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Daniel John Haren who is of Irish and Mexican descent was born on September 17, 1980, in Monterey Park, California. He is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Haren graduated from Bishop Amat High School in La Puente, CA in 1998. He then attended Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA on a baseball scholarship. Together with Noah Lowry, a left-handed pitcher just one month younger than Haren, they formed the best starting pitching duo in the West Coast Conference.
Both Haren and Lowry skipped their senior seasons. Lowry was taken in the 1st round o 30th overall by the San Francisco Giants and Haren was taken in the 2nd round on 72nd overall by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2001 Major League. Haren posted a 2.22 ERA in 17 starts, and Lowry posted a 1.71 ERA in 18 starts.
In 2002, Haren made 28 starts in A-ball for Peoria and Potomac, finishing with a combined ERA of 2.74. He started Double-A Tennessee, but was promoted after eight starts to Triple-A Memphis in 2003. Then he made his major league debut at the age of 22. He showed off his batting skills by hitting the very first pitch he saw for a double. He was out-dueled by Jason Schmidt, who went on to finish second in the National League Cy Young Award voting that year.
In 2004, he was sent back down to AAA Memphis and received a late-season call-up, and made five appearances in the post-season for the Cardinals, including two in the World Series. He was later traded to the Oakland Athletics for Mark Mulder, one of the best pitchers in the American League at the time.
Haren went 14-12 with a 3.73 ERA in his first full season as a major leaguer. He also got the opportunity to pitch against the rival San Francisco Giants in the Bay Bridge Series.
Haren broke the top 10 in the American League in the following categories: innings (217-9th place), strikeouts (163-6th place), and complete games (3-4th place) in 2005.
Haren had one of the best seasons among any pitcher in the majors. Haren finished in the top ten in the American League in wins, with 15, strikeouts, with 192, and finished in the top three in the AL in ERA with 3.07 in 2007. He was also selected to start the MLB All Star Game that year and was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks along with Connor Robertson.
2008, he was selected to the 2008 All-Star game at Yankee Stadium along with his teammate, Brandon Webb. He has an impressive 3.33 ERA to go along with a 16-8 win-loss record, and a career-high 206 strikeouts.
In 2009, Haren was also selected a 2009 NL All-Star, representing the Diamondbacks along with Justin Upton. He was named # 33 on the Sporting News’ list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball finishing with a record of 14-10, 3.14 ERA, and 223 strikeouts.
In 2010, he joined the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Haren went 5-4 with 75 strikeouts and a 2.87 ERA and posting a .364 batting average and .902 OPS with one home run in 55 at bats.
As for his pitching style is often dubbed a “chess match” by reporters and announcers. Haren usually has a slow pitching delivery, highlighted by a slight pause in the middle of his windup, that he speeds up with runners on base. Haren throws a 91-94 mph fastball with movement. A recently added 90-93 mph two-seam fastball, a sharp split-finger fastball, and a spike curve. Haren has also added and relied more heavily upon an 86-90 mph cut fastball, which he credited for last season’s success. His curveball is just an average offering that he flips over to get ahead early in the count, while his splitter is a plus pitch and his main strikeout weapon.