Cubs acquire Harden, and that makes me very happy
This one's gonna be fast because I just got home from tonight's pasting of the Reds. (Welcome home, Dusty. Good times!) The Cubs got pitchers Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the A's for Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton, Eric Patterson, and some A-ball catcher named Donaldson. Hallelujah!
After losing out on CC, I was pretty disappointed. At this point, my sights turned to Harden. In fact, here's the money quote from what I sent in an email to my cousin, Jim:
I'd love for the Cubs to get Harden. Sure, he's extremely injury prone. In fact, he's the A's version of Prior & Wood. That said, when he plays, he's awesome. I think the Cubs need to aim high. Harden could be like Josh Beckett was for the Marlins & Red Sox. Injured most of the regular season, awesome in October. The Cubs really need to aim high and the reward with Harden would be massive. They don't need the likes of Randy Wolf. They've already got enough .500 caliber pitchers.
Exactly. Great pickup for the Cubs. And Gaudin's no slouch himself, probably better than Marquis - though that's not saying much. Gallagher's the only guy I will miss in this deal, but if the Cubs win the pennant, let alone the Series, I won't care one bit. Murton's solid and could start for a number of teams, but really he's just average at best. Patterson looks like he has Kansas City or Baltimore in his future. In other words, he's nothing worth crying over. I know nothing of the A-baller other than he hit .216 in A ball. Some guy called him a "bullpen catcher" today, and I don't know if that's true but its certainly funny. But we got Harden.
Your move, Melvin.
More to come, tomorrow.
Harden!