Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Harden: Best He's Felt in Six years

John Bonnes

By John Bonnes
in Minnesota Twins Talk

Recommended Posts

minn55441 Draft Eligible

minn55441

Provisional Member
Posted
Posted
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
FrodaddyG College Ball

FrodaddyG

Verified Member
Posted
Posted
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ThePuck First Round Pick

ThePuck

Provisional Member
Posted
Posted
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
John Bonnes MVP

John Bonnes

Owner
Posted
  • Author
Posted

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
drjim Cedar Rapids Kernels

drjim

Provisional Member
Posted
Posted
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
YourHouseIsMyHouse First Round Pick

YourHouseIsMyHouse

Provisional Member
Posted
Posted
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
LaBombo Wichita Wind Surge

LaBombo

Verified Member
Posted
Posted
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jimbo92107 Ft Myers Mighty Mussels

jimbo92107

Verified 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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brock Beauchamp GOAT

Brock Beauchamp

Administrator
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
The Twins Daily Caretaker Fund
The Twins Daily Caretaker Fund

You all care about this site. The next step is caring for it. We’re asking you to caretake this site so it can remain the premier Twins community on the internet.

Become a Caretaker
×
×
  • Create New...