Rich Harden, SP, Oakland Athletics

April 25, 2007 @ 16:00:00

By Joe Loncarich
Edited by Ryan Dodson

The Oakland Athletics took a big blow to the team when starter Rich Harden (shoulder) was forced to go on the disabled list with shoulder soreness. 

When Harden is healthy, he is just as good as any pitcher in the league. He is such an immense talent that it is frustrating to see these injuries keep popping up. Oakland has taken care of him by watching his workload throughout his career and has avoided any serious surgery because of that. Harden was showing that this year as he had three excellent starts to begin the year.

Table: Rich Harden's 2007 Starts

OPP	IP	H	ER	BB	K	Pitches
NYY	6	5	1	2	7	93
CWS	6	5	2	2	6	102
Sea	7	3	0	2	7	94

The only complaint you could have about this is nitpicking that he doesn't work deep enough into games. However, with his injury history, there is no need for him to throw that many pitches, especially early in the season. He could easily be 3-0 right now, but instead is 1-1, due to poor run support against the Chicago White Sox and a blown lead by his bullpen against the New York Yankees.

Harden's injury is not very serious, but with Esteban Loaiza (shoulder/neck) already on the DL, they needed put Harden on the disabled list so they could bring up another starter. Harden has had a lot of injuries, so the Athletics made the right decision by not trying to rush him back. Many have thought that this shoulder injury is a cascading injury from the elbow troubles he was having last year. However, from the information available, it appears just to be early season soreness.

Losing an ace pitcher is tough for any team, but it is especially tough for the Athletics as they had already lost Loaiza. Their outfield has a sickening amount of injuries. The AL West has played poorly so far, with Oakland being the only team over .500 currently, but don't be fooled by the early numbers. In the same division, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim should have one of the best pitching staffs in the AL, and the Texas Rangers should boast one of the best offenses. Oakland will need a quick return from Harden to stay ahead of the pack. 

In his place, they have brought up Dallas Braden, who did a pretty good Harden impersonation on Tuesday when he gave up just one run in six innings while striking out six. He may see some early success in the majors as he is one of the few that is still throwing a screwball. As a 24th round pick, he is somebody to root for, but I would not expect this performance to continue. He only made 10 starts last year due to a shoulder injury, and was brought up more for making a good impression in camp and a good beginning to the season than for having a strong performance record. I would not recommend him as a long-term fantasy option.

Fantasy owners should not worry too much about Harden as the move is retroactive to April 16, and he should be able to come back in the minimum 15 days. The A's have not considered moving him to the bullpen yet.

General manager Billy Beane told the San Francisco Chronicle: "We'd be disappointed (to convert Harden to relief) because he's such a great talent and he has the ability to be one of the best starters in the game." 

Harden has been prone to injuries in his career, so having some backup starting pitching options is a wise idea. 

The first guy we would recommend is Kansas City Royals starter Zack Greinke. He will have trouble helping you in wins, because of the Kansas City offense, but he can help in all the other categories. If you take out his bad start against Detroit on April 16, he has an ERA of 3.00, and he has struck out 14 batters in 18 innings. He has only played teams that are in the top half of scoring in the American League, so it wouldn't be outrageous to think that he could post an ERA in the 3.50-3.75 range. 

If you really need the boost in strikeouts, Minnesota Twins starter Boof Bonser might be your guy. He is striking out over a batter per inning so far, and will probably be available due to him currently having an ERA of 6.53. The high ERA is largely due to an extremely high home run rate. That should drop because over one fourth of his fly balls are going over the wall for home runs, which is over an 11 percent increase from 2006. He had a 2.63 ERA in six September starts, so it would not be surprising to see a big improvement from him.

Harden owners know that he is a high-risk, high-reward player that can frustrate owners or lead them to championships. This shoulder injury is part of the risk, but since it is minor, the rewards can still be there. If he is able to come back in the minimum, then his value only decreases by two starts. He can be one of the best 10 starters in the majors. This, of course, all depends on him not getting another injury (knock on wood), so you might want to keep your fingers crossed.

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Joe Loncarich
Joe has been a contributor to KFFL since 2007.

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