The Oakland A's knew Rich Harden would be good, and they knew he would be good soon.

When you've scouted, drafted and developed young pitchers like Mark Mulder, Barry Zito and Tim Hudson, you develop an eye for these things.

What they didn't know, of course, and what would have been impossible to project, is that he would be this good, this soon.

	Rich Harden hasn't allowed more than two runs in any of his first five starts.

In the last month, Harden has burst onto the scene like a pitching supernova, going 3-1 in his first five starts with a 1.69 ERA. His one loss was a 5-1 setback to the White Sox's Esteban Loaiza, the clear frontrunner for the American League Cy Young Award, in which Harden allowed two earned runs in six innings; his no-decision (one earned run allowed in seven innings) in his first major league start could easily have been another victory.

"Going into the year,'' says Oakland general manager Billy Beane, "when we signed John Halama, we wanted a bridge. We thought Rich was going to be ready at some time during the year, and we wanted Halama to get us to that point. We knew (Harden) would get here.''

Beane never anticipated, however, that he would make the impact that he has. Where once the A's could boast of a Big Three (Mulder, Zito and Hudson), Harden, just 21, has transformed the Oakland rotation into the Fab Four.

"It used to be bad enough,'' sighs another AL general manager, "to go into a series, thinking about beating one of those guys (Mulder, Zito and Hudson). That's pretty tough. But now, when you think about playing them in a four-game series, that's downright scary. Or about a five-game playoff series -- who are you going to beat three times out of that group?''

Forget about economics for a minute. In terms of pitching wealth, the otherwise small-market A's, already rich, have just gotten richer.

As with Mulder, Zito and Hudson, Harden fits the A's patented pitching profile, with a few exceptions. Unlike his pitching brethren, Harden is Canadian. And unlike the others, he went to junior college.

Signed for $50,000 after being selected in the 17th round of the 2000 draft, Harden first caught the eye of Oakland scout Matt Keough in spring training of 2002. While the organization had projected Harden as a serviceable arm to fill out the staff, Keough saw more and told Beane he would arrive ahead of schedule, with a higher upside.

Keough looked prophetic this April when Harden didn't allow a baserunner in his first two outings at Double A. In retrospect, Beane says, the A's probably could have summoned Harden right then.

"But we wanted to wait until after he was ready,'' says Beane, "if that makes any sense. We wanted to time it so that he was overly ready, and when it was a good time for the club emotionally.''

The timing couldn't have been better. The A's trailed Seattle in the AL West standings and Boston in the wild-card race. They were on the fringe of playoff contention.

But from the moment Harden joined them, he injected life.

"It was like giving them a vitamin shot,'' says a major league scout, "or a shot of adrenaline. The timing was excellent. The way he started out, some organizations wouldn't have been as patient. They would have brought the guy up in late April. But they stayed close, and all of sudden, they've got a guy from within their own organization to help them.''

	The Fab Four
	How the A's top four starting pitchers have fared this season (statistics are through Thursday):
	Pitcher	IP	H	SO	W-L	ERA
	Harden	32.0	25	30	3-1	1.69
	Hudson	190.0	146	123	11-4	2.51
	Mulder	183.2	174	126	15-9	3.09
	Zito	171.2	145	102	9-10	3.20

"He gave us an internal boost without having to give up younger players,'' Beane says. "When you have a good team, you reward it. Rich was one of our rewards, even if he came from the minor leagues. But we didn't view him as a minor leaguer -- we viewed him as a major leaguer who could impact the (playoff) race.''

Beane has been the master of the deadline deals in the past, and knew he needed to add a bat this year to fix the ailing Oakland offense. He wrestled for weeks with St. Louis general manager Walt Jocketty in an attempt to land J.D. Drew, proposing plenty of multi-team deals to get the job done.

Ultimately, he couldn't pry Drew loose and had to settle for Jose Guillen, whom he landed in the chaos that surrounded the firing of GM Jim Bowden in Cincinnati.

But by promoting Harden when he did -- just before the trade deadline -- he served a dual purpose. If Beane couldn't improve the offense, he would do the next best thing: improve his team's pitching staff.

"The bottom line is scoring more than the other guys,'' says Beane. "It doesn't matter if you win 7-4 or 4-1. If you say, 'We've got a poor offense, we've got to add another hitter,' you're limiting yourself. You can work the problem from both ends. If they don't score, we can't lose. That's an oversimplification, of course, but it's true.''

To date, Harden has had a far greater impact than Guillen, who has yet to contribute much. Still, with Oakland starters -- Harden included -- regularly taking the A's deep into games, the offense hasn't had to produce much.

Beyond Harden's obvious talent is how well he compliments the rest of the rotation. The Fab Four now offers perfect balance: two lefties and two righties.

Each possesses a singular style: Zito wins with a big, slow curve; Hudson changes release points and arm angles and buries his pitches at the knees; Mulder is the prototypical power lefty, and Harden, though smaller in stature, is his mirror image from the right side.

"He's a bonafide power guy who makes guys swing and miss at a fastball down the middle of the plate,'' enthuses Beane of Harden. "That's fun to watch.''

	“	He's a bonafide power guy who makes guys swing and miss at a fastball down the middle of the plate. That's fun to watch. ”
		— Billy Beane, A's GM, on Rich Harden

But Harden isn't merely a thrower, a point which has already been demonstrated.

"When a kid comes in,'' Beane says, "you worry about what's going to happen after his second or third start, whether there'll be a dip in his performance once other teams get a look at him or get scouting reports. But he's followed up every one of his good outings and he's done it with different styles. Some games he won by getting two or three double plays and some he's won by blowing guys away.''

In addition to blending in well stylistically, Harden has been a smooth fit into the off-field mix.

"With his poise and the way he's handled himself, he really fit right in,'' says Beane. "It's been an easy merger. Those three guys (Mulder, Zito and Hudson) are close -- they're very close. They root for each other and they want to be better for the team. And they've embraced (Harden) because they recognize talent, and because of the way he's gone about things.

"When you think about it, there's already been a lot of focus on him. From the first week of the season, he's been in the media's eye. But he's really a grounded kid, self-confident.''

That's Oakland's perspective. What the rest of baseball sees, though, is Harden's brilliance on the mound.

"It just happens for him,'' gushes Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi. "The ball comes out his hand so easy. He's got that jumpy fastball, a little bit like (Curt) Schilling. The ball just seems to get to the hitter in a hurry. It's clean. There's nothing complicated about the delivery or the motion.''

"Hey, I'm a fan, too,'' says Beane, the delight evident in his voice. "I get excited as hell watching this guy.''

Sean McAdam of the Providence (R.I.) Journal covers baseball for ESPN.com.