ESPN.com piece on our new boy

[David]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=3482096

 

Rich Harden is an elite pitcher. He rarely loses. He can throw in the high 90s. He has a changeup that's complicated to pick up. He electrifies fans and teammates with his stuff and his strut. The man is fun to watch. For the most part, all he does is win.

 

When he's out there.

 

With Harden, that's always the issue.

 

When he's out there, he can be an ace on a lot of staffs. When he's out there, his team knows it's a good bet the result will be a victory.

 

"You have to figure out what works for yourself," Harden said. "For me, it's everything from my warm-up to my treatment to my workouts and everything in between. You have to figure out what you need to do on a daily basis to feel good and stay out there."

 

The A's were extremely cautious with Harden this year. He limited his on-the-mound work between starts, instead throwing mostly off flat ground. He all but disposed of his split-fingered fastball, a pitch that has ruined many an arm. He no longer reaches with his bare hand for comebackers, something that twice shelved him in the past.

 

Harden credited his recent sturdiness in part to Ron Romanick, who's in his first season as the A's bullpen coach after serving as the minor-league roving pitching instructor for nine years. They've had a close relationship since Harden signed out Central Arizona Junior College in 2001, but this is the first year Romanick helped oversee Harden's activities between starts.

 

"He really knows his stuff, and he really knows the way I throw and my mechanics," Harden said. "He came up with my throwing program, which limits the throws between starts and limits the stress on my arm. He made me realize you don't need to throw a ton of pitches to be ready."

 

Hopefully, the Cubs keep him on the same plan he's been on up till now this season.

Edited July 11, 2008 by David

[bcl412]

Well since Dusty left Wood's been healthy.

[David]

Also, the CubsFX report on Harden. Don't know if anybody has posted this yet.

 

 

http://www.cubsfx.com/2008/07/new-guy-fx-rich-harden.html

 

Rich Harden is an excellent pitcher. Outstanding. I'm just looking at this starts from 2008, at home in Oakland, from May 28th onward. He was on the DL after a couple April starts, came back May 23 in Oakland. The PITCHf/x data doesn't quite fit with the other home games after that one, so I just excluded it under the guise/rationalization of it being a transitional game for him.

 

With what I had left, I find two clusters, one which contains what are probably two pitches - mostly fastballs, but also some change-ups. His speed tends to increase as the game moves on, so it makes it a little tricky to pick out change-ups. I only picked eight out of 452 pitches. There are other candidates, but the eight stood out, within the specific game and amongst the sample.

 

He throws really hard, and the slider appears to be utterly devastating. Sure, I'm only looking at 171 of them, but the whiff rate over 47% is insane.

 

 

Also, looks like Jon got a question in there for us. Maybe we'll find out after all about the PitchFX reading ambiguity with the slider/changeup.

[Jon]

Yeah, I was hoping to hear something back and then post it. But if that's his changeup, that's one hell of a change.

[GoCubsGo1679625768]

Romanick served as a security blanket to Harden, a key confidante, but he wasn't part of the trade, unfortunately for Harden. Now it's up to the Cubs' coaching staff and trainers to keep up with the program.

 

Well Rich, your screwed.........