Cubs Get Rich Harden

Yeeeeeeeeeehaw!!!!!

Hell yeah! I love this trade.

Gotta love it

WHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

They just had Gallagher on, he was very positive and was cool about it.

Good kid, gonna miss him.

Hopefully I will be wiping my tears with a pennant.

I like the deal. Definitely a win now deal.

Murton and EPat had no future with this organization. If the Cubs were to make the postseason this year, there is no way, barring injury, either would have made the playoff roster. Best of luck to them. Hopefully they can make the most of their shot with a new organization.

Gallagher I like, but for a team trying to win now, trying to upgrade over him was inevtable.

Donaldson: all I have to go on is what Arizona Phil says. Nice prospect apparently, but too far away.

Here's to Mr. Harden and his health.

Another great July trade for Jim Hendry. Getting a 26 year old ace caliber pitcher who is under contract for another year, for those 4 players might be his best move yet.

Now how long will it take for a Hendry-basher to come up with a reason why this trade shouldn't count?

ESPN needs to fire an editor.

"He's scheduled to $4.75 million this season."
"The Cubs pay three games against the Cincinnati Reds starting Tuesday night before hosting the San Francisco Giants."
"Jim's been trying to improve our team, and he's been tralking to a few clubs about our pitching"

That's impressive for an article that has already been updated several times. I'm sure they will fix it at some point, but sheesh.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=347890...

Awesome! Gallagher is going to be good, but I don't see use losing anything else in the other three, and we keep Marshall. And not only do we get Harden, but also a solid RH relief pitcher to take some heat off of our guys at the end. Great trade.

Happy.

Just one comment. A number of A's fans think that Harden's lost a lot of speed on his fastball. But checking his last start July 6, 95 pitches, 5.0 innings, here's the breakdown on his fastball inning by inning.

1st 91-94 MPH
2nd 88-97!
3rd 90-96
4th 92-96
5th 91-95

Has Harden ever needed surgery for any of his injury problems? Has he had shoulder problems, elbow problems or both? (Or neither?) What are his mechanics like? Would he make a biomechanist cringe?

Overall, though, Harden seems the type of pitcher who would succeed in the postseason because he's a high-volume K guy (though a 6.43 postseason ERA doesn't speak in his favor). And pitchers' K rates always improve once they get to work with Rothschild. (Even Maddux's K rate spiked once he came back to the Cubs in '04.)

I see Gaudin moving into the Wuertz role if not the Howry role.

Nice trade. Does Harden have to bat?

Good luck, Murt.

Reading comments over at sfgate.com. A's fans are divided -- rough estimates: about 75% think Beane either got snookered or has given up on the season, 20% think Beane was wise to get something before Harden breaks down again, and 5% think that it was a good deal for the A's for this season.

\m/

So, who's coming up from Iowa to replace Patterson? I vote for Hoffpauir over Pie.

Agree with everyone.

Big 'if' is Harden's health long-term. Regardless, it's a solid risk vs. reward move.

Go JH, go Cubs!

And at this point, Hendry's probably at least considering outright releasing Marquis...

Pie at one point was hitting something like .180 at Iowa, I don't see him coming back up...

Man I will miss Murton. But I have always believed Marshall will be better then Gallagher and we got to keep him. Man, if we could just replace Marquis with Marshall, this could be a great lineup. I love me some Harden and Gaudin is a perfectly respectable fill in if someone gets hurt.

For a team playing for it all now, this is a far, far better option then the other ones out there.

A few thoughts:

I love getting a young front end of the rotation guy, but I'm going to miss Gallagher. For a 22 year old he had a lot of poise, and did really well at every level. I wish we could have given them Marshall instead, but like others have mentioned, you have to give something to get something.

Even though we have Harden for another year, and that counts for a lot, it seems like the Brewers gave up a ton less to get a healthy, young Cy Young winner. They gave up none of their MLB depth while we gave up 3 MLB-ready players and a top 50 draft pick. Then again, who really knows how any of these guys will shake out.

If Harden manages to stay healthy, I think Hendry has to get an extension regardless of ownership. If he doesn't stay healthy... well I don't want to think about that.