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In an article for yesterday’s New York Post, Kevin Kernan makes a case for trading Lastings Milledge and Aaron Heilman to the A’s for RHP Dan 
Haren, assuming Oakland will trade him.
In the last three seasons, since becoming a full-time starting pitcher, Haren has won 43 games with a 3.64 ERA while striking out 531 batters through 662 innings.
In a recent article for FOXSports.com, Ken Rosenthal writes that A’s GM Billy Beane could decide to trade Haren or Joe Blanton, which is similar to what Buster Olney wrote to his blog for ESPN.com last week.
According to Kernan, the Mets and Red Sox have already shown interest in Haren, who is 27 years old and under contract through 2010.
However, Olney writes that rival executives question whether the Mets have the young talent to make such a trade, adding that most view Mike Pelfrey and Phil Humber as low-end starters with only middle-relief potential.
In Olney’s best guess, the Mets will end up working out a deal with the A’s for Blanton, “but it won’t be easy.”
However, in a recent mailbag for MLB.com, A’s beat writer Mychael Urban suggested that, if the A’s are going to trade a starting pitcher, it will be RHP Rich Harden, not Blanton or 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.
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Taking a flier on Harden would be interesting.
I’m sure beane wouldn’t agree, but given the injury risk, he should come cheaper. In the “real world” (not beaneland), harden should come at the price of Blanton (or close to it) because of the risk, not the price of haren, because of the talent.
hey, you gotta discount for assuming risk. Basic economics!
Milledge and Heillman for haren? Sure. Blanton? No.
Harden? Probably!
Anyway, this is all speculation. It is hard to imagine the A’s and mets ever actually making a deal, but who knows.
There is NO WAY that Heilman and L-Millz gets Haren, NO WAY. Haren is cheap, young, dominating, and coming off a probable Cy Young year. However, if that IS enough to get Haren, even though L-Millz is my favorite player NOT named Pedro, I’m driving those 2 TO THE AIRPORT AND buying their tickets to oakland. Haren would be a stud with us.
Gomez and Heilman should be enough to get Blanton though.
And a bag of balls and a firm handshake should be enough to get Harden, ONLY because of his injury risk.
Mets should sign Wood, Prior, and trade for Harden and play craps hoping that one pans out lol….wow, talk about 3 amazing pitchers just DESTROYED by injuries…poor kids
I think the Mets should forget Oakland and try to get Bedard from the Orioles. Every trading season brings Billy Beane rumors that never seem to pay off. Bedard is better than Haren and the Orioles are might throw in Ramon Hernandez to unload his salary. Milledge, Heilman, and Pelfry might do it.
THAT would be a DEAL
Bedard is the goods and worthy of exploration. If we could swing a deal for him….I’m in favor. Yet it could not include any meaningful pitchers on the current roster going back to them.
I’d do Pelfrey Heilman and Milledge. Would not do any deal that included Maine or Perez going back.
then what do you do about RF? Sign Fukudome or let Gomez/Endy play? Or re-sign shawn green?
A trade for Bedard and Hernandez would be great. I doubt that package would be enough though. Might have to throw in a Mulvey or even F-Mart
RF would have to be managed either through Free Agency, accelerating Gomez or simply trading for some other player with warts like Guillen or the guy on the nationals that gets talked about in most deals with them
I love the hot stove.. especially when it includes the Mets and every semi available ace in baseball. We do not have the chips to get Bedard.. If he was available their would be 20 teams with more to trade then us. Plus Duquette already resigned.. we missed our chance
I can’t help but acknowledge the sad irony at work here. This team, for the better part of 2 years has been among the best in the national league, yet, we don’t have the talent to upgrade any single position via trade. Please, you don’t need to explain the many reasons why this is so. I am well aware, it’s just an observation of our crappy place in the hot-stove universe. Surprise me Omar. Please.
Sports writers actually get paid for this? Could these guys write something that doesn’t get written by 17 year olds on this bolg every day?
I think someone on this blog should keep track of all the wishful trades that the likes of Rosethal, Heyman, et al. write about and how few actually happen. If I owned the Post or News I would fire all these hacks.
That is an excellent idea. It would great if we could keep a running tally of each sportwriter’s trade/free agent predictions and see how many actually come true. Most of these guys are just making stuff up to sell papers, or to ingratiate themselves with agents like Bora$ in the hope of getting an inside scoop.
It’s starting to bother me that we don’t have any prospects to stay competitive in any of these trades……
What happened to the damned farm?
what happened is they signed Pedro, Beltran, Alou, and others and havent had a first round draft pick in years. And not many second round prospects either, instead drafting middle relievers. Add in trading the overrated ones for Delgado and Green, etc and you end up with a thin system.
not to mention trading 4 B- prospects for Castillo and Conine which hurts them in trading for filler (C, 2B) type guys now, and didnt do any good last year as they didnt make the playoffs and both are now free agents.
don’t make a deal with beane, omar. he’s the smartest GM in baseball and we’ll get fleeced big time if we trade.
signing Alou last year cost us a first round pick last year! that couldve been a significant player for us
I think Alou was pretty significant.
You know how to get prospects? Trade away your aging superstar vets or arbitration eligible budding stars. See Florida.
Not ready to do that. Then sign FA’s and forgetaboutit.
I doubt the negativity on the propspects is quite as high as is being reported here. Last year we refused to trade Milledge, humber and Pelfrey. All in the same “elite” club that other teams have pushed their top guys like the Yankees with Tabata, Hughes and Chamberlain.
Bottom line is when they come up they must begin to produce to retain their value. We do have alot of youth down low on the farm and that takes time to mature. I mean some of the best prospects were 18yr olds in AA (Guerra and Fmart). Pena (17 yrs old) in A ball somewhere struggling. These guys tools are still there. They are supposed to be high schoolers somewhere but they are fighting for positions on big clubs in the minors.
The philosophy has not yet paid off but who is to say it won’t in the near future. If we advance a few kids from A Ball to AA and some of the AA guys stay there but do better, then our system is right back.
We have used college level pitchers to fill out needs on the club through the draft. Perhaps this is a good strategy.
Take a look at what spending $3M plus in signing bonuses for both Pelfrey and Humber got us so far….faded prospects who have not made any impact on the big club. They don’t all become Verlanders
trading milledge for anything but a bona fide ace is ridiculous. these A’s pitchers are overrated crap. the A’s are crap. i’d rather wait until santana is a free agent.