Diamondbacks pitcher, and former Athletics ace, Dan Haren told RealGM on Monday afternoon that he fully expected Oakland to trade pitcher Rich Harden at some point. "I wasn?t surprised at all," Haren said of the trade that sent Harden from Oakland to Chicago last week. "It was almost a matter of time." Barry Zito, Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson are some of the other star pitchers that got their start with the low-budget Athletics. "The only question for him [Harden] was health. The guy is one of the best pitchers in baseball when he?s right, and he?s right now and he would help any team he went to," Harden said. "He?s a phenomenal talent, I just hope he?s healthy and is able to show people how good he can be." Haren, in the middle of his first season in the National League this year after joining Arizona, also compared baseball's two leagues. "Last year I was partial to the American League, obviously being in the AL. This year I think the starting pitching in the National League is so deep, I mean in our division the pitching is just phenomenal. Everybody has a great one-two punch, and now the NL has gotten better, and bringing [C.C.] Sabathia and [Rich] Harden over too," Haren said. He is 8-5 with a 2.72 ERA and 112 strikeouts in 125.2 innings of work this season. "I?m kind of partial to the National League now," Haren added. "Coming over from the AL I thought maybe the lineups would be a little bit easier, maybe a little easier to win games, but that definitely hasn?t been the case."