Harden to miss entire year after shoulder surgery

Rich Harden, once the star of the A's rotation, came back to the team as a free agent last season, and there was some thought he'd return again for 2012.

Instead, Harden, 30, decided to have surgery to repair the torn capsule in his right shoulder, and he will miss the entire 2012 season.

Harden told the San Francisco Chronicle that he believes he will be back at full strength the following year, and he's considering pitching in relief at that point. Many around baseball have felt that Harden has the stuff -- with a particularly nasty changeup -- to fare well as a late inning specialist.

Harden said that he had been pitching with the torn shoulder capsule since April 15, 2007, when he reached over his head to try to barehand a comebacker against the Yankees. He was able to modify his mechanics to deal with the lack of shoulder stability during the following offseason, and he went 10-2 with a 2.07 ERA in 2008.

Since then, however, his performance has been erratic, and Harden has spent a great deal of time on the DL with other injuries, particularly muscle strains. Harden told the Chronicle that he believes those injuries were the result of trying to compensate for an unstable shoulder.

Harden was advised not to have surgery following the initial injury, and told to strengthen the area around the shoulder instead. Shoulder capsule surgery is still relatively new, and the results have been uncertain so far, but he finally decided to have the procedure because even just playing catch was difficult.

Copyright (C) 2012 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.