[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Moe, is that you? Because that's the kind of hard-hitting insight I would expect from our fearless leader.

Well no, actually, he didn't. Not at all.

In 2007, he was actually quite good, borderline dominant. He was no worse than one of the top 10 pitchers in the NL. We'll just pass that off as a timeline issue.

In 2008 he started out the season on fire, then Dusty Baker made him pitch 4 innings in relief on two days rest and ****ed him up for the rest of the season. He developed a shoulder impingement and was pretty much done.

In 2009 he was actually solid. His K/9 was good, his command was solid. His stuff in terms of both velocity and movement was as good as it was in his best seasons in 2006 and 2007. His W/L record sucked because his team sucked, but he got guys out and, by and large, did his job. He was no worse than average (and significantly better than Westbrook has ever been since the days of Matt Lawton being in an AS game).

Admittedly, in 2010 he was bad. His peripheral stats went down and he was injury prone. However - here's why I wanted him: His velocity and movement again stayed as good as they'd ever been. The problem is that Aaron Harang is a fly-ball pitcher pitching in a HR ballpark. Apart from Arizona, there's not a worse place in the league for him to pitch than Cincy was. You could see the strain his own park was taking on him.

So to provide a short rebuttal: You really don't know what the hell you're talking about. At his very worst, he didn't 'suck'. And anyone that would've done some homework on him would've realized that he just needed a change of scenery and a fresh approach to succeed.

Unfortunately our pitching coach doesn't want to have to work anymore so he just brings in sinker-ball pitchers like Jake Westbrook and has Moe give them $18 million guaranteed.

When Albert's wearing Cubbie Blue, just keep telling yourself that paying $20 million/season for the Westbrook/Lohse duo was a smart move because "Harang sucked from 2007-2010". I'm sure that'll make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Ah shit, I was talking out of my ass on the timeline. I couldn't remember if his performance declined during 2007 or 2008. You're right about that. And when did I say the contracts Lohse and Westbrook have were smart moves?