Poll - Harden Trade Good or Bad?

by coberloco on Jul 8, 2008 5:21 PM PDT Comment 30 comments

Take the poll and decide for yourself. Will trading Harden and Gaudin to the Cubs end up as a good or bad trade for the A's?

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Poll

Will trading Harden, etc to the Cubs end up as a good or bad trade for the A's?

Good

129 votes

Bad

257 votes

386 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 30 comments

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Read More: a's, cubs, harden, gaudin, beane, trade, gallagher, Oakland Athletics

Comments

Make this poll again in 6 month & see if the results are similar.

by drink409 on Jul 8, 2008 5:23 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Actually, I thought about making a 2nd poll

as to whether or not it will be a good trade if Harden goes on the DL again this year.

by coberloco on Jul 8, 2008 5:26 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

i was hoping there'd be an option for "freaking awful"

that would be my first choice

by schmifty on Jul 8, 2008 5:30 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Everyone step back from the ledge and put the gun down

The sun will come up again tomorrow. This poll may be a little early, like the first post said ask again in 6 months. Beane knows what he is doing and dont be suprised if another deal or two is may before the deadline. As of right now we are still where we were at the start of the season and a lot of the time during Hardens time in Oakland, without him. Also Gaudin was rarely used so what did we really lose when we have a lot of pitchers in the org that can replace him (and has see Barden). Yes Harden has been lights out at times but there will be others that will be the same. It will all be okay just relax and see what happens next.

by A'sfaninNC on Jul 8, 2008 5:31 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

What exactly did happen to Gaudin?

He was one of our brightest potential talents with some of the best “stuff” on the roster last year and the year before, who mainly needed some polishing. Then this year, he started off doing great in the rotation, then got moved to the bullpen where he sat with hardly any activity. I’ve been wondering ever since what they were doing with him and thought they should be using him so much more often when Geren called on Foulke and Embree.

Now, before this trade went down, many people didn’t think the Cubs had the pieces to pull off Harden alone.

The only explanations I can think of are Gaudin made a stink to be traded and dis-ingratiated himself to the FO, or he’s hurt.

But whatever it is, I have never been so pessimistic about a Beane trade—ever. I think we got fleeced.

"Good or bad, I don't know. This is awesome." ~Nick Swisher

by humdinger on Jul 8, 2008 7:50 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't know...

Maybe it’s because we got one good pitcher and a trio of mediocrity.

Maybe as a fan, I am just sick of seeing our players traded away for “Prospects”.

I know what kind of market we are in, but it does not make it any easier to swallow. I thought I was used to this by now, but I guess I am not.

This sucks, end of story.

by Sacpike on Jul 8, 2008 5:44 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

What

Prospect has 850 ABs at the Major League Level? The Cubs gave up ALOT more to get Harden & Gaudin than the Brewers did.

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

by WayneCampbell08 on Jul 8, 2008 5:50 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

You f'ing serious?

I’d trade all four of these guys for Matt LaPorta in a New York minute, and many around here will tell you I’m far from the biggest LaPorta fan on the site.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Jul 8, 2008 6:12 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

The trades are similar in the following way

In each, one team gave a high likelihood of decent value in exchange for a lower likelihood of excellence.

Gallagher and Murton are likely to be pretty useful. Neither has any chance of being as good as Harden, but then Harden might make only 4 or 5 more starts for the Cubs.

Sabathia’s limitation isn’t injury, it’s his contract—the Indians traded, what ,12-15 starts by Sabathia, which is a guarantee (practically) of a limited value, in exchange for the chance that LaPorta will rake in the majors. Which isn’t a guarantee by any means (it’s not as if they traded him for Ryan Braun, for instance).

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Jul 8, 2008 6:20 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

OK

So what you’re saying is, this deal would make sense if the A’s had the best record in their league.

OK. They don’t.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Jul 8, 2008 6:42 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

No, I'm not defending the trade

My point is that the ace-pitcher-for-prospects deals, in a certain way, involved reversed roles: the Indians were trading a high likelihood of limited value for a risk, and the A’s were doing the opposite.

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Jul 8, 2008 6:53 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

with all due respect

you don’t know anything about baseball if you think that is the case

"It's not my fault your team's so shitty." -Steve Friend, head coach, Chabot College, to Laney College's head coach, who asked why we scored so many runs after we beat Laney 30-3 in 2006

by flipgatey3 on Jul 8, 2008 6:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nick is right!

Beating LAA or wherever the fu*k they are, Priceless!

by MMunoz33 on Jul 9, 2008 7:48 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

question

how is .294/.362/.448 mediocre?

by totoum on Jul 8, 2008 5:51 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

We are still talking about a guy

that is behind Reed Johnson on the depth chart. Why wasn’t his 294/.362/.448 line able to keep him in the starting line up?

by Sacpike on Jul 8, 2008 6:02 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's mediocre when it's compiled against 50% lefthanders

and the 50% that’s against righties is like a .730 OPS.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Jul 8, 2008 6:13 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

coming into this year

career OPS vs RHP: .771 (in 532 AB)
career OPS vs LHP: .909 (in 298 AB)

.771 is nothing great,but the only player with a better OPS than that on this team right now is Cust.

by totoum on Jul 8, 2008 6:22 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

The A's play in the frigging Coliseum

The average OPS there this year is like .700.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Jul 8, 2008 6:43 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

This is exactly why trading Gaudin is ok

Why do we give Gaudin a free pass for second half last year even as we always emphasize regression to the mean? Isn’t it possible that Gaudin really is a back of the rotation 4.5 ERA player?

I think the Coliseum puts the A’s in a position where the pitchers, and especially the mediocre pitchers, look solid. I’d say any trade that sends a borderline A’s starter out for anything of value is reasonable.

Saarloos got thrashed the minute he left the Coli, and no-one wants DiNardo.

We shouldn’t accept statistics and statistical theory selectively…

by ohmangoAs on Jul 8, 2008 7:10 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well, I don't know about other people

I give him a pass for it because he was frigging hurt. Knock his bloated home run rate (the result of being unable to pitch down in the zone) down to normal levels and he looks a lot better.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Jul 8, 2008 8:18 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

good point

though guys like emil brown,Kurt Suzuki,Daric Barton,Jack Hannahan and pretty much the whole team havn’t put up good numbers whereverer they play,the exceptions are Ellis,Gonzalez and Sweeney who have an OPS of over 800 on the road,the rest is in the low .700 or .600

by totoum on Jul 8, 2008 7:35 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh, stop

80% of the mail was against the Swisher trade, too.

There’s no way this will come out pro-trade. Fans generically hate rebuilding moves, whether they’re brilliant or moronic.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Jul 8, 2008 5:49 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Harden NL ERA

Harden’s ERA is 1.81 career in the NL . . . Nice!

Beating LAA or wherever the fu*k they are, Priceless!

by MMunoz33 on Jul 8, 2008 6:05 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree!

He’ll kick A—in the NL!

by missyoyoyolanda on Jul 9, 2008 2:05 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yahoo Sports Jeff Passan on the "Haul"

At first glance, the haul for the Athletics wasn’t as strong as the prospects they received from the Arizona Diamondbacks for Dan Haren last off-season. Gallagher could develop into a solid No. 3 starter, Murton is a former top prospect who has struggled, Patterson is unproven and Donaldson is batting .217 in Class-A.

by coberloco on Jul 8, 2008 6:12 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

um

what else did you expect?

"It's not my fault your team's so shitty." -Steve Friend, head coach, Chabot College, to Laney College's head coach, who asked why we scored so many runs after we beat Laney 30-3 in 2006

by flipgatey3 on Jul 8, 2008 6:38 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Here's why I don't like the trade

Simply put, I think BB could have gotten better prospects in giving up 2 quality starters in Harden & Gaudin. Apparently Milwaukee turned down these same prospects from Chicago for Sabathia. And we were only able to get 1 pitcher in return? That’s shocking for a BB trade.
I thot BB said that he wasn’t going to give away Harden, it looks like he relented with this one.

by sf drift king on Jul 8, 2008 8:41 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

The characterization of Chad G

as a solid major league starter is a little bit of an over statement. He won a lot of games in the first half last season true, but it was smoke ad mirrors. He won by getting people to swing at bad pitches… his biggest challenge has always been throwing strikes. He walked 100 freaking guys last year! His career WHIP is 1.5 for crying out loud.

Harden… he could turn out to be the best player BB ever dealt. Or he could end up being someone else’s oasis.

I always felt like part of Matt Murton’s trouble was being jerked around by the Cubs asinine approach to player development. It’s too bad Felix Pie couldn’t have been rescued from the same fate.

by jeffro on Jul 8, 2008 10:07 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs