Rich Harden is kicking some serious ass right now. Go A's!

About two or three years ago, my friend Jason had moved to Oakland and we began following the A's more closely. Since I live in Oakland, and am also a Green Bay Packer fan, making the leap to root for the Green and Gold in Oakland was a no brainer. There's a lot to like: Underdog, small market team with a low payroll, yet they consistently do well year in and year out thanks to Billy Beane's smart management. I'm not going to claim to be a baseball expert, so I'm not going to chime in with a lot of stats, but the sense I get is this: Trading Mulder and Hudson in this past offseason is looking better and better each inning Harden pitches. They themselves say he's got better stuff than they do. But the big plus is the help we've gotten in the bullpen. Last year at about this time, our starters were doing their job, only to have someone in the bullpen blow the game.

This year, the pitching is good all around, except Zito's had a few stinky innings that have decided the outcome of the game. Our hitting could be better. Once Chavy breaks out of his slump and someone else steps up, that will hopefully change. Swisher looks promising. I'm not so certain that we need to keep putting Kielty in there.