Comments on: Harden the Ranger

By: opisgod

opisgod — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:59:25 +0000

All Harden had to do was know who Jarrod Washburn was and anywhere but Seattle would be out of contention.

By: opisgod

opisgod — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:57:40 +0000

Logically, except everyone who teaches proper mechanics and those who analyze them have panned Harden almost universally.

By: Chris B

Chris B — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:11:38 +0000

Now that Harden is a Ranger, can Doug Melvin take interest retroactively?

By: Ezra

Ezra — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:56:34 +0000

He must have wanted to work with Nolan Ryan and Mike Maddux — Texas is preaching the durability approach.

By: Joser

Joser — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:56:28 +0000

The M’s were definitely talking to him (per comments by Zduriencik and others) so the Rangers offer must have been much better for him to take Arlington over Safeco. Maybe that second option year mattered, though there’s a good chance he won’t see it.

By: Dingo

Dingo — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:10:19 +0000

I really don’t understand this deal from Harden’s perspective. If you’re going to take a 1-year deal with an option, ideally to demonstrate your value to to the rest of the league, wouldn’t Arlington be one of the last places you’d want to be pitching in? Maybe the Rangers were the only ones offering him a salary that he’d be comfortable with, but you’d think that the home ballpark would be more of a factor.

By: OlSalty

OlSalty — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:19:45 +0000

Yeah if only he would elevate his trunk and correct his Z-motion blah-blah-blah-this-is-all-bull-why-are-you-still-reading..

Harden gets injured a lot. That doesn’t mean Harden’s particular mechanics are the reason. His body doesn’t handle the strain of pitching very well would be a safer assumption to make.

By: Joser

Joser — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:00:39 +0000

Yes, he was second to Johan Santana in IFFB% ... but did you look at the next column? Did you see what his HR/FB rate was with the Cubs? Did you notice that ranks him 3rd worst in all baseball last year among pitchers with at least 140 IP? Small sample size... or ominous trend? Considering Arlington is considerably more hitter-friendly than Wrigley in every direction except LCF, and HRs hit off Harden seem to be well-distributed all over the outfield, I wouldn't be quite so sanguine.

By: Kampfer

Kampfer — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:20:53 +0000

yes he is a flyball pitcher, but he pops batters up a lot. So it really isn’t that bad.

By: vivaelpujols

vivaelpujols — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:02:34 +0000

Please, tell me why you think he has horrible mechanics.