There has been alot of discussion about how the Haren/Mulder trade was a disaster. I agree with most of it, but I also don't believe that Danny Haren would have been half the pitcher he is today if he stayed with the Cardinals.

I am going to compare his stats to another Cardinal Prospect in the minors, and see if I can at least semi-justify my belief.

Haren's minor league stats:

Year   Age   W   L   G   GS  CG  SV   IP      H     R      ER    BB  SO      ERA   WHIP

2001  20     3    3   12  8      0     1     52      47   22    18     8      57      3.12   1.06

2002  21     10 9    28  28   2     0     194   179 75     59     31   171    2.74   1.08

2003  22     8    1   16  16    0    0      101  86   33     30     14   84       2.67   0.99

 2004  23   11  4   21   21    0    0      128 137  60    59      33 150      4.15  1.33

Total          32  17 77  73     2    1      475 449  190  166    86 462      3.15  1.13

Anthony Reyes Minor leagur stats:

2004  22    8   2   18  18      0    0    105      94    44     40     20   138     3.43  1.09

 2005  23   7   6   23  23      2    0     128.2  105  55     52     34    136    3.64  1.08

2006   24             13  13       0    0      84       70    27   24      11     82      2.57  0.96

2007  25   1   1     6    6        0   0      38.2     27   12    12      11   33      2.79     0.98

2008  26  4    3    13  13       0   0        65.2     61      25    23      25    55      3.01   1.23

Total        20  12  73  73       2   0        525.6   357  163   151   101  444    3.22  1.09

Here are their first years as starters in the A.L.:

Year Ag   W   L   G   GS  CG SHO  SV   IP      H      R      ER   HR  BB   SO   ERA  WHIP

Haren:

2005 24 14 12  34  34   3     0       0     217.0 212 101   90    26   53  163    3.73  1.221

Reyes:

2008 26 2   1    5     5     0     0       0     31.3   30    7       7       2     11   14      2.01  1.309

Granted there is a big difference between Haren, and Reyes number of starts in their A.L. debut seasons. but as you can tell from their minor league stats (especially K's Hits, ER, ERA and WHIP) That they were pretty much the same pitcher.

I have heard all the comments from TLP and Duncan about how much Duncan wanted to keep Haren, but they didn't.

Now it looks like it is happening again with Reyes (albeit it is a very small sample size, and he could still implode, but that is for another discussion.)

This is my first Fanpost, so if this has been discussed before I appologize, but I believe I have shown with their minor league stats that Haren wouldn't have been the Ace he is today if he stayed with the Cardinals.