Breaking: Cubs Acquire Rich Harden from Oakland
Baseball July 8th. 2008, 6:41pm
Talk about upstaging a division rival on the night its new pitcher is debuting: The Cubs just landed Rich Harden and reliever Chad Gaudin from the A’s for SP Sean Gallagher, OF Matt Murton, and two others.
Sorry there’s no link, we just saw is on Sportscenter. Only the AP recap is available. The obvious question: Z and Harden or Sheets and Sabathia? We know nothing about the Cubbies involved, but Bill Beane is a master, so …
Developing …
47 Responses to “Breaking: Cubs Acquire Rich Harden from Oakland”
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July 8th, 2008 at 6:42 PM
sean gallagher and matt murton? are you serious.. come on billy.. you’re better than that
July 8th, 2008 at 6:42 PM
how long til Harden starts reminding Cubs fans of Mark Prior?
July 8th, 2008 at 6:44 PM
Cubs fans better hope that Harden really is just dealing with a dead arm and not something more serious. His last two starts haven’t been pretty (velocity wise). When he pitched at the Cell against the Sox the highest he touched was 94 and the gun at the park is usually pretty accurate
Sparty, you stole the words right outta my fingers
July 8th, 2008 at 6:44 PM
Eric Patterson and Josh Donaldson too
July 8th, 2008 at 6:45 PM
I’ll take Webb/Haren
July 8th, 2008 at 6:46 PM
agree, Webb/Harren is the best pair
that’s why i picked them to win the WS
Who are these guys the Cubs got?
July 8th, 2008 at 6:47 PM
fuck this, the question on everyone’s mind id ‘can lsu repeat’?
July 8th, 2008 at 6:47 PM
panic trade, Bean fears Dick Harden is hurt again
July 8th, 2008 at 6:47 PM
patterson is corey’s brother.. i like him.. good player good track record of getting on base, unlike his brother. the other guy, i have no clue..
July 8th, 2008 at 6:50 PM
is harden’s contract up this year? the a’s arent out of it, i dont really get why they did this (unless hes really hurt)
July 8th, 2008 at 6:55 PM
The A’s get 4 players but this still makes very little sense to me.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:55 PM
This sucks, they gave up nothing to get him. Gallagher is ok, but his ceiling is probably as a good #3 starter. Murton is a corner OF with no power, Eric Patterson is nothing special either. How do they not give up Vitters or Colvin!? As a Sox fan, I’m pissed about this.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:57 PM
Except for the horrible Tim Hudson trade, Billy Beane has made some really good deals for the A’s.
Mulder – Haren
Haren-Eveland,Gonzo,etc
July 8th, 2008 at 6:57 PM
thus starts the gio era?
July 8th, 2008 at 6:58 PM
@Rickhouse
Beane has to think that Harden is done, because you are right, the Cubs gave up nothing. A healthy Harden had to have been able to fetch a better price from elsewhere right? (Keyword being healthy)
July 8th, 2008 at 7:01 PM
This is Beane’s fourth flogging of estbalished #2 or better starter. For my money he split the first two (Mulder trade was a winner, Hudson a loser) with Haren still up in the air (I know everyone keeps talking about what a haul he got, and maybe he did, but its still early and Haren is a legit stud.) This one would look to be least upside out of all of them.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:01 PM
good move by the Cubbies. Nothing to lose/everything to gain (and I don’t really care about the Cubs)
July 8th, 2008 at 7:02 PM
maxwell – how is this a good haul? Who are these 4 guys?
July 8th, 2008 at 7:06 PM
The good haul I refered to was from the Haren trade. Eveland, Smith, Gonzalez are all playing this year and contributing. I just have my doubts about both those pitchers being anything better than sort of middle the road innings eaters. Kind of like Joe Blanton.
The guys in the Harden trade don’t really project as major players. You would have thought that they could have gotten at least one high ceiling prospect.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:16 PM
Great trade for the Cubs. They didn’t give up any top prospects and Harden is a free agent after next season. Obviously the big question is his health, but the risk/reward is really high here.
The situation at the top of the rotation for both the Cubs and the Brewers is now very similar. Both have two top notch starters and one on each team has past and current health issues. Shaping up to be a great race.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:17 PM
The fact that Oakland is very much in contention for the playoffs and they were willing to give up Harden for so little says a lot about Harden.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:20 PM
Great trade for the Cubs if he’s healthy. This is awesome.
If he’s unhealthy…balls.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:21 PM
I think you’re all underrating Matt Murton a little bit. And I really like Josh Donaldson. He would have led his league last year in OBP and slugging if he would have had enough at bats to qualify.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:21 PM
Also, the A’s got the Cubs’ 5th 6th and 8th prospects in this deal.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:22 PM
Eric Patterson is night and day better than his brother Corey, but it’s not like he’s a future all-star. Murton kind of got screwed by the Cubs because they kept sending him down, then would call him back up a week later. I know nothing about this Johnson kid, and Gallagher hasn’t impressed me since he was called up.
Great move for the Cubs, still say their rotation is better than the Brewers.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:30 PM
Never doubt Beane. Eveland already has 7 wins and Duchshirer(sp?) leads the league in ERA as Haren’s replacement. Knowing Oak, Gallagher will become a superstar and Harden’s arm will fall off by next June.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:32 PM
the picture above is actually his arm in a resting position
July 8th, 2008 at 7:35 PM
The real question now is, what becomes of the tremendous Cubs blog Thunder Matt’s Saloon? Matt Murton is the namesake.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:45 PM
Murton is a Beane special in that he is one of those guys that everyone always says that he should play more (“Free Erubiual Durazo.”) Still, on both the Red Sox and the Cubs his path wasn’t really blocked at first and couldn’t show enough to be given the job.
And as for the Haren deal, I wonder if he would take it back if he could. An A’s rotation with Haren, Harden, and Duscherer would give them the best chance for a championship in the forseable future. I realize he couldn’t have realized that things would work out quite this way, but one of the criticisms of his style is that in an effort to cash in on value before it becomes expensive, he never really goes for it.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:56 PM
I’ll be shocked if Harden makes it through this year. He hasn;t pitched more than 128 Innings since 2004 and he’s alreayd at 77.
I think this was Beane’s best chance to get something for Harden. Not only does Harden have arm trouble, now he has to hit? This is a disaster waiting to happen.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:57 PM
Cubs steal Harden from Oakland is more like it. And to add in Chad Gaudin, who is a fairly effective reliever/spot starter, is just plain mean on Hendry’s part.
July 8th, 2008 at 8:02 PM
The genius of Billy Beane is that he is able to consistently keep his team in contention despite having some of the cheapest owners in the game. Oakland this year has a payroll of something like 47 million, or 4 million less than the yearly salaries of Giambi and A-Rod. Harden has pitched a grand total of 29 times in the last three seasons combined. He’s a free agent who Oakland has no interest in resigning at the end of the season anyway. If Harden ends up getting hurt again (and it’s been reported his velocity has been down his last few starts) then the Cubs have to decided if they want to try to resign an injury-prone phenom in the Mark Prior-mold. Meanwhile, Oakland gets three of the Cubs top 10 prospects and a capable back of the rotation starter. Every player Oakland got in the deal was MLB Ready, thus allowing them to stay cheaply competitive, which is the goal of that organization I would guess.
July 8th, 2008 at 8:16 PM
Actually Donaldson is in A ball, not many major league ready guys down there.
As far as the players the Cubs gave up. They are all expendable. Gallagher is a middle reliever at best, Murton and Pattersom are decent players with little power, not a big commodity on a team with 5 capable outfielders ( Edmonds, Johnson, Fukedome, and DeRosa plus a soon to be healthy Soriano). Harden is risk/reward, if he pans out Cubs may have the best rotation top to bottom in the league, although I like the 1-2 combo of Haren and Webb better.
July 8th, 2008 at 8:17 PM
I’d hardly call this an upstaging of Milwaukee. CC is a Cy Young winner, consistently over 200 IP. Harden has a ton of potential and shows flashes of outstanding pitching when healthy but has yet to pitch a full season. As for the haul for Oakland, or lack thereof, surely Harden comes at a big discount considering his injury history. I’d be shocked if he avoids the DL over the rest of the season.
July 8th, 2008 at 8:53 PM
funny stuff.
July 8th, 2008 at 9:07 PM
damn that derek jeter has no range. except on that web gem!
July 8th, 2008 at 10:22 PM
Threadjack
Elton brand accepts 5 yr deal to go to illidelphia also called bill p a pussy on his way out
/end threadjack
July 8th, 2008 at 10:23 PM
Just about to do the same, mmonast
Here’s the details, don’t go to the WWL
July 8th, 2008 at 11:19 PM
Cardinals fans now expect John Mozeliak to go out and get Roy Halliday, Brian Roberts, and Jimmy Rollins(and probably Joe Nathan) for three minor leaguers and two draft picks. Don’t laugh; there’s more truth to that statement than fiction. That’s the way some of them think(I should know; I’ve been a Cards fan for over 50 years).
July 8th, 2008 at 11:30 PM
I would almost never doubt Billy Beane when it comes to trades. Maybe it doesn’t look that way now, but you can almost gurantee this trade will end up favoring Oakland with the next year or two. Beane is close to a genius when it comes to running a franchise.
If the Cubs win the World Series it was worth it, but what are the odds of that happening! : )
July 8th, 2008 at 11:33 PM
Bruce I’d expect the Cardinals to go out and get like Paul Byrd or Bronson Arroyo and somehow have them be just as effective as Harden and Sabathia. It seems like the Cardinals take mediocre pitchers and turn them into All-Stars.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:54 PM
With Walt Jocketty in there as the Reds’ GM, I don’t see any deals between them and the Cards. That old saying, “familiarity breeds contempt” comes into play here.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:15 AM
LaRussa and Duncan have magical fairy dust, everyone knows that.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:17 AM
Here is the link from cubs.com. I don’t mind seeing Murton and Gallagher go, but I liked Erik Patterson.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:35 AM
How difficult is it to go to that google thingy and find out about the Cubbies involved?
July 9th, 2008 at 9:26 AM
Poor Cubbies, still trying. They should check and see if Jesus Christ is availible. Seriously, they are in panic mode. Oh no the Brewers got CC were in deep doo doo. Its the Brewers, relax. They need to worry about Kerry Wood(put in Marmol) in the Clutch and the Cardinals.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:05 AM
@ Tampa: Marmol has struggled the last couple of weeks and Wood has pitched well all season; I don’t see that transition happening, especially knowing Sweet Lou. Kid K would have to blow about 12 games in a row and get placed on the DL before Lou would replace him.