DENVER — Cardinals lefty Mark Mulder is on his way to St. Louis — not to throw a bullpen or workout at the facilities at Busch Stadium, but to meet with the team’s doctor about his twice surgically repaired left shoulder.
Manager Tony La Russa said in the debriefing of Mulder’s rehab start Monday night in Memphis it mentioned the lefty “felt some shoulder fatigue.” Mulder will meet with Dr. George Paletta on Wednesday morning to get a look at how his shoulder is after his fifth rehab start.
Mulder is scheduled to start Saturday in Tucson for Triple-A Memphis.
Asked if Mulder’s meeting with the doctor signals that his next start could be in jeopardy, La Russa said: “I would say so.”
Mulder is due to come off his 30-day rehab assignment May 14.
General manager John Mozeliak saw in person Mulder pitch Monday (more on that game can be found here, from reporter Jim Masilak), and the GM said afterward Mulder mentioned the fatigue sensation in his shoulder. Mulder allowed seven runs on nine hits over six innings. He threw 90 pitches.
“We hope it’s nothing serious,” Mozeliak said this evening. “I hate to characterize it until he’s seen the doctor and we know the results of that.”
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I can’t criticize the Cardinals for the Mulder trade since they were in the mode of “win now” when the deal was made. They obtained an established lefty with a good winning track record. As Yogi would say “it ain’t over til it’s over”. If he can come back “sometime-anytime” and be his normal self it is worth waiting for. If not…we wish him well and just move on.
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Tech,
Yep. There’s a filter. Me. Took me a big to navigate the new design to find a way to push-button edit. Still looking … but I was able to take down the colorful language. Remember, folks, even with the new background here at StlToday.com, we can’t work blue …
dg
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The big problem with the Mulder-Haren deal was that Mulder was damaged goods. The Cardinals should have known it. Mulder had an existing hip injury that was throwing off his pitching motion, even when he was still getting outs and winning games in 2005. There was a segment on Baseball Tonight in ‘05 that talked about it, long before Mulder fell apart in May 2006 ahead of the team admitting a shoulder injury. When you consider how long it took Mulder to destroy his motion with the bad hip and eventually burn out the shoulder, it’s no surprise that he’s gonna need a long, long rehab to get back on track — assuming that more damage isn’t uncovered with this latest setback. From a human perspective, Mulder’s got to be dreading this doctor visit, given everything he’s been through for the last 24 months. Then again, he brought it on himself by continuing to pitch on a bad hip in hopes of lasting long enough to get a Mike Hamptonian free-agent deal. Say, what’s the status of the bad hip that started his decline?
You might say that it was reason enough to fire Walt Jocketty. Re-signing the injured Mulder for $13 million over two years has netted us three terrible starts in ‘07 and probably nothing for the first half of ‘08. Another reason to fire Jocketty. The Edmonds re-signing was possibly worse. With Jimmy Baseball hitting .160 for San Diego, Mozeliak probably deserves a contract extension already, just for getting the Padres to take him off our hands for a lousy $2 million, and getting them to throw in a third-base prospect. With Ankiel playing center and hitting, who misses Edmonds? Sorry, Jimmy.
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The new web design is not attractive. To the folks at the P-D. This is a mistake folks.
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OK, that post has been up for 12 hours now. It’s time for somebody in the web operation to take it down. Maybe they’re too busy with the redesign, which I don’t like, BTW.
Sometimes offensive can at least be clever, but that was just stupid and incomprehensible, really. What does Hitler have to do with Mark Mulder? Or baseball? It wasn’t a medal sport at the 1936 Olympics. That post is just pathetic and sad.
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Doesn’t anyone screen these posts for onscenities?
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Your an idiot
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#7
exactly. it’s easy to call it a bad trade in hindsight. at the time mulder was unstoppable. i simply write off anybody who says it was a bad trade. it’s easy to say that now.
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Hindsight is obviously 20-20 here, as all of Cards Nation would like a do over here. At the time of the trade, Mulder was the winningest leftty in the game over the last 5 years, I believe, and Haren had shown that he may be a great pitcher. Mulder was only 28 at the time we picked him up, plenty of time for him to pitch for us in his prime before his decline. This was one of the only times in my recollection that the Cards actually went out and got one of the top arms in the game either in free agency or through a trade.
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The moment I heard the Cards had traded Haren for Mulder, I was ticked. Trading good young arms for older declining arms is something GM’s should learn NOT to do in GM 101.
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Re: #4
I’m sorry, my arm slot problem comment was said with a tinge of a sarcasm. Arm slot problems were the common refrain when no one in Cards brass would admit his shoulder was hurt in 06 (pre surgey 1?)
If based on your observations his is throwing over the middle of the plate, he’s obviously going to rocked because he is only throwing high 80s. If this arm stuff isn’t an issue, maybe more time will give him the control he is missing.
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I’ve seen both of his rehab starts in Memphis. I don’t think arm slot is the problem. He can’t seem to keep his pitches off the center of the plate (except when he hit a couple of guys last night). I think shoulder strength may be more the issue, just as it is after Matt Clement’s surgery. Has anyone had a Clement sighting recently? How are he and Carpenter progressing?.
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Arm slot problems?
Consider I made this post (http://felone.blogspot.com/2006/08/dont-worry-mark-im-sure-your-arm-slots.html) in August of 06 and he’s contributed nothing since shows what a wasted investment Mulder has been for the Cards.
I wish him well and hope he heals, but this feels like Joe Magrane or Donovan Osborne, eventually they are going to realize we can’t wait for him forever.
Let him go at the end of the year and hope it doesn’t bite you in the end.
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I think we’ve seen the last of Mark pitching at Busch Stadium. This is probably just a precursory move to the Cardinals tucking Mark away on the DL. They will sit him down for 15 more days and if they need a pitcher at the end of that, he’ll go back out on a 30 day rehab assignment to see if he has anything left.
I can only hope that once they realize picking up Mark’s option next year is a bad idea, they don’t turn around and hand that money to Kyle Lohse in the form of an extension. They need to stick to their guns with the rebuilding and use Lohse’s improved value to improve the franchise for the longterm at the trade deadline.
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They are pushing. He needs to take his time. See you next year Mark.
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