Sean Gallagher
When They Pull a Knife, You Pull a Gun
UPDATE 4:56 CST: One of our readers tipped us to this fantastic piece on Rich Harden's mechanics (with video) by Carlos Gomez at The Hardball Times. Can't recommend it enough....
I've had a little time to digest the trade since my initial reaction and a little time to actually write about it now. I don't think there's too many warm-blooded Cubs fan out there who aren't happy about the deal...other than maybe a Chicken Little or two that are never happy with anything the Cubs do.
We all know the risks. Rich Harden has all the durability of a roll of toilet paper caught in a rainstorm. He was called up half way through the 2003 season, proceeded to make 31 starts in 2004 and has battled injuries ever since. The list is too long and complicated for me to dive into, so we'll wait for the good Dr. Hecht to chime in on that side of the trade. Harden's 13 starts this year are his highest total since 2005 and he spent almost a month of this year already on the disabled list. But in those 13 starts, he's gone 5-1 with a 2.34 ERA, 10.75 K/9, 2.97 K:BB and 0.58 HR/9.
He once had a fastball that could hit 100, although he seems to have dialed it back a bit this year. He compliments that fastball with a fantastic change-up and that's pretty much it. He'll occasionally throw a slider in there, but seems to have scrapped it for the most part this season. A quick and dirty comparison with some of the best in the game using career numbers:
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Peter Angelos Finally Agrees to Roberts Trade
THIS JUST IN...
Game 86 Thread / Cubs @ Giants (4 of 4)
Game Chat | Press Pass | BR Preview
SP | Sean Gallagher |
SP |
Tim Lincecum |
3-3, 4.36, 47 K, 20 BB, 53.2 IP |
9-1, 2.38, 114 K, 43 BB, 109.2 | ||
LF |
Reed Johnson |
LF |
*Fred Lewis |
RF |
*Kosuke Fukudome | 2B |
#Ray Durham |
1B |
Derrek Lee | RF |
#Randy Winn |
3B |
Aramis Ramirez | C |
Bengie Molina |
CF |
*Jim Edmonds | CF |
Aaron Rowand |
C |
Geovany Soto |
1B |
*John Bowker |
2B |
Mark DeRosa | 3B |
Jose Castillo |
SS |
Ryan Theriot | SS | #Omar Vizquel |
P |
Sean Gallagher | P | Tim Lincecum |
In roster moves, Reed Johnson was activated today with Eric Patterson getting sent down. Matt Murton thanks you Eric Patterson for your defensive ineptitude. Proud papa Aramis Ramirez is back in the lineup as well.
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Game 68 Thread / Cubs @ Blue Jays (1 of 3)
Game Chat | Press Pass | BR Preview
SP | Sean Gallagher |
SP |
A.J. Burnett |
3-2, 4.42, 31 K, 13 BB, 36.2 IP | 5-6, 4.98, 78 K, 38 BB, 81.1 IP | ||
SS |
Ryan Theriot | RF |
Alex Rios |
1B |
*Micah Hoffpauir |
DH |
*Matt Stairs |
DH |
Derrek Lee | 3B |
Scott Rolen |
3B |
Aramis Ramirez |
CF |
Vernon Wells |
RF |
*Kosuke Fukudome | 1B |
*Lyle Overbay |
C |
Geovany Soto | C |
Rod Barajas |
CF |
*Jim Edmonds |
LF |
*Brad Wilkerson |
2B |
Mark DeRosa | 2B |
*Joe Inglett |
LF |
*Eric Patterson |
SS |
David Eckstein |
Can the Cubs reach 20 games over by mid-June? They have a chance by winning tonight or this series, and it would be the first time since late 2004. But they'll be on the short-end of the pitching matchups for the most part. By ERA, Gallagher is outperforming Burnett at this point, but Saturday's matchup is Roy Halladay(3.07) vs Jason Marquis(4.54) and Sunday is Jessie Litsch(3.42) vs. Ted Lilly(5.13). Burnett might also have the added motivation of trying to audition for his next team, as he's one of the names certain to be bandied about during the trade deadline in connection with the Cubs.
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Game 62 Thread / Cubs @ Dodgers (2 of 4)
Game Chat | Press Pass | BR Preview
SP | Sean Gallagher |
SP |
Hiroki Kuroda |
3-1, 4.55, 25 K, 10 BB, 31.2 IP | 2-5, 3.93, 37 K, 23 BB, 71 IP | ||
LF |
Alfonso Soriano |
LF |
*Juan Pierre |
SS |
Ryan Theriot | RF |
#Delwyn Young |
1B |
Derrek Lee | 2B |
Jeff Kent |
3B |
Aramis Ramirez |
1B |
*James Loney |
RF |
*Kosuke Fukudome | CF |
Matt Kemp |
CF |
*Jim Edmonds | 3B |
*Blake DeWitt |
2B |
Mark DeRosa |
C |
Danny Ardoin |
C |
Henry Blanco |
SS |
Chin-Lung Hu |
P |
Sean Gallagher | P |
Hiroki Kuroda |
A win tonight and the Cubs are the proud owner of a winning road trip. They will aslo be the first team to 40 wins this season, a seemingly insignificant milestone that reader "JohnBeasley" shows is at the very least, a marker of good things to come.
First in the majors to 40:
2007: 6/9 - BOS (won World Series) and LAA (made playoffs)
2006: 6/11 - DET (won pennant)
2005: 6/8 - CHW (won World Series)
2004: 6/13 - NYY (made playoffs)Source: BaseballRace.com
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Gallagher's Dirty Dozen
The season here in Des Moines has had a hard time getting started this year. Bad weather, bad team and bad schedule; you're out!
Yesterday was an exception.
Sean Gallagher served up a tasty lunch in a nooner matinee at Principal Park on one of the very few days so far when the elements didn't cross-up the schedule makers.
After seven innings Gallagher had thrown 86 pitches, allowing one run on three hits with no walks and 12 strikeouts. All 12 K's were swinging, most of them on a nasty breaking ball.
His pitch counts by inning were as follows: 11, 13,13, 14, 16, 9 and 10.
They trotted him back out for the eighth, the only frame when he failed to fan anybody. He walked the leadoff man, erased him on a DP grounder, gave up a base hit and called it a day after 101 mostly carveaceous, to coin a word, pitches.
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Recent comments
Arizona Phil (view)
Childersb3: Miguel Cruz walked six in 1.2 IP in his last start, so I guess he is improving. Wilme Mora also walked six in one of his appearances a week or two ago, and one or two others have walked five. I don't know what would be the most I have ever seen a pitcher throw in a game out here, because the manager / pitching coach usually gets the pitcher out of the game if it gets too ridiculous.
As for the attendance, probably about 20 of the 25 were early arrivals for the Savannah Bananas game who came over to Field # 1 to see what was going on, and once they saw all the bases on balls (12 walks by Cubs pitchers and four by Angels pitchers) they ran away screaming. I'm used to it so it didn't bother me that much.
Childersb3 (view)
Jed has added Teheran, Tyranski, Kissaki, and now Straily and Nico Zeglin today.
Zeglin is 24 yrs old. Pitched well at Long Beach St in '23 and well in some Indy Ball.
They also added Reilly and Viets in late ST.
Have to search for MiLB arm depth anywhere you can and at all times!!!
Childersb3 (view)
25 in Attendance!!!
Phil, is that a backfield record?
Also, 6 BBs for Cruz in 2 IP. What's the most walks you've seen in one EXT ST outing that you can recall?
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
He has a pulse. Apparently that’s the only requirement at this point.
crunch (view)
cubs sign dan straily...for some reason. minor league deal.
welcome back.
zac rosscup is down in mexico trying to make it happen...maybe they could throw him a contract, too. junior lake is his teammate. shore up a bunch of holes with some washups.
fullykräusened (view)
The great thing about going to live sports events is you don't know if you're going to see something historic. Today I went to the Cub game, after putting the liner back in my coat and fishing my Cubs knit hat out of the closet. I needed all that- my seats are in the upper deck, left, so the east wind was in my face. Both teams failed to capitalize on good situations, but both starters did a good job to accomplish this. So, we go to the bottom of the sixth inning. The Cubs tie it up, and then Pete Crow-Armstrong comes up. We all know he would still be in AAA if not for injuries, and future Hall-of-Famer Justin Verlander absolutely carved up the young fellow up in his first two plate appearances. So this time he hits a fly ball. The wind was blowing in and had suppressed several strong fly balls- including a rocket off Altuve's bat that Canario hauled in (does anybody else remind me of Jorge Soler?) , but the ball kept carrying and carrying. 107mph, legit angle and carry. The crowd went nuts, the dugout went nuts. Maybe, just maybe, I saw the first homer from a long-term Cub.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Which was my original premise. They won the trades but lost their souls. They no longer employ the Cardinal way which had been so successful for so long.
crunch (view)
STL traded away a lot of minor league talent that went on to do nothing in the arenado + goldschmidt trades. neither guy blocked any of their minor league talent in the pipeline, too. that's ideal places to add talent.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Natural cycle of baseball. Pitching makes adjustments in approach to counter a hot young rookie. Now it’s time for Busch and his coaches to counter those adjustments. Busch is very good and will figure it out, I think sooner than later.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
In 2020, the pandemic year and the year before they acquired Arenado, the Cardinals finished second and were a playoff team. Of the 12 batters with 100 plate appearances, 8 of them were home grown. Every member of the starting rotation (if you include Wainwright) and all but one of the significant relievers were home grown. While there have been a relative handful of very good trades interspersed which have been mentioned, player development had been their predominant pattern for decades - ever since I became an aware fan in the ‘70’s
The Arenado deal was not a deal made out of dire need or desperation. It was a splashy, headline making deal for a perennial playoff team intended to be the one piece that brought the Cardinals from a very good team to a World Series contender. They have continued to wheel and deal and have been in a slide ever since. I stand by my supposition that that deal marked a notable turning point within the organization. They broke what had been a very successful formula for a very long time.