Duke: 9IP 2H 4K 0BB
Meyer: 8 IP 2H 8 K 0BB(A great sign; if he finds his command maybe there’s a teeny tiny bit of hope)
Simmons: 8 IP 2 H 11K 0BB

As for hitting, not so many great signs. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Duke but I really think that if we can get two major hitting prospects/young sluggers (AND ONLY THEN), hopefully MI ones we should look into trading him. Duke and Street for Brignac and Upton? If not, can we at least please go after Dallas MacPherson? I’m one of Donnie Murphy’s biggest fans but he and Hannahan are killing us.

Since Ellis has been pretty healthy recently how about a couple of tries at SS if his arm can stand it? We could then play Patterson at 2b and I would not have to worry about Ellie being traded.

http://boards.espn.go.com/boards/mb/mb?sport=mlb&id=general&tid=3071204&lid=1

The more I am okay with this trade. The minor league/major league numbers of the guys we got are pretty solid, if unspectacular. We weren’t going to get top talent with Harden’s injury problems. Harden’s significant lost velocity combined with his injury history is a red flag. What if he has a dead arm the rest of the season? Can we afford not to trade him now? We are 5 games back of the Angels still and with our injury concerns, it looks like they will run away with the division. We can still remain competitive, but I think we took advantage of the opportunity to get younger and improve depth even more with all these injuries.

Gaudin is a throw in. He would’ve been in the rotation with Harden gone, but now that we have Gallagher, we get a little younger and more potential in the process. Remember that Gaudin wasn’t nearly the prospect that Gallagher was and we turned him into a solid major league starter. We have so many young arms coming up that Gaudin has almost no value for us going forward. Cahill, Simmons, et al. will be ready next year and there’s no point in keeping Gaudin.

Murton is a solid hitter (~.800 OPS, great compared to our other corner outfield options) and will be the RH platoon guy Emil Brown was supposed to be. I like him as a 4th outfielder who gets 350 ABs a season.

Donaldson had great numbers last year (1.000+ OPS, that’s crazy) but has struggled mightily this year. He’s still somewhat young at 22, although he’s too old to struggle at A ball. He’s a flyer pick, and if he works out we’ll be calling Beane a genius. He’s got a great bat, he’s just had an uncharacteristically bad year.

I like Gallagher the best; good young arm who has maintained solid progression so far through the minors. Good WHIP, solid K/9 and K/BB rates. He’s gotten less hittable as he’s progressed in age. And he’s only 22. Very nice under the radar pickup. Just another young arm to add to the stable.

Patterson is a meh throw in. He’s got speed and some decent pop, but hasn’t shown terrific on base skills and I don’t really think he’ll be any better than a .750 OPS guy in the majors. He’s a utility guy at best but a better option than Murphy or Hannahan. He’ll be a stopgap at 2B between Ellis and Weeks.

The entire trade makes sense, it just takes awhile to get there because some of the talent is still relatively unproven compared to two major league arms in Gaudin and Harden. There is a definite plan here, and Beane looks like he knows what he’s doing yet again.

I fully expect Blanton to be gone next for some insurance options at SS and 3B.

for the team on the field and for morale.

HE has been great. Its a real shame things didn’t work out differently (injuries, etc.) because guys like him deserve to be in the playoffs this season.

I am proud of the team for going out and winning on a day in which the team can’t feel to happy about their chances for the rest of the season.

All that being said – Lets keep winning!!!

(By the way what if we keep it winning despite the loss of Rich??) Hope Springs eternal!!

I feel like we could have gotten Murton for one middle reliever, say Andrew Brown or Santiago Casilla, or better yet Keith Foulke or Allen Embree.

with Johnny Damon out, Brown would be okay in Left Field for a month.

It’s F’d up that the A’s would trade Hardin in the middle of the year when the A’s are still in the running for a playoff spot. Why not take a chance and trade him at the end of the year. But I’ll accept that it is reasonable to trade Hardin. But why Gaudin too? And what to the A’s get: basically garbage. Is SG that much of an outstanding prospect? NO!

I’m also getting sick of the A’s trading players that still are within their sixth year. Now the A’s are trading players 3 or 4 years into their major league careers. Are the A’s that F’ing cheap that they only want players that are making under a million? I understand that Oakland is too poor to ever resign a player after their sixth year unless thay are journeymen, but now it’s under four or five years. Let’s get the most out of these players for the full six years.

Again the A’s sign a big 16 year old prospect for 4.25 million and it seems the cheapos want to get back some of that money by dumping Hardin’s relatively measley 4.25 million dollar contract.

I have loved the Duke for many years. I’ve been rooting for him to start since he was put in the ‘pen. I want to see him extended for a bazillion years, and lead us to glory through his brain in a jar in 2085.

Realistically, his value is going to be crazy sweet by the end of the season and Billy’s going to ship him out the door to start the next motley young generation.

Because we don’t get to have nice things.

Rich Harden doesn’t have very much trade value.

I figured as much, but the fact that we had to include Gaudin in the deal just because Harden is made of glass just clinches it. We got a cheap, young pitcher with an apparently good fastball and a bunch of roster filler, as near as I can tell.

I’d like to say this is a case of selling high. But this isn’t exactly a high return, and it sounds like teams weren’t exactly beating down Beane’s door.

I’ve been in the realist camp about the A’s, but this trade leaves me cold.

Well the A’s unloaded another ace, however, this one might turn out to be a good trade for us considering Harden’s six stints on the DL over the past three seasons. The Cubs felt obligated to make a move to counter Sabathia and we got a pretty good young pitcher in Gallagher.

Sports Picks

Don’t laugh. I know Beane/Forst pulls rabbits (or perhaps other rodents) out of hats from time to time, and this one is most likely not on anyone’s radar.

But should the A’s consider, if there’s no movement coming up on July 31st, attempting to trade a couple of minor league guys who are low on the depth chart for Rich Aurelia? Mostly it would be a salary dump by the Giants, and the A’s would pick up a replacement for Jack Hannahan who can also, in a pinch, play all infield positions, and who, in his dotage, is a much better hitter. I’m not advocating giving up anyone who would definitely make it to the big league club, but maybe someone who, given the paucity in the Giants’ system, could wind up being a dark horse over there.

Michael (Evansville, IN): Jason Stark’s article today I think quoted another GM as saying that Beane’s decision to deal Harden right now raises serious “red flags” about Harden’s health. Mr. Phillips, as a former GM, can you truly have insider medical information that you withhold from the team you are trading with? If such withholding ever were to made public, how would a GM who did this be viewed (credibility-wise & ethically)?

Steve Phillips: (1:27 PM ET ) Typically, what happens in trades is that the clubs exchange medical information. One team's doctor is given permission to talk to another team's doctor about the players. Clubs exchange medical reports to gain a comfort level. Deals can be contingent upon a physical. There have been times where a GM has not fully disclosed a player's health status, and that burns his relationship with the other team, and possibly with MOST other teams. The rules are clear: it's buyer beware, so there is no recourse legislated if you feel as though you have been duped. I'm not surprised at the moves from Beane's perspective. I have seen it before. Beane traded me Kenny Rogers in 1999, even when his team was competing for a playoff spot. He then turned around to acquire Kevin Appier to allow his team to continue to compete.I'm not sure that is the case here, but as the GM of a small-market team, Beane has to be creative and sometimes take a half step back to take one step forward. Harden is a risk, but he would not be less of a risk on July 31 than he is today.

Hate to be a stick in the mud, and it’s not just this trade. .... Maybe this one had to be made at this time, but it’s the overall pattern with Billy Beane that gives me pause.
Does he ever finish the job, or are we as A’s fans eternally destined to be always on the journey but never arriving at the desitination, taking yet another detour so we MIGHT, MIGHT get close three, four, five more years down the line?
Just as Bill Murray keeps hearing that Sonny and Cher song on the radio at 6 in the morning in “Groundhog Day’,’ I as an A’s fan keep hearing the late John Lennon’s “Starting Over’’ in my brain every time Billy trades away another valued player. Somewhere down the road, I would like Billy to have the courage publicly to be ``The Man From La Mancha” and “Dream the Impossible Dream,” stick with his guns, develop and keep great team players who are WINNERS, who will find a way to get’er done through thick or thin.
I think Duke’s one of those players, by golly, with True Grit, but I’m not confident he won’t be traded away as well somewhere down the line.
Rich Harden being traded is a sad day to me. I hate to see a player traded who still has a chance to be a great player. If he goes on to be the next Sandy Koufax or Bob Gibson for the Cubs, there will be a sense of loss of what might have been with the A’s. The odds, given Rich’s injury history, are long that that will be the case, in which case I will be sad for Rich.