After
Aaron Harang spent three straight years as the best pitcher in baseball that no one noticed, people finally started to take notice of him after he finished fourth in the NL Cy Young voting at the end of 2007. Of course, he's promptly responded with his worst year since 2004 with his 3-11 record and 4.76 ERA. He's now headed for the disabled list and while there was some concern that he was seriously hurt,
his MRI came back today showing only a forearm strain. That left
Walt Jocketty feeling pretty positive about his ace's outlook:
"He won't be able to throw for at least a week, and then we'll build it back up," Reds general manager Walt Jocketty said. "It's one of those things we want to make sure he takes the time to let it heal so when he comes back, he's 100 percent. I expect after the two-week period, he would be ready to go."
As ugly as Harang's record and ERA are, he's still got very good strikeout numbers and his WHIP isn't astronomical (it's 1.40 at the moment). That means that he's probably had some bad luck on his way to 3-11. Given his struggles and the nature of his injury (I bet it's been nagging him for some time), this downtime is probably going to do him some good.
