Less than two hours ago, the Chicago Cubs matched the Milwaukee Brewers marquee pitching acquisition of CC Sabathia in hopes of staying ahead in the NL Central. The Cubs received SP Rich Harden & RP Chad Gaudin, while the Athletics received SP Sean Gallagher, OF Matt Murton, OF Eric Patterson, & C Josh Donaldson. This move will end up proving to be a great equalizer for the Cubs is Harden can stay healthy. While Gallagher is a solid prospect, Harden gives the Cubs a #2 SP behind Carlos Zambrano. I believe the Cubs will be able to win the NL Central with this move as long as Harden avoids the DL because of their solid offensive that they have not had in past years.
Harden can’t avoid the DL unless as I heard Jason Smith of ESPN radio suggest, they shut Harden down until the fall so he has no chance of hurting himself. It’s worth noting that Harden complained of a dead arm in his last two starts. Prelude to the DL and the return of the curse of Billy Beane. -bB
Cubs are gambling High risk, high reward for the Cubs. Guess they figured Harden made it through his last 7 starts or something like that without returning to the DL. If he’s healthy, he can be the jolt they need to ride to the playoffs. If not, they probably don’t feel they gave up much. For the A’s, Beane felt Harden was not going to last much longer and wanted to get something in return. He got that in Gallagher, a likely #3 guy they can plug in right away. The Cubs are shooting for the fences, but who knows how this will turn out. Guess they are planning to go to Vegas next week and going all in on the WSOP too! haha
ProfZim