Don't Overlook the Reds' Aaron Harang as a NL Cy Young Candidate

When the subject of National League Cy Young candidates comes up, you probably won't hear Cincinnati's Aaron Harang's name being thrown into the mix in most circles. That's a shame too, because Harang is having a great year for a terrible team. Aaron Harang is ten games over .500 for a Reds' team that is ten games below that standard, and his record would be even better were it not for the ineptitude of his Cincy teammates. Six times this year Aaron Harang has left games after pitching at least seven quality innings and wound up with no decisions. Had he won just four of those, he would be at 17-3, and there would be little discussion about who the Cy Young winner in the senior circuit would be.

What hurts Harang when it comes to being considered worthy of the pitching honor is his earned run average, which stands at 3.68 after 27 outings this year. However, one must remember that Harang pitches in a bandbox in the Queen City, as the Great American Ballpark yields home runs at a fast pace. Also, Harang plays for a team that has David Weathers as a closer, not exactly a big name stopper, and the Cincinnati bullpen has blown a ridiculous 22 saves this year. Harang is 7-2 at home with an astounding 2.97 earned run average, having given up just ten home runs to opposing batters there.

Harang has allowed 166 base hits in 181 innings, a superlative ratio, and he is tied with the Diamondbacks' Brandon Webb for second place in the National League in strikeouts, with 166, trailing only San Diego's Jake Peavy, who is the frontrunner for the Cy Young at 15-5. Harang has an excellent strikeout to walk ratio, as he has issued only 43 free passes this season, almost a 4-1 comparison. Harang is huge, at six-foot-seven and 275 pounds, and he has control of a fastball, a biting slider, and a curve and changeup that enabled him to lead the National League in wins last year with 16.

Harang has pitched in some awful luck this campaign, with no better example than a May 15th start against the Padres in San Diego. He gave up just a pair of hits in nine innings, but left the game with the score knotted at 1-1 because he caught a spike from one of his cleats on the stride towards home in the eighth inning, the result being a balk that brought in the lone Padres' run. Ken Griffey Jr won the game with a home run in the twelfth, long after Harang had departed for the showers. Two starts later he pitched eight full innings of two-run ball versus the Pirates only to get a no-decision, and then shut out the Indians in June on three hits over seven, leaving the scoreless contest after 116 pitches.

In July, against the likes of Arizona, Atlanta, and Milwaukee, Harang threw the ball quite well only to have nothing to show for it. In the Brewers game, he went ten innings, struck out ten while walking none, and still couldn't win. On July 28th in a game against the Cubs, Harang left after the first inning, after allowing a run, with lower back stiffness. He took the loss for that effort, but missed only one turn in the rotation. In August Aaron is 3-0 in four tries with his worst outing coming in a no-decision with Milwaukee.

Harang was originally drafted by the Red Sox but he refused to sign with them. He then was chosen by the Rangers three years later in the 1999 amateur draft and inked with them. Texas dealt Harang to Oakland for Randy Velarde and Oakland turned around and sent him to the Reds for Jose Guillen, a pair of deals that those two AL West general managers won't put at the top of their resumes now. Harang is just 29 years old and has a great future, and if he could win perhaps four more games and lose none along the way he might just grab that NL Cy Young Award while he's at it.