Ace for Sale?

To trade Rich Harden or not to trade Rich Harden....that would be the question for Billy Beane. The thing I like about Billy Beane is no one is off limits at any point in time. Playoff chances be damned, he keeps his eye on both the long term as well as the short term. One of the reasons he has been so successful is he knows his team's place in the market and operates accordingly. He will acquire players for a playoff push as long as he does not compromise his team's future and he will be more than happy to deal from a position of strength even if it reduces his team's chances at the playoffs that season. He will do that as long as the trade will bring more chances at winning it all in the future, which they generally do.

Harden would normally be a talent that is regarded as untradeable. He is one of the few guys that can be classified as a tier one ace in the mold of Johan Santana, Roy Halladay, Jake Peavy, Carlos Zambrano, and a select few others. However, given his unpredictable future and his past history, this may be one of the few times that an arm of his ilk is available prior to hitting free agency. Beane would certainly be risking missing out on a few Cy Young seasons of Harden, but he certainly would be extracting a handsome bounty for him. This is one of those classic cases where Beane would have to put value on the upside and downside of keeping Harden vs. upside and downside of trading him.

In the end, Beane might consider the downside of keeping him much worse than the downside of trading him. If he trades him and Harden gets healthy, he still has a premium outfielder (most likely) plus some other players/prospects contributing and he would be dealing from a relative position of strength and bolstering a weaker area. Conversely, a team like the Dodgers, Devil Rays, Angels, and Mets might feel like the risk of him not working out is far less than dealing a top prospect from a position of strength. For instance, Houston dealing Hunter Pence is probably not a great move considering their dearth of position/outfield prospects considering the risk whereas a team like the Mets could put a package together around a blue chip outfielder and not blink twice.

If he gets traded, there won't be much of a discount. Figure on an A prospect being coupled with a B/B+ and more being what it takes. It will certainly be enticing enough to assume that type of risk because this guy is one of the few players out there with true ace ability and one of the fewer ones locked up at his age for that type of money. This is going to be an interesting one to monitor.

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Mark Prior had season ending surgery and it seems like things are never going to get better for him. If ever I thought anyone was a sure fire hall of famer from the start, I thought it was him. Crazy stuff happens and especially to young pitchers, which is why Billy Beane might ultimately try and trade Harden for someone who does not make their living off their arm.

How not to talk trash...

'My name is Josh Hamilton and I'm addicted to drugs.'

For one, you should have some more couth than to even attack Josh in that area. Second, it is probably a dumb idea to start yelling out true things.

'My name is Josh Hamilton and I have tattoos on my arm.'
'My name is Josh Hamilton and I have two eyes, two ears, and a mouth.'

Umm...yeah. He does.

"Funny story," he said. "When I went to right, a guy yelled, 'My name is Josh Hamilton and I'm addicted to drugs.' I looked at him, smiled, nodded my head and said, 'Yes, tell me something I don't know, dude.' The guy said, 'That's awesome. You're my new favorite player.'"

Having someone heckle that is really bad at heckling certainly rivals someone who is a bad dirty talker in bed. It reminds of the Seinfeld dirty talk episode when he asks his girlfriend if her mom laid her panties out for her.

I wish I was creative enough to make this this up. Of course, the guy had to be from Jersey.

"It was just a group of doctors that were traveling throughout the city going from bar to bar," a Melbourne police spokeswoman told a local TV station.

The red-white-and-blue-clad "captain" allegedly staggered up to a woman, pointed out the Mexican delicacy in his spandex pants and grabbed her in a private place.

While we are on non-baseball topics (stemming from yesterday's swellicious commenting as well), there are two types of men in this world in my opinion. Guys who powder their balls and guys who do not power their balls. Now, there are people who swear by Gold Bond for the tingly sensation it provides, but I have to highly recommend the Johnson & Johnson Vanilla and Jasmine. Your significant other will be like, "Hmmm...is that vanilla...no wait...is that jasmine?". To which you can respond, "that's vanilla and jasmine.". Really, it's a well orchestrated symphony of smells when the J&J Vanilla and Jasmine is in the mix.

Link courtesy of DG...

Lastings has done some growing up and knows his place in the universe.

"Eventually, you know I'm going to be there (the majors)," he said. "I don't know when. That's good. They talked to me a lot. They know what the future holds for me here.

"A lot of organizations don't tell you anything. You just have to wait for something to happen. The only thing you can control is your numbers and what you do on the field and off the field. I control my game and what I do on the field. Everybody else does their job."

Not only does he get it, it seems like the organization is handling it's prospects will with an open line of communication.

"More than anything, we're entertainers," Milledge said. "More than anything, people watch this game because of the entertainment. That's what I am. I'm an entertainer. That's how I see myself.

"Some people have problems with that, but that's how I see myself."

He also seems to get the grand scheme of baseball, which is essentially a form of entertainment.

Cole Hamels appears to be human.

"I want to stay in New York, no matter what."

I wonder if he is probably pretty sure he wants to stay in New York. Why A-Rod would say such a thing is beyond me and precisely why he irritates people. Why even touch the topic? Boras is going to make him opt out and really, it makes sense for him. He'll get to sign a contract into his late 30's. It is a slight risk for him and he cannot overestimate the market, but it is safe to say he would do pretty well for himself and the Angels have long been rumored as possible suitors despite the fact they have an extreme strength in the area of infield depth.

David Wright is not the only guy who is starting slow. It happens...

Gary Thorne says the bloody sock was staged. I cannot believe that it was as the Red Sox were too busy trying to win games. Could they have done it for PR reasons or even a distraction? I suppose so, but I highly doubt it. This story is a HUGE non-story.

Phil Hughes had a rough outing as the Yankees dropped their sixth straight.

Minor League Update:

• Victor Diaz and Desi Relaford led the charge for Oklahoma as they beat up on Jason Bostick and the Zephers. Carlos Gomez went 1 for 2 with a double, two RBIs, and three walks.
  
  
• Fernando went 2 for 7 with an RBI and Mike Carp went 0 for 5 with a walk in Binghamton's loss to New Hampshire.
  
  
• Bobby Parnell had another nice start against Brevard County. Parnell went five innings and gave up two hits, one run, no earned runs, and two walks while striking out six.
  
  
• Daniel Stegall went 2 for 4 with a double, an RBI, and a walk in Savannah's win over Rome.