The Slanch Report

Rich Harden simply befuddled my beloved Red Sox this morning in Japan.

Unfortunately the last few seasons have been marred by injuries from Harden and stopped his seemingly limitless talent from being showcased. In spurts he has been dominant but then a shoulder or an oblique injury or some other injury pops up and he goes onto the DL never to be seen again for the season. Featuring a high 90s fastball and a devastating splitter he has the pure stuff to overpower major league hitters but he hasn’t made at least 20 starts in a season since 2004.

Is this the year that he is able to maintain his health? I certainly hope so because he’s really enjoyable to watch as he pounds hitters with his power pithes. He’s been dealing throughout spring training and now, in his first game of the season he goes 6 innings, throws 95 pitches, allows one run on 3 hits and strikes out 9. As of this moment he is the MLB leader in strikeouts! I know fantasy owners out there are very excited by this first outing, but is this just another tease or the season he vies for a Cy Young and overwhelms his opponents? In my opinion, this year I think he’ll finally go over the 20 starts hurdle but not by much, maybe 22-23 starts for the season. Along the way though I’d expect to see 14 wins or so and maybe 155 strikeouts.

If Harden is healthy and able to produce this A’s team just might be able to succeed. If he goes down onto the DL however, I’d expect to see Joe Blanton in another uniform and pitchers like Gio Gonzalez and maybe even Fautino De Los Santos up and learning how to pitch on the big stage. With a new stadium on the horizon in Fremont, the A’s need to determine sooner rather than later whether they are legitimate contenders for the AL West or if they need to look ahead two or three years. My guess is that, despite the results I expect from Harden, that the Mariners prove to be just a little too strong for the A’s to catch up with.