Arizona Diamondbacks: Was the Dan Haren Trade the Franchise's Worst Ever?

The Arizona Diamondbacks took a lot of heat for sending too much to the Oakland Athletics in 2007 to acquire Dan Haren and were also panned for not getting enough when they traded him to the Los Angeles Angels in 2010. But were either of those trades the franchise's worst ever?

 

Acquiring Dan Haren

Back on Dec. 14, 2007, the Diamondbacks sent Brett Anderson, Chris Carter, Aaron Cunningham, Dana Eveland, Carlos Gonzalez and Greg Smith to Oakland for Dan Haren and Connor Robertson.

Let's look at the pitchers involved and how they've done so far in their careers.

Anderson has career 3.66 ERA with a 21-23 record and is still just 24 years old. Eveland has a 5.52 career ERA with a 19-24 record. Smith's ERA is 4.51 with an 8-18 record. Robertson never won a game in the majors and only threw nine innings.

Now we'll look at the position players involved.

Carter has a career .167 average in just 114 at-bats. Cunningham has a .231 average over his career 355 at bats. Gonzalez is a .298 hitter who finished third in the MVP voting in 2010 while earning himself a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger award.

Haren's production in Arizona wasn't bad at all—he made the All-Star team both of the full years he played with the D'Backs. He finished with a 37-26 record with a 3.56 ERA in 87 starts.

So as it stands, the principals of the trade were Carlos Gonzalez, Brett Anderson and Dana Eveland for Dan Haren. It definitely looks unfair, but to call it the worst ever would be a stretch. The fact that Gonzalez and Anderson are still young and are blossoming make this trade look a lot worse.

 

Trading Dan Haren

Haren played less than three years with the Diamondbacks before they sent him off to the Angels on Aug. 7, 2010, for Patrick Corbin, Rafael Rodriguez, Joe Saunders and Tyler Skaggs.

At the time, Haren was 7-8 with a 4.60 ERA and looked as if he might not have many good years left. Unfortunately for Arizona, it was dead wrong. So far with the Angels, Haren has a 21-14 record with a sparkling 3.09 ERA.

Corbin posted tremendous numbers in 2010 in the minors, going 13-4 with a 3.42 ERA. Rodriguez has struggled in the majors with a 5.60 ERA over 35.1 innings. Saunders has been solid but unspectacular, posting a 3.85 ERA with a 15-20 record with the Diamondbacks. Skaggs is one of the premier minor league prospects and Baseball America rates him No. 13 overall.

While Corbin appears to be a solid prospect and Saunders has been a very serviceable major-league starter, Skaggs was the prize for the D'Backs. As of now this trade is also slanted towards the Angels with how well Haren has pitched, but the future could change things if Corbin and Skaggs live up to their potentials.

I would also have trouble calling this the worst trade in the franchise's history. We can say the D'Backs lost both of those trades but that's as far as I'll go.

 

Worst trades the Diamondbacks have made

These trades, on the other hand, turned out to be total disasters:

Nov. 28, 2003: Arizona trades Curt Schilling to Boston Red Sox for Michael Goss, Casey Fossum, Brandon Lyon and Jorge De La Rosa.

Dec. 1, 2003: Arizona trades Chris Capuano, Craig Counsell, Chad Moeller, Lyle Overbay, Jorge De La Rose and Junior Spivey to Milwaukee Brewers for Noochie Varner, Shane Nance and Richie Sexson.

Dec. 3, 2007: Arizona trades Carlos Quentin to Chicago White Sox for Chris Carter.

Which one do you think was the worst?

 

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Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1117912-arizona-diamondbacks-was-the-dan-haren-trade-the-franchises-worst-ever

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