I'm taking my post from the game thread, I don't want to clog that up anymore as I'm trying to follow the game as well.
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Harang's getting paid that money regardless. We can't just say *poof* I want a top line starter, Aaron you're not getting paid anything the rest of the year.
If we get a top line starter, the team trading him won't take Harang back.
So if you assume you're paying Harang for the rest of the year regardless, you pitch the guy who gives you the best chance to win on a given night. Now again Harang had a horrible April and has pitched markedly better since May. Leake had a fabulous April and May and has pitched okay since then.
So if you're trying to figure out who's going to have the best next month, or two months- do you a) Take the guy who's been pitching better for the last month, has a history of throwing 200 innings, and has been pretty reliable for years- or b) Take the rookie pitcher who has no history, has been beaten around a little bit in the past month, is roughly 5-6 starts from hitting his highest innings pitched for the year?
Now there's obviously an added benefit to getting Leake some more starts to build him up for next year, Harang's of no value to the Reds come October 31, but based solely on who's going to give us the best chance to win a game, I'm taking Harang every time.