The Mets Miss The Lincecum Memo And Other Stories

• Mets 7-Giants 0:

While they said all the right things about being impressed with Tim Lincecum's stuff and how bright the

diminutive righty's future is, the Mets apparently missed last week's issue of Sports Illustrated because they knocked him around pretty good on the field. Carlos Delgado sending one of Lincecum's fastballs deep into the Flushing Meadows night was impressive in and of itself considering how Delgado's had such trouble catching up to power fastballs this year; I would hesitate to think this is a renaissance for Delgado because the pitch was up and out over the plate; he still can't get around on a power inside fastball at all which indicates a location mistake on the part of Lincecum. Mike Pelfrey and his reliance on his power sinker is starting to make him look like a young Kevin Brown.

• Yankees 5-Rays 0:

Andy Pettitte was masterful against a hot hitting and tough lineup in the Rays. In looking at Pettitte's numbers----stats----if he hangs around for two or three more years and can win between 13-15 games each year in addition to this

year's likely 16 wins, he's going to make the Hall of Fame. A winner; a gutty innings-eater; honest about his brief PED usage; and a post-season record of 18-7 (as of now) plus around 240 wins will make Pettitte more of a no-brainer for the Hall than Curt Schilling. Another thing about Pettitte that many people may not know is that he wasn't even drafted; the Yankees signed him as an undrafted free agent in 1991. That's some pretty good scouting, luck or both.

• Did the Dodgers owner nix a deal for C.C. Sabathia?

The Pasadena Star-News reported on Monday that Dodgers owner Frank McCourt nixed a deal that would have brought C.C. Sabathia, Casey Blake and Jamey Carroll to the Dodgers for a package of youngsters----Story----the main reason is implied to be financial. McCourt may receive criticism for this after the fact especially if Sabathia pitches the Brewers into the

playoffs, but McCourt has every right to do what I see as the right thing for his franchise by stopping his GM from mortgaging a big chunk of his team's loaded farm system to win right now.
Dodgers GM Ned Colletti is already under fire for the team's underachieving and the huge money contracts he doled out to Andruw Jones and Jason Schmidt with literally no return. If the Indians, a smart organization that knows how to scout prospects, were trading three players with expiring contracts who are in demand, there would probably have been at least five prospects going to Cleveland including the likes of Matt Kemp, Andy

LaRoche and lots of young pitching. The Dodgers are getting their injured players back and with manager Joe Torre's history of hot second half finishes, along with the way the NL West is looking like it might only take 85 wins to take the division, why make such a desperation move? Add in that McCourt may be keeping an eye on the Brian Cashman/Yankees situation with the possibility that Torre and Cashman will be reunited on the West Coast after the season and there was no reason to allow Colletti to make this move.
Despite McCourt's attempts to win within a budget and create a clone of the Oakland Athletics when he hired Paul DePodesta to disastrous results, he's spent a load of money and allowed Colletti to be very aggressive in trying to win immediately over the past three years; he shouldn't receive criticism when he finally says enough's enough.

• Is there an agenda in place here?

I don't know the circumstances with Keith Law's departure from the Blue Jays in 2006, but reading between the lines in the comment about Chad Gaudin in the Rich Harden trade, and

you have to wonder if there's a bit of sniping going on underneath what masks itself as an opinion:

Chad Gaudin is an outstanding second player -- hate to call him a "throw-in" here -- for the Cubs, as a short reliever who could be dominant in that role in the NL. His fastball/slider combo has produced over 300 innings of above-average pitching since Toronto discarded him after a grand total of two big league starts, and his career-long vulnerability against left-handed batters has vanished this year, in large part because of his improved control.

If Law's letting personal biases enter into his judgments (intentionally or not), he should try and put them aside if he intends to be a credible media voice. For the record, I wouldn't have touched Rich Harden unless I was getting him for nothing because he's completely unreliable health-wise from one day to the next.

Cubs Roll The Dice With Rich Harden

In what can be seen as both a rapid-fire retaliation to the Brewers getting C.C. Sabathia,

the Cubs acquired RHPs Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the Athletics for RHP Sean Gallagher; OF Matt Murton; INF Eric Patterson and C Josh Donaldson. In addition to it being a retaliatory strike to a divisional competitor upgrading themselves substantially, the acquisition of a pitcher the with the talent and fragility of Harden is a testament to the Cubs intention to use the fact that the team is for sale to go for it right now without any regard to the future.
Rich Harden is the ultimate high risk/high reward pitcher. He's quite possibly got the best stuff in baseball when he's healthy----a fastball in the mid-to-upper 90s and a wicked slider----but he's never been able to stay healthy. The perfect scenario for A's baseball czar

Billy Beane was if Harden stayed healthy this entire season; the next best scenario was for Harden to show enough to convince another team that he was worth the price that Beane was going to demand to get him and, after spending a chunk of the first half of the season on the disabled list, Harden managed to do that.
The Cubs are pushing everything they have into the pot to try and win right now for manager Lou Piniella and it's either going to be a stroke of

genius or be seen as a desperation maneuver that exploded in their faces (or the faces of whoever the next owner is because they'll be the ones who have to clean up the mess). Harden's the ultimate risk because he's going to be counted on to be a major part of a historic season for the Cubs and he hasn't been able to stay healthy since 2004; and even then he only pitched 189 innings. This is a pitcher who has been predominately injured in both 2006 and 2007 and has provided 13 starts this season only being one tweak, strain or pull from being on the disabled list for the rest of the season. I have no prediction of what's going to happen with Harden because his career history indicates that he's due to get hurt again soon, but the adrenaline of the pennant race and possibility of a long-term contract may keep him out on the mound and performing. If I had to guess, I'd say he's going to get hurt, but the Cubs decided he was worth the risk to counter the move the Brewers made and as far as ability, Harden was probably the best available pitcher.
Chad Gaudin was also acquired by the Cubs. Gaudin was a solid starter last season,

began this year in the Athletics starting rotation and moved to the bullpen. He'll augment an already solid Cubs bullpen and could move back into the rotation if necessary. I get the impression that Gaudin was added to the deal to account for Harden's frailty.
The Athletics and Billy Beane played their hands as well as they could with a pitcher like Harden and they had him healthy at the exact right time. If he were to have had the injuries he had early in the season now, it's unlikely that they would have gotten as much as they did for him. There was much speculation in the media that Beane had to consider keeping Harden if the Athletics stayed in contention, but I knew better. Beane never had any intention of keeping Rich Harden and if he received what he felt was fair value for the pitcher, he was going to move him sooner rather than later, and he did.
As for the players the Athletics got from the Cubs, Sean Gallagher, 22, has been a serviceable pitcher for the Cubs this year in ten starts and his minor league numbers indicate

that he's a strikeout pitcher who has good control and doesn't allow many homers; he has a similar motion and look to Josh

Beckett. Outfielder Matt Murton was caught in a numbers game with the Cubs even though he proved in 2006 and 2007 that he belonged in the big leagues and the Cubs did him a favor by dealing him to a venue in which he's going to play. Eric Patterson is a 25-year-old infielder who has put up big numbers at Triple A with a high average and some speed. Josh Donaldson is a catcher who was a first round pick of the Cubs in 2007; he's struggled with the bat in high A in 2008 after tearing up low A in 2007. He's a few years from the majors.
It's safe to say that Beane knows what he wanted and got it by trading Harden three weeks before it was absolutely necessary; it also couldn't have escaped Beane's eye that there's no way to know whether Harden's next pitch is going to be his last until 2009 or beyond. The Athletics got what they wanted in the young, talented players and the Cubs may have just gotten themselves a trip to the World Series or a long-term disaster. Considering the circumstances for both sides, this was a deal that made sense for everyone.