Harden fast

Well, that was quick. How quick did the Cubs pull the trigger on Rich Harden? Quick enough that the last two blog entries posted by Buster Olney are titled "Don't expect Cubs to answer CC trade" and, immediately thereafter, "Harden deal happened quickly."

Harden remains a big injury risk, as I noted yesterday. Given Billy Beane's usual shrewdness and how quickly he moved to deal Harden even though the A's are hardly out of the AL West race, I'm frankly a little worried - and then there's this, from Olney's post:

Harden returned from the disabled list on May 11, and in his first nine starts, he pitched as he usually does, dominating hitters, striking out 42 batters in 32 1/3 innings in June, compiling a 1.67 ERA for the month. Some scouts who saw his July 1 start reported that his velocity was down, and he lasted five innings. On July 6, Harden had five erratic innings, walking four and requiring a 95 pitches to get through five innings.

Who's excited???? I really hope Hendry checked out the injury reports before pulling the trigger.

Harden and Chad Gaudin, a reliever, came over for Matt Murton, Eric Patterson, Sean Gallagher and Josh Donaldson. The good news here is that there's not a ton of loss in that trade. Murton is a good little hitter, but it's unlikely that he's ever going to turn into an All-Star, and he can only play left, a position the Cubs have covered until 2014. Patterson has his assets but never really caught on with Piniella, it seemed; Donaldson is one of the top two or three prospects in the Cubs' system, but he plays catcher, a position that, God willing, the Cubs have set for the next decade or so. The big loss is Gallagher; at 22, his best years are surely ahead of him, and he was certainly showing flashes of serious talent in his time with the big club this year. At the same time, he wasn't going to be in the rotation for the rest of the year anyway, and the Cubs weren't in a position to let him pitch his way into improvement as a starter. From the Cubs standpoint, they really gave up very little they couldn't afford to part with. The loss of Gallagher potentially makes the Cubs a worse team in 2010 (Harden is a free agent after the '09 season), but the addition of Harden potentially makes them World Series champions in 2008, and that can't be overlooked.

Still, his health situation scares the shit out of me. How/if (bite your tongue!) he pitches the rest of the year will probably determine whether or not fate really wants the Cubs to win this season.