Unable to find a big bat to replace their injured slugger, the Anaheim Angels make a big and necessary trade by trading away Joe Saunders and three prospects to acquire Arizona Diamondbacks ace Dan Haren. The Angels are 7 games behind the Texas Rangers as of today.
Now if you ask me I don't think Dan Haren is a "shut-down-the-other-team-for-7-innings" kinda guy and unfortunately that's exactly what I think the Angels need if they don't pick up another offensive player. Right now they're said to be looking at Derek Lee of the Cubs and Garrett Jones of the Pirates.
They need somebody because Dan Haren isn't going to make much of a difference for the Angels this year. He' s a really nice pitcher but what the Angels need is another big bat because right now they can't score enough runs to keep up with the Rangers.
What Dan Haren is is one of the best strikeout pitchers in the game right now. Dan Haren is 7-8 with a 4.60 ERA right now and the bad news is that he's not a second half pitcher... He's always posted a much higher ERA in the second half of the season.
Do you think pitching for the last place Arizona Diamondbacks had anything to do with Haren's performance this season?
I'm not sure but a 4.60 ERA in the National League typically does not translate very well to the American League. I'm just sayin'...
Dan Haren is a nice pitcher and he's a great compliment to Jered Weaver but the question remains... Can the Angels score enough runs to win the AL West? Wild card?
I think if you're an Angels fan you're hoping that Dan Haren coming home, he's from Monterey Park, will catch lightning in a bottle and pitch like a true ace the remainder of the season.
Right now when people talk about Dan Haren they talk about him having ace potential and him having the potential to have an impact similar to the impact Cliff Lee has had for two seasons in a row now.
Can Dan Haren do it? Can he pitch like an ace and put the Angels back in the race?
Unfortunately I'm betting he can't without the help of another bat.
But I'm pretty pumped about having Dan Haren pitch for the Angels through 2012 and possibly for 2013 as well. He and Jered Weaver at the top of the rotation along with Joel Piniero and Ervin Santana makes for a pretty great rotation. What I'm afraid of is that maybe just maybe Dan Haren is the next Scott Kazmir...
Scott Kazmir is 4 years younger than Dan Haren and I think most of us are already starting to believe that Scott Kazmir might already be done. Dan Haren is a 3 time all-star and he's logged over 200 innings in each of the last 5 seasons and he's on schedule to do it again this season. By contrast Scott Kazmir had pitched over 200 innings in a season exactly once prior to being traded to the Angels but he had been a starter with Tampa Bay for 5 seasons.
Dan Haren is a power pitcher with 5 consecutive seasons of 200 innings behind him... I hate to say it but he's bound to break down at some point. You know like some time in the next two seasons...
Related posts:
- Dan Haren Goes Nine And The Angels Still Lose Dan Haren did everything the Los Angeles Angels could have asked him to do and they still lost... Dan Haren went 9 innings against the Texas Rangers, gave up two runs and lost because the Angels couldn't score any runs. This is the big problem with the Dan Haren acquisition...
- Scott Kazmir Is Done But What About Joe Saunders? What has always been a strength for the Anaheim Angels just isn't any more and I'm talking about their starting rotation. Case in point, Scott Kazmir is 2-3 with a 6.83 ERA and Joe Saunders is 1-5 with a 6.19 ERA... The primary cause for concern with Joe Saunders is...
- More On Scott Kazmir… Tristan H. Cockcroft of ESPN and his thoughts on Scott Kazmir from: ESPN Scott Kazmir, Los Angeles Angels: Pitch efficiency has always been a problem for Kazmir, but particularly so this season. Per Inside Edge, Kazmir has taken 24 percent of his plate appearances to three-ball counts, up from 21...
- Los Angeles Angels Off Season Report The Angels off-season began with the club trying to hold onto a couple of star free agents in Chone Figgins and John Lackey and very quickly went awry when Figgins signed with Seattle and Lackey signed with Boston... Not a good way to start the off-season but the Angels are...
- Is this The End Of Scott Shields? The Anaheim Angels were depending on a big return from one of their most dominant relief pitchers in the Scott Shields this season but things haven't gone exactly as planned... While Scott Shields has returned to the mound this season there's no mistaking that he's a mere fraction of himself...
- An Interesting Review Of The Angels Rotation Nathaniel Stoltz did an interesting review of the Angels rotation with a slide show over at Bleacher Report. Below are his final ratings: Jered Weaver B+ Ervin Santana B- Joe Saunders C+ Scott Kazmir B Joel Pineiro A- You can view the full post at Bleacher Report - Los Angeles...
- The Anaheim Angels Are Officially In Trouble A few days ago the Texas Rangers signed catcher Bengie Molina, who's a very good hitter in my book, and today we get news that the Texas Rangers have signed ace starting pitcher Cliff Lee away from the Seattle Mariners... It was bad enough that Vladimir Guerrero had to come...
- Did The Angels Make A Mistake Trading Away Vlad Guerrero? For a long time Vladimir Guerrero was a fan favorite of many Anaheim Angels supporters and when the Angels traded him away ths off-season the thought from most Angels fans was that Big Daddy Vladdy was done and that his best years were behind him... Fast forward a few months...
- It’s Official… Brandon Wood Is A Bust Brandon Wood is batting a whopping .102 with only five singles and zero RBI in 49 at bats and worst of all he's struck out 16 times in that span... I know the Anaheim Angels had high hopes for Brandon Wood but he seems clueless up there at the plate...
- Hunter, Saunders lead Angels past White Sox, 3-2 Torii Hunter hit a two-run homer and Joe Saunders pitched 7 2-3 strong innings to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night. Full article at: AP Another quality start by Joe Saunders is good news. That's three straight games where...
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