Chicago Cubs: Rich Harden Missing Ingredient, Better Than CC Sabathia

Earlier this season I wrote an opinion piece listing the players within the Cubs organization that I thought could possibly fill the fifth spot in the starting rotation, a position that seems to have been the missing piece to the North Side roster all season.

Two months, 27 Bleacher Report articles, and countless headaches every fifth game later, I can finally relax knowing that the spot has been filled with quality.

By now, Wrigley Field is buzzing about Chicago’s most recent trade, which brought Oakland’s number two starter, Rich Harden, and reliever Chad Gaudin to Wrigley Field in exchange for Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton, Eric Patterson, and catcher Josh Donaldson of Single-A Peoria.

This has the potential to be the best trade for the Cubs in a long while and is exactly what Chicago needed to assure that they will successfully defend their National League Central crown this year. Probably the best aspect of the trade is that the Cubs didn’t take any sort of hit in the transaction.

Gallagher was disappointing with a 3-4 record and a 4.45 earned run average and the only other spots for him were either in the Cub bullpen or in Triple-A Iowa.

Murton and Patterson each got a bit of action this summer in the absence of Alfonso Soriano. However, when Soriano gets healthy, the Cubs will have an outfield that will feature him, Kosuke Fukudome, Jim Edmonds, Reed Johnson, and possibly Mark DeRosa or Daryle Ward to cover days off.

The Cubs outfield right now is too competitive for either Murton or Patterson to be consistent starters anytime soon.

Donaldson won’t make too much a move. He will likely stay in Single-A. If he does, he will probably still play in the same state, Illinois, and the same league, the Midwest League, playing for Oakland’s Single-A Kane County Cougars. Kane County and Peoria will meet at Wrigley Field later this year.

In return, the Cubs will receive a 5-1 starter with a 2.34 ERA in 13 starts in Harden and a reliever with a 3.59 ERA in 26 games in Gaudin.

What’s more, Harden will be the youngest player in the Cub rotation. At 26, he is five months younger than Carlos Zambrano.

"We felt this guy is a legitimate high, high-end starter, and will add to the ball club we have,” general manager Jim Hendry told Major League Baseball. “It's not any secret that when he's out there, he's as good as it gets. There's certainly some risks, but very, very high reward.”

This deal drew a lot of hype as some suspect that the Cubs made the trade in response to the Brewers’ trade for CC Sabathia, who was pulled in the sixth inning of tonight’s game against Colorado with a 4-3 lead. Hendry said that the deal had been under discussion for weeks, but comparing Harden and Sabathia still makes for great conversation.

Harden, in terms of this year’s statistics, seems to be the obvious choice over Sabathia in every facet of the game except for how long he can stay in the game, which is something Lou Piniella has focused on all year. Harden averages 5.9 innings per start while Sabathia has gone 6.7 innings per start. Sabathia has three complete games this year.

Sabathia has a 3.83 ERA, 1.49 higher than Harden’s. Harden has given up less than half of the runs and hits that Sabathia has in only five fewer starts. He has also walked fewer batters.