On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Oakland Athletics (23-19) at Atlanta Braves (20-20) - 7:10 PM ET

It's probably safe to say that out of the former "Big Three" in Oakland, Tim Hudson has been the most successful of the bunch since leaving the nest after the 2004 season. Four seasons later, Hudson faces his former club for the first time (the two teams played a three game set in '05 but Hudson did not make an appearance). A lot of Hudson's old teammates from his last season in Oakland are gone, but his mound opponent for today, Rich Harden, is still around. And Harden was hoping he'd match up against him. Harden is probably also hoping that he makes it through the game intact.

It was just a few weeks ago, that, this piece in the New Republic about Barack Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe, I thought: hmm. This sounds familiar. Plouffe is the sober, focused advisor, while Obama is the incredibly gifted face of the franchise, as it were. I didn't give it too much deep thought, but it sounded like Moneyball-era Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta. Turns out, that whim wasn't far off the mark.

Today, The Politico has a story about Barack Obama's "Bill Jamesesque" delegate counter, Jeffrey Berman. By quietly dealing solely with delegate math, Berman has helped the Obama campaign cut through the mess of competing all-or-nothing primaries, winning the nomination where it really counted: the delegates. The symmetry to sober-minded sabermatricians using new math for insightful, predictive baseball analysis is kind of eerie:

A glimpse at Berman's, and the campaign's, detailed, Bill-Jamesesque approach to the game of politics came in a spreadsheet the campaign sent to Bloomberg reporters, it said inadvertently, on Feb. 5. The spreadsheet had estimates of the outcomes and delegate counts in every state; it has called the winner wrong just twice.

As Craig Calcaterra writes, the Bill James parallels run deep, even down to James's trademark beard. One more similarity: winning. Obama's done it. The A's have done it (in the regular season). The Red Sox have done it. It's probably not all that coincidental.

Normally when Rich Harden pitches, he's pretty dominant. Unfortunately, when he pitches and he's dominating, he also usually gets hurt. So Harden's return to the mound for Oakland on Sunday afternoon may have been a very good sign for the Athletics.

Rich was far from dominant on Sunday. He only lasted 3.2 innings against the Rangers, and allowed five runs on eight hits, four walks and five strikeouts. Whether or not such a performance would have merited a return to the mound in the fifth inning, we'll never know because Rich was on a pitch count and had surpassed it at that point.

The good news for Oakland, is that even though Harden didn't pitch well, the Athletics were able to get the win over the Rangers anyway, and are now a game ahead of the Angels in the AL West. Oh, and of course the fact that Rich's arm didn't explode. That's a plus too.

"I was definitely a little tired out there," Harden said. "They were working the count pretty well. That was the approach to take knowing it's my first start back. In the (fourth inning), I hit a wall, got a little tired and started missing my spots. Overall, I was somewhat happy. It felt good. That's all I can ask for my first start back. It helps to get past that first one, getting my confidence back in the arm."

The real test for Harden will have been this morning, when he woke up to what was undoubtedly a very sore arm. The good news is that it's just about 10:30AM local time in Oakland, and we haven't heard any news regarding Harden going back on the disabled list.

Remember, I set the over/under at 20 innings. He's at 3.2 now.

The Oakland Athletics are still tied for first place in the AL West, much to everybody's surprise, and it's all the more surprising that they've done it without Rich Harden. Still, if the Athletics are going to continue playing this well, and stay atop the division with the Angels all season, they're probably going to need Rich to stay healthy for the rest of the season.

Something that anybody who has been paying attention to Harden's career knows isn't likely to happen. Still, Harden will make his latest return from the disabled list this afternoon and start Oakland's series finale against the Rangers.

His teammates know how much he means to the team, but they're also aware of how fleeting his appearances usually are.

"Rich is very good when he's out there. We just want him to be out there," second baseman Mark Ellis said. "We hope he can throw well the rest of the season. The guy's in great shape and has an incredible arm. We want him out there because when he's out there, we've got a good chance to win."

Harden has only been healthy enough to make 18 starts since 2006 (two of them coming this year), and while I'd like to be able to say that this is the time he finally stays healthy, I know I'd be wrong. In fact, I'm setting the over/under at 20 innings pitched before Harden is back on the disabled list.

I like Frank Thomas, like him a lot. I was a teenager who devoured baseball when he hit the scene and, even though he never played a game for my team, I always dug him. His numbers, his size and his absolutely perfect nickname added up to make him one of my favorite players. My admiration for him only grew as he fought off injuries to return to productivity and went even higher when he stepped up to speak out against steroids and to the Mitchell Report by his own volition. So he's a stand-up guy and a fantastic hitter but he isn't a 2008 All-Star.

I say that in response to a very well argued piece on Big League Stew today by Kevin Kaduk. He brings up the Big Hurt's long absence from the game, 1997 was his last trip, and his place in the firmament of baseball's great hitters but focuses the argument on rewarding him for being the rare voice against steroids in baseball.

Yes, Frank had a phenomenal career - and it's possible it could continue past '08 - but this campaign is motivated by more than just Thomas' impressive numbers. It's also rooted in the fact that over the past few years, we've scolded suspected star after suspected star for possible steroid use. Yet we've done absolutely nothing to reward and applaud the players who have actually spoken out against it.

Those players absolutely should be applauded, I just think the onus is on another group.

Since coming over to the Athletics from the Blue Jays, Frank Thomas has been hitting a lot better than he was in Toronto, though he's not tearing the cover off the ball or anything. In fact, after his first twelve games back in Oakland, the Big Hurt has more triples (1) than home runs. Something tells me that the A's didn't sign Frank for his speed, though, and generally wanted some power production (though any team that allows their players to wear those uniforms probably deserves what they get).

Frank hasn't provided any, but it's not for lack of trying. In fact, Frank even admits he's basically been trying to do nothing but hit home runs, even passing up on off-speed pitches he knows he can hit because he knows he won't be able to poke it over the fence.

"I'm trying to go deep," the A's designated hitter said before batting practice Tuesday. "I really am. I have a good swing right now. I have a good approach, it's just the results aren't there."

He's been trying so hard, in fact, that after flying out to the center field warning track on Monday Thomas said, "I try not to show emotion, but I wanted to cry."

Unfortunately for the A's and Thomas, the harder Frank tries to go deep, the less likely he's going to be able to hit one. In all the years I watched Frank on a daily basis with the White Sox, he went on his biggest long ball tears when he wasn't trying to do to much at the plate. He was just so strong that sometimes that outside breaking ball he was just trying to go the other way with would keep on going for about 450 feet.

If he wants to start hitting the long ball again, he'd be better served to swing at those pitches he's passing on and just think up the middle, and those home runs will come back a lot quicker than expected.

As much of a surprise as the Athletics have been this season, what's made their early season success so much more remarkable is that they've done it without Rich Harden (Harden's stint on the DL has obviously been the least surprising thing about the A's this season). They've also been doing it without Keith Foulke, who was supposed to be a big part of their bullpen in 2008.

Still, despite the absence of those two, along with Eric Chavez, that Athletics are 19-14 and would be the American League wild card if the season ended today. Whether or not they'll be able to maintain this level of play all year remains to be seen, but they'll be getting a boost soon with both Harden and Foulke scheduled to re-join the team shortly.

"We are deeper with Harden and Foulke coming back," [manager Bob] Geren said. "It gives us good options."

Harden is scheduled to pitch Tuesday at Class A Stockton. Foulke, who had neck stiffness that sent him to the disabled list retroactive to April 11, will throw approximately 30 pitches today at Triple A Sacramento and again Wednesday in Stockton, at which point he should be ready to return to Oakland.

The Oakland Athletics are easily one of the biggest surprises of the young baseball season so far, as they continue to turn their collective nose up to everybody who was expecting this team to be horrible this season. They're currently tied with the Angels for the best record in the American League at 18-12, and as of yet they've shown no signs of fading.

Now generally, when teams do well, it helps increase attendance at games and in turn brings more money into the organization from the extra ticket sales, merchandise, etc. That wasn't the case in Oakland last night, as the A's lost quite a bit of money thanks to a promotion they ran for last night's game.

The A's announced a promotion before Thursday's game; one dollar would be shaved off plaza level ticket prices to Sunday's game for every hit the A's collected Thursday.

The 2,500 plaza level tickets available as of Thursday were going for $24. Factor in the A's 20 hits, and those seats are going for the bargain price of $4. The 20 hits were the most for the A's since they banged out 24 on June 26, 2005 against the Giants.

Using my super math skillz, that means the Athletics are about to lose out on $50,000 in revenue this Sunday.

Though, to be fair, I don't think it will matter very much considering Oakland has never had a lot of money to begin with. It's never kept them from winning either. So as long as the team keeps doing exactly that, I don't think the organization will mind all that much.

When the Blue Jays released Frank Thomas last Sunday, they did so because they felt that Frank was breaking down and wouldn't be able to contribute the offensive production the team needed from him. Originally they just wanted to bury him on the bench, but after Frank complained (nothing new there) he and the team decided it was best to part ways.

Now no matter what the Blue Jays say in this situation, I refuse to believe the team let Thomas go because of his play (or was it the lack of high fives), and that it had a lot more to do with not wanting to pay him $10 million next season. I mean, considering general manager J.P. Ricciardi is one of them newfangled "stat geeks" runnin' baseball teams these days, there's no way he would think the small sample size of the 60 at bats Thomas had had up to that point were enough to make a judgement on.

So instead the Blue Jays just decided to let Frank go, and pay him $8 million to play for somebody else. Well, hell hath no fury like a Big Hurt scorned, because Frank has been tearing the cover off the ball since joining the Oakland Athletics.

In his first five games with Oakland, Frank is hitting .313 with an OBP of .476 and an OPS of .914. The man even tripled yesterday. That's right, Frank Thomas tripled, and the game still managed to take under five hours to complete.

In other words, life is good for the Big Hurt right now. Not only is he hitting well and proving his doubters in Toronto wrong so far, but he's gone from a last place team in the AL East to the team with the best record in the American League right now.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Los Angeles Angels (16-10) vs. Oakland Athletics (16-10) - 10:05PM Est.

The fact that the Angels and Athletics are fighting for the top spot in the AL West isn't exactly a new experience. I mean, they've been doing it for just about the entire 21st century but they weren't supposed to be doing it this season. No, the AL West this season was supposed to be a two-horse race between the Angels and Mariners while the Athletics were supposed to be mired in a rebuilding process and battling with the Rangers for third place.

Yet here we are nearly finished with the first month of the regular season, and Oakland is tied with Los Angeles for the best record in the American League. To make it even more surprising, they're doing it without Eric Chavez and Rich Harden.

Just what the hell is going on here?