Daniel Haren

Daniel John Haren is a starting pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Major League. Known as "The Baron", Haren went to the Bishop Amat High School, graduating in 1998. He earned a baseball scholarship to the Pepperdine University and at his college, he teamed up with Noah Lowry to form the most dangerous starting-pitchers duo in the West Coast Conference. In 2001, Haren and Lowry posted a 2.22 and 1.71 ERA respectively, in 18 starts.

After their junior year, in the 2001 MLB Draft, both got picked up by MLB teams, Lowry going 30th overall to the San Francisco Giants while Haren going to the St. Louis Cardinals in the second round, 72nd overall. Haren moved up at lightning speed, making 28 A-ball starts in 2002 for Peoria and Potomac. He began 2003 in a Double-A Tennessee and his dominance was such in the 8 starts he got that he was promoted to AAA-Memphis.

His MLB debut came in 2003, at the age of 22, and although he was steady on his debut, Jason Schmidt beat him to the National League Cy Young Award. With a 5.08 ERA, Haren was sent back to AAA-Memphis for 2004. However, the Cardinals came back for him towards the end of the season, giving him 5-games in post-season including 2 in the World Series. Although the Red Sox washed the Cardinals away, Haren had a decent game with almost 4 2/3rd scoreless innings.

At the end of the 2004 season, Haren moved to the Oakland Athletics in a trade that included Kiko Calero and Daric Barton in return for Mark Mulder, one of the topmost pitchers in the American League at the time. Haren's 14-12 record with a 3.73 ERA in his first full-season ensured that the Athletics didn't feel the absence of their star pitcher. In 2005, Haren improved further to rank in the top-10 for innings pitched in, with 217 (9th overall); strikeouts, 163 in all (6th rank) and completed games, where he finished in 3rd.

In 2007, he again finished in the top-10 in terms of wins (15), strikeouts (192) and had a top-3 ERA of 3.07. He was also picked that year for the MLB All-Star game to represent the American League team, a game they won. At the end of 2007, Haren was traded out to the Arizona Diamondbacks. In his first season at Arizona, Haren was picked for the 2008 MLB All-Star game again. He signed a 4-year, $44.75 million deal, with team options, that will last until 2013.