Most of them are pissed that Gaudin got away when many felt Harden should have gotten a return that shitty all on his own injured self.

Seriously though, what are the chances that Beane is this dumb? I have a feeling something is wrong with Harden and the Cubs aren’t getting what they think.

otherwise the cubs robbed the A’s blind

btw, here’s the BBTF thread

The is like the Aramis Ramirez trade all over again.

The only good player that the A’s get is Gallagher. Murton was a worse prospect than Sweeney and Eric Patterson is basically his brother all over again.

Ridiculous.

minor league stats. He’s a lot better than I thought. His present ERA+ of 101 seems maintainable given his minor league track record. He seems like a good candidate to be a minumum salaried #3 starter for a while. Those are pretty valuable properties. Still it does seem like a small return.

Of course harden has only pitched 149 innings the last 2.5 years. He’s only started more than 19 games once in his career, and he’s at 13 right now. I would probably take the under on him making 8 starts the rest of this year.

here

He’s 26 and he lost more than a mph in velocity? He’s supposed to gain slightly until 29.

Anatomy Of The Deal

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry checked in from time to time throughout June with Oakland general manager Billy Beane about the availability of Rich Harden, and their conversations traveled down the same path: Yes, Harden was available, but only at the right price, and that price would include right-handed pitcher Sean Gallagher. And Hendry indicated, repeatedly, that Gallagher wasn’t available.

On Sunday evening - the same night when word broke that the Brewers had worked out a deal for CC Sabathia - Hendry indicated to Beane for the first time that he would make Gallagher available in a Harden deal, but it would create a problem: If Gallagher was traded, the Cubs wouldn’t have the kind of depth they needed to deal with an injury.

“Let me call you back,” Beane said.

Beane had an idea. He could fill Hendry’s need for depth by adding veteran swingman Chad Gaudin in the trade. He phoned Hendry back on Monday night with the suggestion. “That could work,” Hendry said, and the two general managers began piecing together other parts of the trade. Beane called Hendry with a detail of the trade very late on Monday night, California time, figuring the call would switch over to voice mail on Hendry’s cell phone because it was so late.

But Hendry answered the phone, wide awake. “Jim, what are doing awake?” Beane asked.

“I’m just laying here on my couch,” Hendry said.

Some 15 hours later, the trade was finished. Oakland got Gallagher, a pitching prospect with a more stable medical history than Harden, and the Cubs got a high-risk, high-reward talent in Harden.

—Buster Olney

I’m as big a Billy Beane fan as any person who prefers to stop short of going all fanboy or fangirl over the man—that’s for real genius, not canny baseball executives—but it’s really, really hard to see what it is that the A’s got that would compel them to accept this offer, as opposed to treat it as a conversational cul-de-sac to head back out of and see whether a real deal might be struck. Why make a deal with the Cubs, who just don’t have all that much to offer? As Kevin Goldstein noted in January, theirs isn’t a great farm system, and even if you’re landing three of their eight best pre-season prospects, that’s relative. Put it this way—who is the best player that the A’s received in the deal? We’ll try and answer that in a second, but there’s a second question that has to be asked in conjunction with the first: How likely is the best player received in the deal to have a significant role with the club in 2010 (when Harden would have been a free agent signed by somebody else) or 2011 (when Gaudin would have expended his salary arbitration seasons and potentially also left for a team and contract of his choosing)?

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7774

Would you trade Rich Harden for John Danks right now?

I’m skeptical that Harden will finish out the year without getting injured, and I’d also like to win this league without tarnishing it by owning any Cubs. However, Danks had a rough second half last year, and while I don’t expect any where near the collapse last year, there’s obviously question marks regarding how long he can continue putting up these kind of numbers.

I’m basically ensured first place for the season, so this move is eyed more towards September than July.

So,all that said, is Danks too little for Harden at this point (considering I’m in a league with Cubs fans)?