The Astros swapped young righthanded pitchers with the Oakland A’s Friday, trading Kirk Saarloos (who had been pitching at AAA New Orleans) for Chad Harville. Here is the Astros’ press release on the deal, which the Chronicle dutifully fails to supplement with better analysis of the deal.
My sense is that the A’s got the better of this deal because they got a promising young pitcher in Saarloos when they would have lost Harville had htey not made the deal (Harville was out of options and had demanded that the A’s give him his outright release rather than return to the minors).
Saarloos was a third round draft choice of the Stros in the 2001 draft, and he shot up the organization when he dominated the AA Texas League in the first half of the 2002 season. The Stros called him up in both the 2002 and 2003 seasons, but that is where Saarloos ran straight into Jimy Williams’ impatience with developing young ballplayers and Williams’ disdain for Saarloos’ less than blazing fastball (Saarloos patterns his pitching style after Greg Maddux).
In my view, Williams never really gave Saarloos a fair shot in the Astros’ less than stellar starting rotations of the 2001-2002 seasons, and so Saarloos was stuck in the Astros’ revolving door bullpen of the last two seasons, which is not his strong suit. This season, Saarloos did not pitch well early in the spring, but then recovered nicely, only to be told that there was no way he was going to make the Opening Day roster and that the ‘Stros were trying to peddle him. He promptly went to AAA New Orleans and was bombed in his first two starts there. However, Saarloos is only 25, and his minor league numbers indicate strongly that he will eventually be an effective 200 inning per season major league control artist with low walk and home run rates. Consequently, the Astros have really given up a talent in this deal.
And Harville? Well, he is a 27 year old fireballer who was a relief pitcher for the A’s last season. Here’s how Baseball Prospectus 2004 analyzes him:

The whole right-handed Billy Wagner thing just hasn’t worked out. Harville, once renowned for his small stature and tremendous fastball, pitched well for the [AAA Sacramento] RiverCats, but once again didn’t look particularly great in Oakland. He still throws very hard, but didn’t look completely comfortable with his improving curveball, and occasionally couldn’t find the strike zone with a sherpa and a GPS unit. He’s out of options, so he has to make the club out of spring training if the A’s want to keep him, and he’s still a reasonable bet to be a good pitcher in some role. If and when that actually happens is a matter of speculation.

So, in sum, a deal involving two pitchers of differing styles, both of whom have decent potential. I would have stuck with Saarloos, but perhaps this is one of those deals where both pitchers will thrive in new surroundings. With the Astros’ pitching staff of flame-throwers, Harville will certainly have a lot of company in that department.