7:17pm: The Braves have announced that Harang has agreed to a MLB deal with the club.
6:09pm: The Braves have agreed to sign pitcher Aaron Harang, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). Atlanta had been rumored to be interested in adding another arm after parting with veteran Freddy Garcia earlier today (per MLB.com's Mark Bowman, on Twitter).
Of course, Harang himself was let go by the Indians just hours ago after requesting his release. The soon-to-be-36-year-old had strong results in the spring, though he threw just 9 innings for Cleveland. Last year, pitching for the Mariners and Mets, Harang posted a 5.40 ERA in 143 1/3 innings. Before that, however, he put up two consecutive seasons of 170+ innings and earned run averages just over 3.60. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, advanced metrics pegged his value somewhere in the middle, with FIP, xFIP, and SIERA marks all falling above 4.00 but below 5.00 over the last three campaigns.
Well… I just don’t get this.
It was money driven. They blew their wad on Ervin. They can’t even afford the 1.5 mil that Garcia would have got if he made the roster.
It was more than money driven. It was “stuff” driven as well. Garcia has not been picking up any velocity at all this spring, still throwing in the mid-80s with his heat without pinpoint control, yes, it’s worked for the most part this spring but it’s not something anyone is going to bank on in the regular season. Harang meanwhile this spring has regained velocity that was missing last year, throwing in the low 90s. He’s a better gamble at this point than Garcia.
Gotta hope last year was just a fluke and not Harang reaching the end of his rope. His K/9 and BB/9 in 2013 were his best since 2009, but his HR/9 was terrible in some very big home ballparks. If the Braves are lucky he’ll bounce back a little bit and be a very average SP for the short amount of time they need him. It they aren’t lucky then I guess they’ll just continue to have very little depth.
Gotta hope last year was just a fluke and not Harang reaching the end of his rope. His K/9 and BB/9 in 2013 were his best since 2009, but his HR/9 was terrible in some very big home ballparks. If the Braves are lucky he’ll bounce back a little bit and be a very average SP for the short amount of time they need him. It they aren’t lucky then I guess they’ll just continue to have very little depth.
In 2011 & 2012, Harang wasn’t that bad of a pitcher at all. 3.64 ERA
in 2011 with The Padres. 3.61 ERA in 2012 with The Dodgers both with
more than 170 Innings lobbed in each of those two seasons. Last year was
a complete wreck for Harang pitching to a 5.40 ERA, but the recent
success in 2011 & 2012. Along with a sizable career of good starts
leads me to believe with some work he could be a real find. The Braves
now have 3 of the ugliest baseball players in the bigs: Freddie Freeman,
Dan Uggla, and Aaron Harang.
Dodgers and Padres play in maybe the most pitcher friendly stadiums in baseball. Hard to expect much from this signing.
Yeah I smell jobber mop up duty for him.
Was the jab at the end really necessary?
No, I was joking. I apologize to anyone who was offended. I am a huge Braves fan that I thought was just throwing a little humor in there. So again, Sorry.
Dude, its a joke, people. Lighten up. Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault people aren’t able to get over themselves anymore.
Watch your mouth about Freddie.
The beard hides his face
Okay, I apologize about that Barb at the end. I love Freddie Freeman as a player, and was just kidding.
Call out all the ugly young men that play baseball and have tons of money (or a sweet contract). Some of need to know these things.
Hard to think Harangatang is better than Freddy. He was frustrating to watch last year.
He’s cheaper
He’s not cheaper than someone that they could bring up from the minors, and the results would probably be the same.
Probably, but there’s more upside here than bringing someone up sadly or using a AAAA player
i think they just want a couple starts from someone, and he’s the lowest bidder. theyre always watching the innings on the younger arms pretty closely, so this is probably just a filler move to buy some time and ease the workload on a few guys.
Agreed, that is probably all they want. I know them and the Nats are going to be fighting for the division crown and it is probably going to come down to one or two games for the title, so I understand why they are doing it, I guess after seeing the Cards bring up a boatload of pitchers last year and it turned out ok, I am a little more on the side of using internal options.
I saw Harangatang TOO. *Melts*
Releasing Garcia and signing Harang is like taking off a dirty pair of underwear to put on another dirty pair of underwear.
…and saving $1.5 million
Which could go a long ways toward buying lots of new (and clean) underwear!
If you’re going to get rotten underwear, this is like getting it at Goodwill instead of Wal-Mart.
I’m not sure which I love more: your screen name, or that comment. Briscoe was one of the best characters on TV, maybe ever.
Harang is gonna get a lot less than the 1.5 Mil Fred was gonna get. That’s the reason right there.
Doesn’t hurt, the Braves have way more success with these types of signings than other teams.
Scouts have had Harang’s fastball at 92-93 this month. Harang’s avg. FB velo was 89.4 last year per fangraphs
Bad move releasing Garcia for Harang. Every team in the NL East hits well over .300 against him and all have high OPS over .800 against him. He has also been terrible of late too.
Why get rid of Garcia? this guy battled the best pitcher in baseball in your teams last game last year and was a class act when his bullpen blew the game for him. I guess I’m unclear why it looks like they’re replacing him with lurch, lol
they probably let freddy know that they weren’t going to keep him in the rotation once everyone else was ready, and out of courtesy released him at a time when he’s most likely to find a new job.
…that and $1.5 mill is a lot when you just blew your wad on Ervin
He’s starting to harang the curveball…..
Now they can harang the multitudes…