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Five and Fly: A's shopping Harden?
By Tim Brown

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 1:30 pm EDT
The Oakland Athletics have made at least one phone call recently to gauge interest in right-hander Rich Harden, that being to the Boston Red Sox, according to one source. They have not, however, contacted some of the organizations with the top-end farm systems

A's Not Discussing Harden?
Both Buster Olney and Tim Brown have written about Rich Harden trade possibilities in recent days. It seemed odd that talks would be going on with such an uncertain player, however. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle throws water on the fire, with a team source indicating to her that the A's are not having trade talks involving Harden.

But usually where there's smoke, there's fire. I would think Billy Beane has had Harden's name come up in a conversation or two; perhaps back in early April when he was flashing his ace stuff with three quality starts.

It'll be fun if Billy Beane throws a fire sale this summer (well, not for A's fans). It might be hard to get anything near full value for Harden, even though he's the one with star potential. Dan Haren, on the other hand...he could challenge for Cy Youngs as a Met.