Scouting Report: The Harangatang

In 2003, the Reds traded Jose Guillen to Oakland for Aaron Harang and a couple no names. At that juncture, the Reds were giving away one of their best young hitters in the middle of a breakout season for an unproven arm with a high ERA. Though at the time the deal seemed like a classic Reds manuever, trading away a good player in an effort to avoid paying the good player and in return recieveing a cluster of hopefuls, the deal miraculously worked. Flash forward five years--Jose is now a professional nutball who plagues every locker room he manifests and Aaron is a consummate leader and workhorse starting pitcher. Speaking of nutballs, the trade was made two days after Jim Bowden was canned. Why doesn't this surprise me?

Aaron Harang is a large man. He stands 6'7" and weighs 240 lbs. He will bend down to shake your tiny little hand. He will not, however, wear his emotions on his sleeve. A good example of this came last season when he went 6-17 with a 4.78 ERA and did not lose his shit even once. Many of us wish that Aaron didn't have a heart of gold (see Aaron's Aces), that he would lose his shit once in a while, I don't know, say August 16th, 2008 at home against those ass-sniffing St. Louis Cardinals when he surrendered 8 ER in 3.1 innings, including home runs by Ludwick, Schumaker and the destroyer of all things spherical, Mr. Pujols. Couldn't Aaron have at least thrown a glove or kicked the Gatorade cooler? How about intentionally throwing at the next batter, Rick Ankiel. Nobody likes that guy. Drill him right in the back, have him charge the mound, and then pick him up with one hand and bite his head off. We can assume that Aaron has freakish monster strength.

Last year was not Aaron's best year, his worst since his first full season with the Reds in 2004. From 2005-2007, he unassumingly built his reputation as one of the most consistently good pitchers in the NL. In 2007 he finished 4th in Cy Young voting despite leading the league in Wins and SOs, becoming the first pitcher ever not to win the award after leading the league in those two categories. Sad face.

STAT WATCH: The Harangatang will most likely be our opening day starter. He's #1, which means he needs to pitch like #1. The #1's on most other winning teams are lights out, shut the door, have a nice ride home. Aaron needs to be one of those guys. As I've said before, even in his good years, his ERA is still rather high (3.83, 3.76, 3.73). I'm not splitting hairs here. It's just, if he's our #1, it needs to be lower than that. Aaron needs to log 200 innings of 3.25 ERA baseball for the Reds to contend in the NL Central this year.