only be for Rich Harden or Dan Haren, not Blanton.
Last May, on the MetsBlog Podcast, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney talked about Oakland potentially trading Harden during the season, saying…
“I think they absolutely could pull the trigger…Now you have this great, young, talented pitcher, Rich Harden, who when he takes the mound, he’s definitely dominant, but…they don’t know if they can depend on him and right now he probably has a value where you could get two really good young players for him – and that’s the direction Oakland is going. I think if he gets five to seven good starts when he comes off the DL, and that will be in two weeks, and then I think, absolutely, they will put him out on the market and will try to get players who can help them with the rebuilding process, and I think that’s going to begin very soon.”
…of course, those comments were made in may, but i don’t know how the scenario changes just five months later, when more teams can be interested…
The 25–year-old Harden will earn $4.5 million in 2008, after which his contract contains a $7 million team option for 2009.
