Where in the world is Rich Harden?!

Why, oh, why does it seem that we go through this EVERY YEAR. First, Harden gets pulled from a game with a seemingly innocuous injury. The A's organization tells us fans that he'll likely "miss a start or two." Then after he misses a few starts, they say "oh, he should be back by the end of the month. Then, when that deadline happens, then we suddenly hear almost nothing at all, maybe some vague rumor about going to visit some medical specialist, then nothing until late September when it's suddenly announced that he's the next night's starting pitcher.

I'm getting the sinking feeling that scenario is going to be the likely case with Duke and Street. Why don't they just tell us that they are going to be out for most of the season and quit getting our hopes up. In the past with injuries such as Jose Canseco's in 1989, we all knew that he was going to be out half a season and then he returned and in the meantime we re-acquired Rickey Henderson who helped lead the A's to a world championship. Instead, we have Joe Kennedy or someone worse going in Harden's place and the suddenly self-destructing Kiko Calero and the OK Alan Embree closing out games. The A's medical staff must have some good dirt on the Casseco/ McGwire/ Giambi steroid days or some other form of blackmail to not be sitting on the unemployment line, which is where they deserve to be!