Picked up this weekend and making his debut for LAA tonight. New market numbers show -125 with 8 o/u against Bucholz and Boston.

I chuckled at this Jeff Passan comment on the deal:

"Again, just for giggles: Twenty-nine year-old Dan Haren, one of the 10 best pitchers in baseball entering this season, and still an ace, for Joe Saunders.

OK, so there are a few kids involved, too: Twenty-one year-old left-hander Pat Corbin, 26-year-old reliever Rafael Rodriguez and a player to be named later who could be 19-year-old lefty Tyler Skaggs. No can’t miss prospects. No top-of-the-line major league players. Just Saunders, his miserable strikeout rate and a lot of dreaming."

Haren bounced out of tonight's game early after taking a Youkilis liner off the pitching arm. It looked like it may have hit him in the wrist area, as he was protecting his upper body. He was moving the arm around relatively freely, and it could have been a precautionary thing, but I'm not going to attempt to play doctor.

I wasn't sure about Scioscia's decision to throw Haren right off the bat, even though he was on regular rest and did have a short flight in. I thought maybe he should take a day to acclimate himself to his new digs, talk to the catchers on the team, etc., but he did throw some real nice splitters and also had his two-seamer cooking pretty well. It was a solid outing, all things considered, though we'll have to wait for the injury report.

As Jay mentioned, Haren is from the Southern California area and went to Pepperdine, so this is a homecoming for him. I like the pick-up, as he has pitched in the American League before, and perhaps the move to a contending team can kickstart him a bit, as he was sort of lumbering down in Arizona. The Angels also don't mind picking up the rest of his money, which meant they didn't have to part with too many premium-level prospects. I've said all along that I wouldn't count the Angels out, but they have fallen to seven back. Do they have enough offense? Now we'll have to wait to see if Reagins wants to add another piece.

The Angels have the potential to have a good run down the stretch but I don't see it happening with them. Offense is too spotty and so is their bullpen. Texas doesn't seem to be slowing down either and I think the Rangers have too much for the Angels.

Texas has the better offense, arguably the better starting pitching particularly with Cliff Lee, CJ Wilson, Colby Lewis and Tommy Hunter. Scott Feldman is the only guy I'm not sold on in that rotation and Texas certainly has the better bullpen so I think all of those factors favor them.

Here is a link to the Haren injury. It does not look good.

http://network.yardbarker.com/mlb/article_external/VIDEO_Dan _Haren_gets_struck_in_the_right_forearm_in_Angels_debut/2945 341

he threw a bullpen session today and had this to say after:

"It was a little tight when I started, but I ended up with no restrictions," said the right-hander. "As of now, barring any setbacks, I should be good to go Saturday."