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Whither Smith Should Harden Return?

Of course, it may never happen because Rich Harden needs to make two rehab starts without re-injuring himself for it to occur, but the Oakland A’s are potentially facing a tough predicament on May 11: namely, what to do with Greg Smith when Harden returns from the DL?

As of today, Smith is currently sitting ninth in the AL in ERA (2.73) and seventh in the AL in WHIP (1.06). He is holding AL batters to a .209 BA and he has averaged more than six innings a start in five outings. He also leads the AL in pick-offs. Assuming that Smith continues to pitch well during his next turn through the rotation, the A’s could be forced to send down one of the AL’s top pitchers thus far this season to make room for Harden.

It is an interesting predicament for Oakland to have. In terms of pure stuff, there is no question that Rich Harden is vastly superior to Greg Smith. In fact, in terms of pure stuff, Harden is probably vastly superior to all but maybe two or three pitchers in all of baseball. However, from a results perspective, it is going to be hard for Harden to match what Smith has done for the A’s thus far this season. In a best case scenario, Harden gives the A’s more than six innings a start and an ERA under 3.00, which is what Smith is already providing. In other words, as good as Harden is, he likely isn’t going to give the A’s much more production than what they are already receiving from Smith.

From a development perspective, sending Smith down to the minor leagues when he is pitching so well in the majors could be detrimental. There isn’t much that Smith has done wrong at the major league level thus far (he even tackled his first inning jitters well last night, which had been his biggest bugaboo to date), so there won’t be a lot he will be asked to work on in Triple-A. Asking a player simply to maintain what he has been doing in the big leagues can be risky. Smith is a tough competitor and a team player, but it will be hard for him to maintain that same level of excitement about pitching in Triple-A after having so much success at the big league level. It is just human nature.

Of course, there is also the question about whether Harden can even stay in the rotation for long once he returns. He barely made it through two starts earlier this year before going down with an injury. With the way the A’s rotation has been pitching, is it worth disrupting that rhythm for a player who may only join the rotation for a short period of time?

This is a difficult question and one that I don’t really have a good answer for. I am one of Rich Harden’s biggest fans. He is an electric pitcher to watch and someone who I still believe will one day win the AL Cy Young award. Given that the A’s have to make a decision about whether to pick-up Harden’s option at the end of this season, it probably makes sense for the A’s to run him out there as much as possible early this year to try to gauge what they have in Harden. Maybe if he stays healthy for a month or so, the A’s will be able to interest another team in trading for Harden.

Having too much pitching is never a bad problem to have, however. Hopefully the A’s can figure out a way to maximize their assets in a way that will both allow the team to continue to win and give Greg Smith the chance to continue to blossom into a solid major league starter.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 10:32 am and is filed under Injuries, Players, Transactions, Pitching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.