Despite the fact Justin Duchscherer missed most of the 2007 (as did most of the A's, as you recall), the current plan has Duke looking to follow in Chad Gaudin's footsteps and join the A's rotation.

As a quick Yahoo! Sports piece notes, Duke is currently slotted to be the 5th starter in a rotation set to include Dan Haren, Joe Blanton, Rich Harden and the aforementioned Gaudin.

Duchscherer, as you recall, was the A's All-Star representative in 2005, and suffered a hip injury that limited him to 17 games and 16.1 innings this last season, after logging 65 games and 53 games in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

Duke last started games for the A's in 2003. Oddly enough, he logged the same 16.1 innings in 4 games that year. Hopefully, should he make the rotation out of Spring Training, he'll get to 16.1 innings midway through April.

Of course... this just could be a set-up to make it appear the A's rotation is well-stocked enough to see Haren or Blanton move on via trade... who knows?