Aaron Harang
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cincinnati Reds — No. 39 | |
| Starting pitcher | |
| Born: May 9, 1978 San Diego, California |
|
|---|---|
| Bats: Right | Throws: Right |
| Major League Baseball debut | |
| May 25, 2002 for the Oakland Athletics | |
| Selected MLB statistics (through May 8, 2008) |
|
| Win-Loss | 64-54 |
| Earned run average | 4.09 |
| Strikeouts | 875 |
| Teams | |
|
|
Aaron Michael Harang (born May 9, 1978 in San Diego, California) is a right-handed starting pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds in Major League Baseball.
Harang graduated from Patrick Henry High School then went on to San Diego State University. He was first drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 22nd round of the 1996 amateur draft, but did not sign with the team. After college, he was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 6th round of the 1999 draft and signed with them. In 2000, he was traded with minor leaguer Randy Cullen to the Oakland Athletics for Randy Velarde. He played sparingly with the Athletics, appearing in 23 games in 2002 and 2003, mostly as a starter. During the 2003 season, he was traded to the Reds along with Joe Valentine and minor leaguer Jeff Bruksch for José Guillén.
In 2004, he went 10-9 with a 4.83 ERA for the Reds.
In 2005, Harang led the team in wins (11), quality starts (19), innings pitched (211⅔), and strikeouts (163), all of which were career highs. He became the first Reds pitcher with 200 innings in a season since right-hander Elmer Dessens led the staff with 205 innings pitched in 2001. He received votes for NL Pitcher of the Month in May after going 3-1 with 1.93 ERA over five starts.
In the 2006 season, Harang pitched on Opening Day for the Reds on April 3 against the Chicago Cubs and allowed 9 runs (6 earned) over 5 innings. In his third start of the season, 11 days after Opening Day, Harang pitched 7 shutout innings against the St. Louis Cardinals, who were starting 2005 Cy Young award winner Chris Carpenter. Harang would give up 4 hits, get 4 strikeouts, and also had the only RBI of the game as the Reds won 1-0. Harang also pitched a complete game shutout against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 23, allowing five hits as the Reds won 11-0.
In the 2006 season, Harang led the National League in complete games with six and strikeouts with 216, surpassing Jake Peavy's strikeout total of 215 in his final regular season game.
Harang was also the most consistent pitcher on the 2006 Reds staff. Harang has had great success for the Cincinnati Reds while flying under the radar for the last two years. He hides the ball well during his motion, has a "creeping" fastball, a slider that breaks out of the zone, and at least two other pitches (a curve and a changeup) that he regularly throws for strikes.
According to Reds.com, Harang was only the ninth pitcher since 1960 to lead the National League in both wins and strikeouts (it has occurred 12 times in baseball history). However, he did not receive any votes for the National League Cy Young Award (Brandon Webb won the award in 2006). All previous pitchers that led the National League in both categories have won the award.
On February 6, 2007, Harang signed a four-year, $36.5 million contract with the Cincinnati Reds.[1]
On July 23, 2007, Harang threw ten innings for the Reds (throwing 121 pitches), becoming the first Reds pitcher to do so since 1989. However, he received a no-decision because the Reds did not win the game until the 12th inning.
He became a future answer to a trivia question on September 3, 2007, by becoming the 3000th strikeout recorded by the New York Mets' Pedro Martínez.
[edit] Career Stats
Yr Ag Tm Lg G GS W L S ERA CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB K OBA IBB HLD BS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2002 24 OAK AL 16 15 5 4 0 4.83 0 0 78.1 78 44 42 7 45 64 .261 2 0 0 2003 25 OAK AL 7 6 1 3 0 5.34 0 0 30.1 41 19 18 5 9 16 .331 0 0 0 2003 25 CIN NL 9 9 4 3 0 5.28 0 0 46.0 48 28 27 6 10 26 .271 0 0 0 2004 26 CIN NL 28 28 10 9 0 4.86 1 1 161.0 177 90 87 26 53 125 .280 5 0 0 2005 27 CIN NL 32 32 11 13 0 3.83 1 0 211.2 217 93 90 22 51 163 .267 3 0 0 2006 28 CIN NL 36 35 16 10 0 3.76 6 2 234.1 242 109 98 28 56 216 .269 8 0 0 2007 29 CIN NL 34 34 16 6 0 3.73 2 1 231.2 213 100 96 28 52 218 .242 3 0 0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS 162 159 63 49 0 4.15 10 4 993.1 1016 483 458 122 276 828 .266 21 0 0 6 Seasons
Stats as of March 30, 2008.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
| Preceded by Jake Peavy |
National League Strikeout Champion 2006 |
Succeeded by Jake Peavy |
| Preceded by Dontrelle Willis |
National League Wins Champion 2006 (with Lowe, Penny, Smoltz, Webb & Zambrano) |
Succeeded by Jake Peavy |
