MLB Oakland

When I first found out yesterday that the Oakland Athletics had traded Rich Harden to the Cubs, my first reaction was "Why?" I didn't even know who Oakland had gotten in return from the Cubs, and already the deal didn't make that much sense to me. Then I heard who the A's got, and the deal made even less sense to me.

Don't get me wrong, I think Matt Murton has the potential to flourish in Oakland as he's finally found an organization that can appreciate what he's capable of (Matt has struggled this season, but does still have a career OPS of .810 without ever getting regular playing time), and Sean Gallagher could end up being a very effective pitcher for the Athletics. Eric Patterson is probably just an insurance plan should Mark Ellis not re-sign with the team after the season, as the A's are pretty thin at second base in the minors, and I don't know anything about John Donaldson.

But why now, Billy Beane? Why pull the trigger on this deal when your team is only five games out of first place in the AL West, and only 3.5 behind Boston for the wild card? There is no way that Beane can honestly think his team has a better shot at making the playoffs this season without Rich Harden.

Yet, while on the surface this deal makes absolutely no sense to me, I also realize that Beane knows what he's doing and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's just tired of being held hostage by Harden's injury history and is tired of having to build a team around a pitcher who may or may not be available at any given time. If you look at Beane's history of letting his pitchers go, he seems to have great timing, as Mark Mulder and Barry Zito have never been the same since leaving the bay area.

It's still way too early to tell if this was a mistake or not, but I have to say, at the moment I don't think this was one of Beane's finest moment.

Just days after the Brewers made a splash by trading for CC Sabathia, the Cubs countered by acquiring an ace of their own, picking up Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the A's in exchange for Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, Matt Murton, minor leaguer Josh Donaldson and ... wait, that's it? Whoa. Advantage: Cubs.

Harden is obviously a huge injury risk, but no one can dispute that he's one of the most dominant pitchers in the game when healthy. In 13 starts he's been one of the best in the AL this year, posting a 2.34 ERA (1.14 WHIP) while averaging better than 10.7 strikeouts per nine.

And while Gaudin is clearly an afterthought, he's not all that bad himself, capable of eating innings from the bullpen or starting rotation.

What did it cost Chicago? Some intriguing prospects, sure, but absolutely nothing in terms of players capable of helping the Cubs win today.

Oakland Athletics pitcher Justin Duchscherer had always been a valuable player for the A's coming out of the bullpen, even making the All Star team in 2005 as it's lone representative, but now that he's made the transition to starting he'd like to cash in on some of that value. Justin leads all of baseball with his 1.96 ERA, and his pitching this season is a big reason why the A's are so successful this season.

So, if you're reading, Billy Beane, your boy would like to talk new contract.

"I mentioned to my agent (Dan Horwits) that I'd like him to talk to Billy," Duchscherer said. "I like it in Oakland. I'd like to stay here. It's not up to me, but I would like to get three years."

It's hard to blame Duchscherer for wanting a new deal at this point. He's 30 years old now, and has been playing professional baseball since he was 18 and he's never had a contract longer than a year. I'm sure some security would be nice for him.

Justin also pointed out that 16-year old Michael Inoa--recently signed by Oakland--has already made more money in his signing bonus than Justin has in his entire career. Beane has been told of Duchscherer's desire to talk deal, and said that if he continues to pitch like he has so far then "it's probably something we could pursue."

In recent weeks there had been plenty of teams who were interested in the services of 16-year old Dominican pitcher Michael Inoa. The 6'7 prospect has had scout salivating for a while now, and organizations were lining up for the chance to add him to their team. Well, when it was all said and done and Inoa was allowed to sign with somebody, he ended up choosing the Oakland Athletics.

As details came out about the signing, other teams (like the Rangers and Reds) found out that even though they offered Inoa more money, he still chose the Athletics over them. This didn't make sense to these other teams, so in their minds, the only logical explanation is that Oakland cheated and signed Inoa before the deadline. Now it looks like MLB will be taking a look into the deal.

Adam Katz, Inoa's agent, would not discuss the offer from Texas (or a reportedly larger offer from Cincinnati), but he said the A's did not sign Inoa until the 12:01 a.m. EDT deadline Wednesday.

"There was no contract before the deadline," Katz told The Chronicle on Sunday. "Absolutely not. Billy (Beane) and the team followed all the rules carefully. Billy and I were both very aware how high profile (Inoa) is."

Personally, I don't think Oakland did anything wrong here. I mean, maybe Inoa and his agent chose a smaller offer from the A's because they've seen the success Oakland has had in developing young pitchers. You know, guys like Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito (he used to be good Giants fans, I swear), Dan Haren, and now Rich Harden and Justin Duchscherer.

Needless to say, the Rangers and Reds don't have the same kind of history. Well, the Rangers can develop good pitching, they just trade it all away before it's ready for the bigs. Just ask John Danks and Edinson Volquez.

So now that the Brewers have traded for C.C. Sabathia, one has to wonder what move, if any, the Chicago Cubs are going to make to counter it. After all, a top of the rotation that features Ben Sheets and Sabathia is quite formidable, and the Brewers are currently constructed are more than capable of making up the 3.5 game gap between themselves and the top of the division.

So what are the Cubs going to do to answer Milwaukee's challenge? Word out of Chicago is that general manager Jim Hendry has been talking to Billy Beane a lot lately, and the topic of their conversation is not the weather, but rather what it would take to get Rich Harden in a Cubs uniform.

While this move would make a lot of sense for the Cubs if they could pull it off, I wouldn't exactly plan on seeing it happen anytime soon. First of all, Beane has showed us in his recent deals for Dan Haren and Nick Swisher that if you want one of his top players, you better have a truckload of prospects to send back his way. I'm not sure the Cubs have enough players who would qualify as somebody Beane would be interested in taking.

Then there's the fact that while Harden was on the block at the beginning of the season, that was because everybody expected the A's to suck this season, including Billy Beane. The fact that they're only six games out of first place right now will probably cause Beane to hold off on pulling the trigger on this deal. Though if Oakland falls out of it by the trading deadline, then all bets are off.

Oakland Athletics third baseman Eric Chavez missed the first two months of the 2008 season thanks to surgery he had on his shoulder last November, and now after playing in 23 games for the A's, Chavez's shoulder has put him back on the disabled list.

"It's frustrating," said Chavez. "I just want to get to the point where I can get out there and know I can be a productive player, and right now I'm not."

In the press release announcing the Chavez move, the A's said his right shoulder surgery in November 2007 was "to repair a torn labrum." Chavez, 30, said the surgery "didn't fix anything."

"They just went in and cleaned it up. Nothing was repaired."

The signs that Eric was going to be placed back on the DL have been apparent since the weekend when Chavez sat out the A's entire series against the Giants. He played in the first two games of the Angels series, but did so as a designated hitter since hitting doesn't hurt his shoulder nearly as much as throwing.

Whether or not Chavez is going to need to undergo another surgery isn't known yet, but he did undergo an MRI on it earlier today. Obviously, if he has to go back under the knife, his 2008 campaign is over. The team has called up first baseman Wes Bankston from Sacramento to take Eric's place on the roster.

The Oakland A's have been known for many things in the Billy Beane era, chief among them their distaste for spending big money on players. That appears to have changed with the news that they've agreed to a deal with 16-year old Dominican pitcher Michel Inoa. When the international signing period opens on Wednesday, they're expected to announce that they've given him a record $4.25 million signing bonus to join the Oakland organization.

The A's had never spent more than $350,000 on an international player before but Inoa is 6'7", 210 pounds, throws in the 90s and is described as rather polished for such a young pitcher. That's enough to get you a record bonus but don't presume that he's a future star. The previous record bonuses went to Willy Mo Pena and Joel Guzman. The former is a marginal pro while Guzman has a 689 OPS at Tampa's AAA affiliate. The previous record for a pitcher was Ricardo Aramboles, who pitched 10 games above A ball.

The deal doesn't come without a bit of controversy. Baseball America reports that Inoa's Dominican buscon, scout essentially, had agreed to a $2.7 million deal with the Yankees but U.S. agent Adam Katz was brought into the deal and upped the price. The Yankees pulled out of bidding after Katz reneged on their agreement, leaving the somewhat unlikely trip of the A's, Rangers and Reds to duke it out.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

New York Yankees (43-37) at New York Mets (39-40) - 3:55 PM ET

Now that the dual stadium doubleheader is done, the Yankees and Mets can go back to the normal over-hype that the Subway Series entails, and not have to worry about the added pressure of police escorts between stadiums and such. But here's some worry: Johan Santana, who matches up with Andy Pettitte today, is 7-6 with a batting average against of .249, and a WHIP of 1.22. Not bad. But consider that Santana has never had a half a season, whether it be before the all-star break or after it, where his BAA and WHIP have been nearly that high. So even by Santana's first half standards, it's been an off half-year for Johan. Stuck near .500 after 79 games, the Mets could use the second half Santana to make an appearance at Shea today.

Oakland Athletics second baseman Mark Ellis is slated to become a free agent after this season since he's in the final year of a three-year deal he signed with Oakland back in 2006. He's never been the type of player to carry a team or anything, but generally, he's the type of player any GM would have as their second baseman.

I mean, he's no Chase Utley or anything, but he gives you solid offensive production and has one of the best gloves of any second sacker in the game today. Odds are that if he were to hit the market this off-season, he could pull in anywhere from $6-$10 million a season from a team that sees him as a nice alternative to Orlando Hudson (who should be the most sought after free agent second baseman this winter).

Unfortunately for anybody who was hoping to sign him, it doesn't look like he's going to be available.

Ellis is in the final year of a three-year contract, and he isn't all that interested in leaving Oakland, so he's encouraged that his agent, Jamie Murphy, recently started talking with A's assistant general manager David Forst about an extension.

"It's only been a couple of conversations, so we'll see where it goes from there," Ellis told MLB.com on Wednesday before the second game of a three-game Interleague series against the visiting Phillies at McAfee Coliseum. "But it's nice we're talking."

The Athletics are just as interested in keeping Ellis around as well, because even though they just drafted second baseman Jemile Weeks in the first round of the draft, the team could move him to the outfield. After Weeks, the A's don't have any other real prospects at second, so keeping Ellis would be ideal.

Remember all those moons ago when the baseball season kicked off in Japan? The Red Sox and Athletics played that two game series a week before the regular season started for everybody else, the Japanese crowds loved it, and the baseball players begrudgingly went along. It was all peaches and cream!

Well, not exactly. After all, the whole thing was nearly cancelled when the Red Sox refused to make the trip if their coaching staff wasn't paid the same $40,000 that every player on both the teams were supposed to get for playing in the series. Thankfully, the whole thing was resolved, and the games were played.

There's still one tiny problem, though, because according to Oakland's Huston Street, the A's still haven't gotten paid yet.

Street, the team's player representative, said he was told by an official in his most-recent conversation with the major-league office that the checks won't be issued until the beginning of July. The players were under the impression that the money would arrive months sooner, and Street even recruited help from the A's brass to expedite a response from MLB.

"When you're talking about thousands of dollars, the guys expect me to know what's going on, and I take a lot of pride in it," Street said. "I'm sure it's frustrating for a guy who isn't in the majors anymore and is waiting on the check, instead of a guy who is in my (financial) position."

Nobody on the Red Sox has said anything on the subject, so I'm not sure whether they've been paid or not, but I'm guessing they're in the same boat. If not, well, then Bud Selig would have some serious explaining to do.

I'm sure Bud has a pretty good reason for not paying the players yet, though, as he probably found a really good deal on some baby blood and he had to dip into the MLB coffers for it. That stuff is expensive you know, but oh so sweet.