Hope springs eternal

Its late March, leaves are starting to bloom, the sun is actually starting to get warm, cliches about the weather are becoming as prevalent as sex jokes involving New York area politicians...and Rich Harden has once again made thousands of A's fans believe this might be the year where he finally stays healthy and becomes the ace he has always had the potential to be. The line from last night's game against the Red Sox says it all:

6IP, 3H, 3BB, 1ER, 9K's, and, most importantly, no strained muscles, elbow twinges, or shoulder tendinitis. Against one of the top offenses (if not the top offense) in baseball. Amazing.



Other (very) premature reasons to be hopeful for a better than expected 2008 in the Coliseum.

Bobby Crosby: 3-9, 2 runs, no swinging K's on sliders three feet of the plate.

Kurt Suzuki: 3-8, 2 doubles, 1 run, 1 SB. I think he's already doubled Jason Kendall's April extra base hit total from last year.

Keith Foulke: 2 IP, 2 K's, 0BB, 0H, 0ER. Kiko who?

Jack Hannahan: 3-8, 1HR, 1R, 2 RBIs...do we even need Chavy to come back healthy?

Talk to me again in two weeks when half the team is on the DL and I come to the realization that our team is starting two rejects from the Kansas City Royals (Emil Brown and Mike Sweeney), but for now its a not a bad time to be an A's fan.