| | |
Well, another season comes to an end. Time to pack it all up and start watching football, I suppose.
OH WAIT! This year is different! I forgot! We get to watch more baseball!!!!
The story of today's game will be a farewell to Aaron Harang. I know there are some Reds fans who don't particularly like Harang anymore, but I hope that since this game doesn't matter, and since he's still likely to get shellacked, people will just forget what he did the last three seasons and remember how good he was from 2005 to May 25, 2008. Much like Mario Soto, Harang's best years were spent on bad teams. And much like Soto, when the team finally became successful, he was spent. I once thought that Harang would be starting game one the next time the Reds went to the playoffs. Now I can't see any justifiable reason why he'd be on the playoff roster.
By all accounts, Harang is a great guy and a hard worker. His best years were overshadowed by complaints about hitter strikeouts and terrible pitching and defense from the rest of the team. It amazes me that Harang, who is a flyball pitcher, had his two best seasons with Adam Dunn in LF and Ken Griffey Jr. in CF. I wonder how much better his numbers could have looked if he was on his game with the current outfield defense behind him. We'll never know.
So, farewell, Aaron. I hope that you find a way to make yourself back into a serviceable pitcher. Even if you don't, thanks for making the mid-aughts somewhat bearable.
Go Reds!