Major League Baseball

Trade made fantasy come true for Haren

Published Aug. 10, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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Dan Haren, the new Angels starter, likes trades.

Correction: He likes making trades. As a fantasy football owner.

“Making transactions on the waiver wire and stuff – it takes quite a bit of effort,” he said.

Haren will be a regular Bill Polian this fall. The right-hander plans to participate in three leagues – a consequence of his peripatetic pitching career.

Ironic, huh?

Haren hasn’t worked for the A’s since 2007, but he still has a team in the Oakland league. Huston Street does, too. Turns out, collusion and message-board dissing can help old friends stay in touch.

And it was less than a month ago that the Diamondbacks traded Haren to the Angels. So, he’s already established in the Arizona league. He needs to keep up with his buddies – like Max Scherzer, Eric Byrnes and Conor Jackson.

The Diamondbacks got rid of them, too.

Haren was asked if anyone in the Arizona league ... you know ... still plays in Arizona.

“Well, Snyder’s another owner,” he replied.

That would be Chris Snyder. He was traded to Pittsburgh on July 31.

“That’s about half the league,” Haren concluded.

Haren is quite familiar with this don’t-take-it-personally element of baseball. He’s on his fourth organization. That is surprising. He is a 29-year-old starting pitcher, with a career ERA of 3.71 in nearly 1,400 major-league innings.

A team should keep its clutches on a player like that, with the earnestness of a freshman tailback just presented with his first carry.

Haren started for the American League in the 2007 All-Star Game. He was 26. Think about that. It’s not easy to be a starting pitcher in the AL, period. But Haren was one of the best on the circuit in only his third full season.

Yet, he’s been traded twice since then.

You expect bench guys and fringy relievers to change teams. Not aces. But Haren is unique. He pitched for teams – the A’s and Diamondbacks – that needed to cut costs. And when paring payroll, general managers tend to move players who (a) perform and (b) make money.

Like Dan Haren.

Haren hopes his latest move is for the long term. Frankly, I do, too. Haren deserves it. He was a loyal Diamondbacks employee, even after the franchise’s fortunes turned southward midway through the 2008 season. He didn’t pull the high-maintenance-superstar act and demand a trade. He just pitched.

Finally, his reward came on July 25 – a trade to the Angels, his favorite team as a kid growing up in Orange County.

His boyhood home was a half-hour drive from Angel Stadium.

“Chuck Finley, Mark Langston, Brian Downing — that was my team growing up,” said Haren, who earned a victory in that very same ballpark Tuesday, with seven innings of one-run ball against Kansas City. “It’s cool to be playing on the same field.”

Haren and his wife, Jessica, recently lived in the Phoenix area year-round. But they started looking for a home in their native southern California last offseason, so they could be closer to family. The teams Haren heard most frequently in the trade rumors – the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies – wouldn’t have been the most convenient destinations.

Once he learned that he was going home, Haren said, “I couldn’t have been happier.” He’s optimistic about the Angels’ future, even though they’re mired in third place at the moment, 8 1/2 games back of the Rangers.

Haren must be especially content after Tuesday’s win — his first, for employers past or present, since June 12. In the 10 starts before that, he was 0-6 with a still-respectable 4.27 ERA, which gives you an idea of the hard luck he’s had.

Another example: Haren took a Kevin Youkilis line drive off his pitching forearm, ending his Angels debut after 4 2/3 innings. But Haren took his next assignment as scheduled. He’s done that reliably since becoming a fulltime big-league starter in 2005. No skipped turns or DL stays for him.

He’s a worker. And he likes his new boss.

“I’ve never heard so many people talk about an owner the way they talk about him,” Haren said of Arte Moreno. “People just have the best things to say about him, that he’s the nicest guy. ... He has spent a lot of money, and he’s committed to winning. I told him when I saw him, ‘I want to be here forever.’”

We know this: His place in the AFC (Angels Football Conference) is secure. Scot Shields, the reliever/co-commissioner, engineered some Selig-style franchise movement to ensure that Haren would have a team of his own.

“They had to move things around,” Haren said.

Three teams now. But that’s the cutoff.

“At some point, you have so many teams that you have your players playing against yourself,” Haren said, sounding less tongue-twisted than the sentence would suggest. “It becomes too much to keep track of.”

No more leagues. And, hopefully, no more trades. The future should be less complicated for Dan Haren. He’s home now. Just let him pitch.

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