From Start to Finish, Diamondbacks Struggle With Dan Haren Dealings

Here at West Coast Bias, we found Sunday's trade of No. 1 starting pitcher Dan Haren from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim notable for several reasons.

• For all of the good work Haren did for the Diamondbacks, the bigger story is that Arizona overpaid to get him from the Oakland Athletics in late 2007, and many of the exciting assumptions about where the franchise was going subsequently went up in smoke. Josh Byrnes, in dealing for Haren and making other moves that same month, was unable to hit the kind of home run that his predecessor in Arizona, Joe Garagiola Jr., slammed in July 2000 when he made a similar go-for-it blockbuster move for Curt Schilling.

I talked to Garagiola on Monday, and he had some interesting things to say (see below) about the Schilling trade.

• The Diamondbacks are pinning their hopes on two Single-A pitchers who are coming to them from Anaheim, left-handers Patrick Corbin and Tyler Skaggs (Skaggs, by most accounts, is the player to be named later). Single-A is awfully far from the majors, especially in light of Arizona's pre-trade comments about getting a big haul for Haren, 29.

• Haren is the trade's biggest winner. The Californian returns to the Golden State and joins a perennial contender, while leaving behind a hitter-friendly home ballpark and a last-place club that's cutting payroll at a time when its farm system appears thin. Haren must be happy that he didn't go to the rugged AL East.

• If Haren (7-8, 4.60 ERA) is merely in a semi-slump and rebounds to pitch to his career norms, the Angels have one of the 15 best starters in baseball at a reasonable price ($12.75 million salary) for two more years after this season. If his recent returns are a preview of what Haren is morphing into, it's uh-oh time in Anaheim.

The Angels already have one fallen ace with a bloated salary -- Scott Kazmir (7-9, 6.92). He is due $12 million next year. Haren's impressive career track record and still formidable strikeout-walk ratio (4.9-to-1) argue for future success. Pitching for the hopeless D'backs could've dulled Haren's competitive edge. However, scouts say he isn't the ace that he was. They don't see the same deception between his fastball and split-fingered fastball that made him so good in the past.

• A few folks in baseball are saying the D'backs pulled the trigger a bit early, while acknowledging that the $29 million offloaded is a considerable feat. One exec who was kinder about the deal than others, rating it a B-minus for Arizona, wondered why the club didn't allow Haren to make another start. "That was odd," he said.



Back to Garagiola and July 2000, and the parallel with Byrnes in December 2007.

Before each blockbuster trade, the Diamondbacks were coming off a division-winning season and believed that a World Series title could be theirs by pairing a stellar starting pitcher with an ace already on the roster.

Garagiola obtained Schilling from the Phillies and slotted him behind left-hander Randy Johnson. Haren assumed the No. 2 spot behind Brandon Webb.

Schilling would give Arizona two monster seasons, the first of which culminated in a World Series championship. He later was dealt to the Red Sox for young pitching, a move that would heavily tilt toward Boston.

Monday, Garagiola explained why Schilling was so alluring despite being 33 and nagged by shoulder issues, and why Garagiola's boss at the time, Jerry Colangelo, urged him to make a go-for-broke move.

"I thought a chance of pairing Curt with Randy would give us a big 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation that every team hopes they get," said Garagiola, now Major League Baseball's senior vice president of baseball operations. "When you've got two really quality pitchers on the top of the rotation, the biggest thing that does is it really maximizes your chances of staying out of a long losing streak. That kind of punch keeps you out of the back-breaking, eight-out-of-nine streak."

The D'backs had gone 100-62 in 1999. They were in the midst of piling up millions of dollars in debt in deferred player salary. It wasn't a time to play it safe. Colangelo told Garagiola he didn't want the D'backs to regret not doing everything they could to go from playoff contender to World Series champion.

A few folks in baseball are saying the D'backs pulled the trigger a bit early. One exec who was kinder about the deal than others, rating it a B-minus for Arizona, wondered why the club didn't allow Haren to make another start. "That was odd," he said. "We knew we were paying an expensive price to get Curt," Garagiola said. "We knew we had a competitive team in place, and a rotation anchored by an all-time great, and Jerry's feeling was, when you have an opportunity to win, you go for it . Because you never know. You never know when you're going to be there again."

As it turned out, the price wasn't so expensive. To get Schilling, Garagiola dealt first baseman Travis Lee and three pitchers -- Vicente Padilla, Omar Daal and Nelson Figueroa. While the pitchers lived up to expectations for the most part, Lee became a bust.

"Travis Lee was certainly a key guy at the time," Garagiola said. "I think everybody thought Travis Lee was going to be a big star for a long time, and if you watched him play, boy, you had to think that."

Forgotten now is that the early returns from Schilling were less than dazzling. Schilling went 5-6 with a 3.69 ERA, and because his pitches weren't all that lively, his strikeouts declined. When they acquired Schilling, the Diamondbacks were 56-44. They ended up finishing third in 2000.

But Schilling wasn't concerned. He told Garagiola that he would be much better in 2001 because he would have a full offseason to train. Entering the 2000 season, his recovery from a shoulder procedure had cut short his preparations.

"I can vividly remember Curt telling me 100 percent: 'Don't worry about next year, I'm going to show you who I am next year,'" Garagiola said.

It would be hard to overstate what Schilling meant to the Diamondbacks. Or what the Diamondbacks achieved. Arizona won the 2001 World Series in seven games over a Yankees team that was attempting to win its fourth straight Fall Classic and fifth in six years.

It remains the only World Series title won by an NL West club since divisional realignment in 1994.

Aside from pitching extremely well, Schilling chewed up an NL-best 256 2/3 innings in 2001. He was at his best in the postseason, going 4-0 with a 1.12 ERA.

History would not repeat itself, however, when Arizona got Haren in December 2007.

The Diamondbacks were coming off a trip to the NLCS. And because so many of Arizona's starters were in their 20s, along with closer Jose Valverde, who led the NL in saves that year, Byrnes and club CEO Jeff Moorad had reason to believe that Haren could strengthen a burgeoning power for years to come. If the Diamondbacks were a bit lucky in 2007, winning the NL West despite allowing more runs than they scored, they also had youth on their side and a farm system that made Byrnes popular with fellow GMs.

Aiming high, Byrnes made three trades in 2007. He ended with gunpowder burns on his face.

The biggest trade was for Haren, a stellar pitcher who was entering his prime and affordably priced.

Bottom line, it didn't work out despite the strong returns that Haren would provide in 2008-09. A's GM Billy Beane got for Haren an impressive bundle of young talent: Outfielders Carlos Gonzalez and Aaron Cunningham, left-handed pitchers Brett Anderson, Dane Eveland and Greg Smith and slugging first baseman Chris Carter.

Unfortunately for Byrnes and Arizona, the Haren trade wasn't the only trade the club made in December 2007.

The Diamondbacks sold low by dealing a future All-Star outfielder, Carlos Quentin, to the White Sox for Carter. In the same month, Byrnes sent Valverde to the Astros for Chad Qualls, Chris Burke and Juan Gutierrez.

That's a lot of talent out the door in one month.

Choosing to eat millions of dollars in salary, Arizona fired Byrnes this month and replaced him with GM assistant Jerry DiPoto, who engineered the swap with the Angels.