Reports of Rich Harden’s easy dominance of the American League have been premature; Harden got shelled last night by the Red Sox even after extra rest for a tired arm. With Ted Lilly getting clocked in his last start, Tim Hudson getting drilled with a line drive and now Mark Mulder on the 15-day DL, the A’s starting pitching is more vulnerable than it’s been in some time.
2 thoughts on “Harden Times”
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Since it was only one day’s extra rest & they’d originally decided to skip his start, I’d guess that Harden has a dead arm.
Hopefully, the A’s won’t be giving him the AJ Burnett treatment.
Let the guy sit.
I would guess that Harden’s not actually hurting, just that the A’s are being cautious with him. Oakland is a big believer in prevention being the best cure (as they’ve shown with Rick Peterson doing his analysis of mechanics, the strict pitch counts in the minors, the relatively strict pitch counts in the majors, etc.), and I think this is another example.
There’s also the thought that they just didn’t want to throw a 21 year old kid to the lions against the best offense anyone’s seen in awhile.