Mulder shut down with “mild strain”
DENVER — After a meeting with the Cardinals team doctor Wednesday morning, lefthanded starter Mark Mulder will be shut down for at least a week to calm what’s being called a “mild rotator cuff strain”, the team announced in a press release this afternoon.
Mulder experienced what was described as “shoulder fatigue” during his start Monday in Memphis. He was scheduled for one start on his rehab assignment, and then the Cardinals were going to have to decide what do with the lefthander when the 30 days of his rehab assignment expired May 14.
Wednesday’s diagnosis delays that decision.
“The bottomline is this is not a setback whatsoever,” Mulder’s agent Gregg Clifton said this afternoon. “It’s a hiatus for a week, and then after he’s re-evaluated he’ll be back out there. … Everyone feels a brief rest period will allow him to come back (feeling stronger).”
Mulder is coming off two shoulder surgeries in the past two seasons. The first was a repairing of his labrum and left rotator cuff. The second was needed last September to repatch a section of the rotator cuff that did not heal following the first surgery.
Through his rehab, Mulder has also been trying to break the bad mechanical habits that developed over the course of pitching several seasons with rotator cuff troubles. That has mainly meant restoring his arm slot to a higher, full-extension release than he ever had as a Cardinal.
The lefthander met with Dr. George Paletta in St. Louis in Wednesday morning. The evaluation discovered a “mild rotator cuff strain”, and a seven to 10 days of rest were prescribed. He will be re-evaluated at the end of the stretch.
Mulder made five starts on his rehab assignment, posting a 6.66 ERA and allowing 33 hits in 25 2/3 innings on his rehab assignment.
More later today here and on StlToday.com
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Derrick Goold told everyone he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but really after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was drawn to MU's primo location between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball inbetween. 
Hmmm….his agent says “it’s not a setback whatsoever.” This is the same guy that said Mulder would be pitching in June of 2007!!! He’s really giving agents a much worse name than they already have.
On another note, saying it was a bad trade is a joke. Mulder was an absolute stud in Oakland. I live in NoCal and saw him for 5 years before the trade. I honestly thought he be a perennial 20-game winner in StL. Yes, we all loved Haren, especially after the 2004 postseason, but you had to give to get. Barton would have had no position in StL