Braves Sign Aaron Harang
By Fred Owens
The Braves signed starting pitcher Aaron Harang today after letting Freddy Garcia walk. What’s the difference? Who knows? Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
The revolving door that is the last week in March for baseball players on the bubble opened to let Freddy Garcia leave and stayed open long enough to let Aaron Harang in.
Out With The Old In With The Not Quite That Old
As Alan wrote earlier today the Braves release of Garcia (37) was a shock to some but the signing of Harang (36) has to be an ever bigger one. Garcia made it clear he wasn’t riding anymore team buses so being told it would be Gwinnett he opted out of his contract. Harang told the Indians the same thing earlier today. On paper their isn’t much difference between the two pitchers.
| 2013 | ERA | IP | FIP | WHIP | H/9 | HR/9 | BB/9 | SO/9 | SO/BB | ||
| Harang | 5.40 | 4.79 | 1.347 | 9.6 | 1.6 | 2.5 | 7.1 | 2.83 | |||
| Garcia | 4.37 | 5.49 | 1.245 | 9.3 | 2 | 1.9 | 5.2 | 2.71 | |||
| 2104 ST | ERA | IP | FIP | WHIP | H/9 | BB/9 | SO/9 | SO/BB | BA | OPS | Babip |
| Harang | 2.00 | 9 | N/A | 1.111 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 3 | .222 | .569 | .267 |
| Garcia | 4.76 | 17 | N/A | 1.176 | 7.4 | 3.2 | 7.4 | 2.33 | .212 | .611 | .255 |
| 2013…………… | GB% | LD% | FB% | ||||||||
| Harang | 36% | 19.7 | 44.3 | ||||||||
| Garcia | 43.4 | 24 | 32.6 |
Last year their numbers were very close and only FIP gave the edge to Harang. .Spring training numbers are notoriously useless for pitchers but watching Garcia this year it appeared his control wasn’t where it once was and control is all the Chief had going for him. Harang on the other hand appeared to be having a good spring but the Indians had enough depth at the major league level without him
That’s a Wrap
This appears to be a swap of dull knives. Neither Garcia or Harang would have been a rotation guy this season and Garcia’s work from the bullpen would have given him the edge for me. The Braves saw it differently and really there’s no argument to be made for keeping Chief beyond his playoff game last year and that was as much luck as anything. If Harang told the Braves he would go to Gwinnett if needed that might have been a deciding factor as well. There’s a lot of churn in the 25th man type player market now and because Harang is here today doesn’t mean he will still be here in a month. With Mike Minor and Gavin Floyd both ahead of schedule and better bullpen options around – the Braves had a look at former Blue Jay lefty reliever Luis Perez today – this is likely not last movement we’ll see in the next two weeks