[The Elephant Walk is my somewhat regular column on Oakland Athletics baseball. Results, performances, transactions or other thoughts I might have about the A’s]

This is just getting re-damn-diculous

The A’s used the DL for the 15th time this season… 15th! And it’s not even the All-Star Break yet. In the entire 2006 season the A’s used the DL 15 times, which means that the Athletics have looked less than Athletic and more apathetic when it comes to health. Stack Rich Harden feeling “sore” after his first appearance in the bigs since April and it looks like number 16 could come sooner than later.

I think the A’s need to start looking in the same direction for blame the Yankees did earlier this year, and they really need to look at firing anyone to do with strength and condition and probably some of those on the medical side as well (being that the likes of Harden, Bobby Crosby and Brad Halsey have all made serious complaints about the A’s medical staff).

Of course dumping Milton Bradley surely will help with that DL total, but even so, somewhere in the organization someone is either very bad at their job or they pissed off the wrong leprechaun - you really can’t get worse luck.

Of course every year the A’s have injury problems and maybe that’s what helps them be one of the best late summer teams in baseball. They are completely capable of making another August run at the wild card, but it seems to me that there has to be a better way of handling things.

Bullpen booster

On the plus side, Rich Harden is freakin dynamite out of the pen. In his two appearances since coming off the DL he has 2.0IP, 4K, 0BB and 0 hits. With the way he has pitched and my thinking that I’d rather have Harden active in the bullpen for 3/4 of the season rather than the ace of the rotation for maybe half, I do believe its about time for the A’s to begin discussing the possibility of using Harden exclusively out of the bullpen from here on out. It’s a huge loss for the A’s in terms of losing their ace, but looking at what happened to Mark Prior and Kerry Wood I’d much rather have Rich make the transition too soon than try and do it when its too late.

On the farm

Another promising thing, at least to me, is that with all the changes and adversity that the A’s health issues that their AAA affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats are actually leading their division in the PCL. Of course it never hurts to be constantly blessed with Major League talent making their rehab appearances, but with guys being shuttled in and out of their lineup - not to mention the trades - its good to see that the group that will be needed to step up in 2008 and beyond is doing well compared to their peers.

Up next

With all the changes that have been made to the A’s this season, I was interested in thinking about what the 2008 Athletics might look like. Later this week, or in next week’s edition, I’ll take a look at the A’s minor league system, free agents, and try to piece together what the team will look like on opening day ‘08.