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Harden: Best He's Felt in Six years

John Bonnes

By John Bonnes
in Minnesota Twins Talk

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minn55441 Draft Eligible

minn55441

Provisional Member
Posted
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Googling "Rich Harden Best I've Felt in Years" turns up a lot of results. Here's one from 2010-

 

 

http://seattletimes.com/html/sports/2011145308_apbbarangersharden.html

 

thanks for bringing us back to reality.

 

I really hope we don't even try this guy as a starter. He has never pitched 100 innings. If he could throw 40 innings out of the pen with a sub 3.00 ERA I would be thrilled. He has the stuff, just need to keep him on the mound.

FrodaddyG College Ball

FrodaddyG

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Posted
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I really hope we don't even try this guy as a starter. He has never pitched 100 innings.

Yes, he has. He really, really has. Much like the writer's "typo" in the Correia article yesterday, there's plenty of reason to doubt the pitcher in question without gussying up the case against him.

ThePuck First Round Pick

ThePuck

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Yes, he has. He really, really has. Much like the writer's "typo" in the Correia article yesterday, there's plenty of reason to doubt the pitcher in question without gussying up the case against him.

 

I'm gonna guess maybe he meant 200 and just had the typo...just a guess. He hasn't, however, had even 190 MLB innings in one season. The most he's ever had was slightly less than that...and that was nine seasons ago. The second most he had was 148, and that was five seasons ago.

gil4 FCL Twins

gil4

Verified Member
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This comes to mind...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3307[/ATTACH]

 

Is that Zumaya after his elbow blew up? "Merely a flesh wound".

John Bonnes MVP

John Bonnes

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The idea of trading Harden at the deadline is an interesting one, and I'm guilty of overlooking it.

 

One of the things I don't like about the Twins signings this winter is that they have these guys with health issues, but don't have any option years on them. But both Pelfrey and Harden could conceivably be flipped at the deadline. Not for anything special, but maybe a AA guy who looks like he's going to develop into a serviceable shortstop, or a AA pitcher that might be a mid-rotation starter or a power bullpen arm.

drjim Cedar Rapids Kernels

drjim

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Posted
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The idea of trading Harden at the deadline is an interesting one, and I'm guilty of overlooking it.

 

One of the things I don't like about the Twins signings this winter is that they have these guys with health issues, but don't have any option years on them. But both Pelfrey and Harden could conceivably be flipped at the deadline. Not for anything special, but maybe a AA guy who looks like he's going to develop into a serviceable shortstop, or a AA pitcher that might be a mid-rotation starter or a power bullpen arm.

 

Isn't Pelfrey the only signing that this applies? And if he is good and healthy midseason I would guess an extension would be more likely than a trade.

ashbury GOAT

ashbury

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Even a hundred innings of a healthy Harden is a good thing, guys.

 

Too much to hope for from a guy who has never pitched 2 innings in a season in the major leagues.

TheLeviathan MVP

TheLeviathan

Old-Timey Member
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The problem with that idea Highabove is that it presumes the Twins medical staff is aware of a problem requiring action. Typically we play with a 21 or 22 man roster while we wait these things out.

YourHouseIsMyHouse First Round Pick

YourHouseIsMyHouse

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The problem with that idea Highabove is that it presumes the Twins medical staff is aware of a problem requiring action. Typically we play with a 21 or 22 man roster while we wait these things out.

 

The lights on an ambulance for the Twins wouldn't work. Same with that thing they use to change the stoplight color.

LaBombo Wichita Wind Surge

LaBombo

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This would make an absolutely amazing story if he can come back like his early self. I guess he's already passed the Zumaya test.

 

Liked the Zumaya signing, but even a year later it's still hard to believe that the difference between the real Zumaya and the Onion parody Zumaya was 12 pitches. Nice to hear that Harden has felt good so far, but he's the classic hope-for-the-best, expect-the-worst type of signing.

jimbo92107 Cedar Rapids Kernels

jimbo92107

Verified Member
Posted
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A lot of things will need to go right for the Twins to do well this season.

Here's a list of things I think are possible but could just as easily go wrong.

 

Twins long-shot list:

Harden revival, healthy for whole season

Gibson wins 15 games

Deduno wins 15, cuts walks in half

Morneau hits 30 taters

Florimon hits .250

Butera hits .225

DeVries wins 12

Hendriks wins 10

Plouffe hits 28 taters, healthy for the whole season

Dozier wins 2B, hits .265

Benson beats out Hicks for CF, stays up and healthy

Mauer plays healthy all year

 

If most of those things happen, I think the Twins could compete for a wild card. Most of them are physically possible, but of course some of them are less probable than others. Frankly, if they all stayed healthy, that would be a major accomplishment.

Brock Beauchamp GOAT

Brock Beauchamp

Site Manager
Posted
Posted
A lot of things will need to go right for the Twins to do well this season.

Here's a list of things I think are possible but could just as easily go wrong.

 

Twins long-shot list:

Harden revival, healthy for whole season

Gibson wins 15 games

Deduno wins 15, cuts walks in half

Morneau hits 30 taters

Florimon hits .250

Butera hits .225

DeVries wins 12

Hendriks wins 10

Plouffe hits 28 taters, healthy for the whole season

Dozier wins 2B, hits .265

Benson beats out Hicks for CF, stays up and healthy

Mauer plays healthy all year

 

If most of those things happen, I think the Twins could compete for a wild card. Most of them are physically possible, but of course some of them are less probable than others. Frankly, if they all stayed healthy, that would be a major accomplishment.

 

All of those things are unlikely but one is virtually impossible... There is simply no way Gibson will win 15 games on a strict innings count.

CDog Draft Eligible

CDog

Provisional Member
Posted
Posted
A lot of things will need to go right for the Twins to do well this season.

Here's a list of things I think are possible but could just as easily go wrong.

 

Twins long-shot list:

Harden revival, healthy for whole season

Gibson wins 15 games

Deduno wins 15, cuts walks in half

Morneau hits 30 taters

Florimon hits .250

Butera hits .225

DeVries wins 12

Hendriks wins 10

Plouffe hits 28 taters, healthy for the whole season

Dozier wins 2B, hits .265

Benson beats out Hicks for CF, stays up and healthy

Mauer plays healthy all year

 

If most of those things happen, I think the Twins could compete for a wild card. Most of them are physically possible, but of course some of them are less probable than others. Frankly, if they all stayed healthy, that would be a major accomplishment.

 

I had a little fun thinking about the order of likelihood in that list. As BB already pointed out, Gibson winning 15 is almost certainly on the bottom end. While maybe not technically "likely," I think a few aren't super long shots.

 

Morneau has hit 30 bombs in three of his last four healthy seasons (obviously he's older now and, you know, hasn't been healthy for a while). Hendriks winning 10 seems conceivable (Correia has done it 4 years in a row!). Plouffe hit 24 last year while only playing 119 games, so 28 IF healthy seems in play. Dozier hit .234 last year, so .265 seems reachable if he puts some things together. And my feeling is that any health issues for Mauer would be new things, which can happen to anyone at any time, of course. After that, things get a little more long-shotty.

 

Keeping it a little on topic with the thread, I don't foresee Harden staying healthy all year, but I'm hopeful to be wrong.

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