Rich Harden

James Richard Harden (Rich Harden) is a Canadian born pitcher for the Oakland Athletics. He was born on November 30th, 1981 in Victoria, British Columbia. Harden graduated from Claremont Secondary School (Victoria, BC) in 1999, and was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 38th Round of the June 1999 MLB Draft. He did not sign with the Mariners, and attended Central Arizona Junior College, where he graduated from in 2001. Harden was drafted by the Athletics in the 17th round of the 2000 MLB Draft, and signed by the team on May 28, 2001.

He led all Division I Junior College pitchers with 127 strikeouts in 2001, and his ERA of 2.14 was 5th lowest. In his first professional season as a 19 year old with the Vancouver Canadians in A Ball, Harden had a 2-4 record in 18 games (14 starts), a 3.39 ERA, allowed only 47 hits and struck out 100 batters in 74 innings.

In 2002, Harden began the year with the Visala Oaks of the California League (A Ball) and was very impressive in 12 starts, as he had a 4-3 record with an ERA of 2.91, and struck out 85 batters in 68 innings. Halfway through the 2002 season, Harden was promoted to the Midland Rockhounds of the Texas League (AA), where he continued his impressive season with a record of 8-3, 2.95 ERA in 16 starts. He struck out 102 batters in 85 innings. His combined 2002 stats were 12-6, 2.93 ERA, 187 strikeouts and 75 walks in 153 innings.

Harden began the 2003 season with Midland, and in 2 games, he had a 2-0 record and pitched 13 perfect innings, along with 17 strikeouts. He was promoted to the Sacramento River Cats of the Pacific Coast League (AAA), where he pitched very well. In 16 games, in which he started 14 of them, Harden went 9-4 with an ERA of 3.15. Harden's 2003 minor league stats finished with an 11-4 record, 2.74 ERA, 107 strikeouts and 35 walks in 102 innings. He was then promoted to the Oakland Athletics in July of 2003.

Harden made his major league debut on July 21st, 2003 when he started against the Kansas City Royals. His debut was a success, as he held the Royals to only 1 run on 4 hits in 7 innings as he got the win. Harden had lots of early success, and through his first 5 starts, the rookie was 3-1 with an ERA of 1.69. However, his next 2 starts were disasterous, as he allowed 6 runs in 4 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays on August 21st, then on August 26th, the Boston Red Sox crushed Harden with 8 runs in 2.2 innings. He continued to struggle for the rest of the season, and ended up with a 5-4 record with an ERA of 4.46. Harden pitched in 2 games in relief with the Athletics in their Division Series matchup with the Red Sox. In his playoff debut on October 1, Harden earned the win as he pitched a scoreless inning. However in his 2nd apperance, he pitched only 0.1 innings, and allowed 2 runs and was tagged with the loss.

Harden began the 2004 season with the Sacramento River Cats, as he came out of Spring Training as the A's 5th starter, but the Athletics had 2 off days in the first 8 days of the season, so they optioned him down to get a start. He pitched in 1 game, and lost 5-3 to the Edmonton Trappers. The Athletics called him up on April 10th, and he put together a very solid season with an 11-7 record and an ERA of 3.99. He was among the best pitchers in baseball after the all-star break with an 8-2 record and an ERA of 3.49. He ranked 8th in the AL with 167 strikeouts, and was tied for 7th with 81 walks. Allowed just 16 HR in 189.2 innings, an average of 0.76, tied for 4th lowest in the American League.

So far in the 2005 season, Harden has emerged as the ace of the Athletics. He is currently 2-2 with an ERA of 1.94. He makes his next start on May 13th against the New York Yankees.