Hard to hit Harden

Rich Harden continues to dominate this season, striking out eight over six innings in a 7-2 victory over Cincinnati. Baseball Musings points out that Harden has allowed just 30 of the 64 batters he's faced to put the ball in play. He walks too many batters and builds up a high pitch count rarely working into the seventh inning, as he failed to do again on Tuesday.

That puts a lot of pressure on the Cubs bullpen, which looks very mediocre at this point of the season.

Fantasy Impact: It's the same story for Harden: great pitcher with bad luck. He's a number three starter in fantasy with the upside of a number one and the downside of an injury-risk crash. We wouldn't invest too much in him, but we'd still like him on our roster.

Hard-luck Harden

Rich Harden is one of those guys who can't seem to fully harness his incredible gift of throwing a baseball. The Cubs starter lasted just three innings against Colorado on Wednesday, needing 92 pitches to record nine outs. He struck out eight Rockies batters but walked four. Harden gave up four runs, bringing his ERA up to 5.00. He left with a 4-0 Rockies lead.

Fantasy Impact: In his last 10 starts, Harden pitched out of the fifth inning just five times. He's no better than a five or six inning guy, but he's one of the best in baseball in terms of stuff. This leaves fantasy owners in a quandry. Do you treat Harden as an ace who can win big with the Cubs, or do you consider Harden an also-ran who will blow you away numbers-wise ever third or fourth start? The obvious answer is somewhere in between. Harden makes for a dynamic third starter, and upside is there now that he's on a consistently winning team. He will miss a few starts, however, and he's more likely to have success going deep into games against teams with free swingers.