Boston's Bettah – A Boston Sports blog from guys that love Boston sports a little too much

At approximately 1:00 AM Sunday morning, sources with the Red Sox and the Athletics announced that the deal that would have sent Rich Harden to Boston for Lars Anderson was “dead” .

No one knows exactly why the deal died. The only speculation is that the deal died because of some injury situation with Rich Harden which isn’t unlikely.

Still, moving a prospect that won’t see the light of day in Boston for Rich Harden was not a terrible move, injuries non-withstanding.

Considering that Clay Buccholz is flying cross-country to see a back specialist, it would be nice if the Red Sox could find pitching help before the 4:00 PM deadline. The last name seemingly on the block is Erik Bedard.

~Benti

Rich Harden is on his way to the Red Sox rotation

According to sources with the Red Sox, the Boston Red Sox are about to acquire starting pitcher Rich Harden from the Oakland Athletics for 1B prospect Lars Anderson and a player to be named later.

Harden is 29 years old and is currently in a one year contract that he signed to return to the Oakland Athletics. He’s been dealt by the team in the past and it came during the best season of his career. in 2008 he posted a record of 10-2 with a 2.07 ERA and 1.06 WHIP. Since then, Harden could be described as “eh”. In 5 starts this season, he has a 4.30 ERA a WHIP of 1.1 and a FIP of 4.62.

The biggest issue that Rich Harden has had in his career is staying healthy. When he is healthy, he has the potential to be a very effective pitcher in baseball. He has shown the talent in the past to be a potential number 1 or number 2 starter, he has just suffered numerous injuries.

What the Red Sox are basically telling the fans is that the Clay Buchholz situation is a lot worse than we all thought. Clay’s back isn’t getting better anytime soon and the Red Sox felt they had to make a move in order to shore up the rotation. The second the Red Sox acquired Adrian Gonzalez over the winter, Lars Anderson became the most expendable prospect.In terms of the players given up, it’s a pretty low risk play by the Boston Red Sox and Becket/Lester/Harden sounds a hell of a lot better than Becket/Lester/Lackey.

My biggest fear is that the injuries have finally caught up with him and he is no where near the same pitcher he used to be. The stats back that up too. He hasn’t had a great season since 2008 and he had a terrible year in Texas last year posting a 5.58 ERA in 18 starts last year. On top of that, his FIP stood at an ungodly 6.31 last year. His 2010 season could have been even worse. For a Red Sox team looking to replace Clay Buchholz, this doesn’t seem like the right pitcher to get the job done.

Still, I keep coming back to the fact that when healthy, Rich Harden is extremely talented. When he was moved from Oakland to Chicago in 2008, he carried the Cubs to the post-season. Without him, they would never have reached October. Maybe there’s some of that magic left in Harden’s right arm.

This smells of another Theo Epstein reclamation project.

~Benti