At All About Hitting we have targeted a top prospect of old, professional baseball player Mr. Rich Harden, you remember him right? He’s part of the ‘nine pitches for three outs club’.

Now this baseball player hasn’t gotten the attention required or needed because of injury concerns and not performance issues. Encase you don’t remember last year’s deadline, professional baseball team the Boston Red Sox were going to trade Lars Anderson to the athletics for Harden to usher them along down the home stretch. The Boston Red Sox Doctors had made the decision that Harden’s shoulder wasn’t going to be able to make if through the rest of the season so instead the Red Sox gobbled up Erik Bedard.

Harden however, was still able to finish his season with the Athletics, with 10 starts of the last two months. Meanwhile the WL Record (2-3) and ERA (5-57) weren’t that great for him making the starts, add a K/9 of 10+, but still tells professional baseball fans that he’s got mustard left.

Here’s the thing, since Harden’s career started he has still been able to strike people out. He has continuously sat in the 9-10 K/9 range through his career, deduct a 7.41 K/9 in TX in 2010. Rich is pretty much a two-pitch pitcher at this point, and a fastball sitting in the low 90s, and a change to compliment at about a 10 mph difference. Harden previously relied on a slider for outs but barely dusts it in now due to shoulder pain.

His right shoulder has been the main source of  grief for the 30-year-old over his career. He has missed 318 games due to this, (according to Baseball Prospectus) and during the offseason before 2010 baseball began, it was found that he has a tear in that shoulder; a tear that could be fixed with surgery, but was slight enough where physical therapy could strengthen it. Harden never had the surgery, due to pending free agency and faith in Western healing.

If you look at Rich’s usage over the past two seasons, he has been used primarily as a starter, with 33 out of his 35 appearances being starts. He’s averaged 5.21 IP/GS over that period, which is pretty low. I think everybody knows this guy needs to move to the pen. He is no longer in a position where he has a ton of leverage in the professional baseball free-agent market, and he’s on the bad side of 30. It’s time to open up to the possibility of jogging to the pitcher’s mound every other day. If you look at his numbers, and his injury history, you can tell that this guy can be more effective in intermittent blips. Keeping him in the pen could help that shoulder stay attached over the course of a season.

In an optimal situation, I would sign Harden under the premise that he is a 6/7 inning guy. He can bridge the gap for a starter who’s thrown too many pitches through five. If the occasion arises, he spot starts. You count on him for no more than 80-100 innings.

He was worth 0.7 WAR in 2011 according to Baseball Reference, so assuming similar production in 2012, he should be worth somewhere in the middle of $2-3 million dollars. Fortunately for his future team, they won’t be on the hook for nearly as much. He profited $1.5 million last year, and with the injury risk, dwindling returns due to age and current market factors, sadly he’s due for a pay cut. On market factors, look at Carlos Pena; the guy added an extra win of worth when you compare his ’10 and ’11 seasons, yet he was forced to take a  $2 million dollar pay cut to re-sign with the Rays.

With the the contract that Harden would deserve, this is the low risk/high upside type move that a lot of professional baseball general managers should enjoy making. Keep an eye out for Harden to come off the baseball board very soon, and for some professional baseball team to be gladly rewarded during 2012.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-mets-financialconsultant

“Mets Limited Partnership engaged CRG Partners to provide services in connection with financial reporting and budgeting processes,” the team said in a statement late Thursday, responding to a report by SBNation.

On Friday, the Mets added on their Twitter account: “To be clear: CRG’s services aren’t bankruptcy-related. There are no bankruptcy services being provided by anyone.”

The Mets have been trying to raise $200 million through the sale of $20 million non-controlling shares following the collapse of a deal last summer with hedge fund manager David Einhorn. They also owe $25 million to Major League Baseball, a loan whose repayment was extended from November until March; and $40 million to Bank of America.

General manager Sandy Alderson said last month the team lost $70 million, although he didn’t put a timeframe on the losses.

The trustee recovering money for victims of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, Irving Picard, originally sought $1 billion from the Mets’ owners, claiming they should have known millions they collected from Madoff represented phony profits. Owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz have denied the claims in lengthy litigation.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed nine of 11 counts on Sept. 27, limiting the exposure of the Mets’ ownership to about $386 million. A trial is scheduled to start March 19.