Fuhrig,

Interesting question: Could Mulder have moved his arm slot a year ago? Short answer: No. There was a physical reason why Mulder could not throw and that rotator cuff had to be repaired. When the first repair didn’t take entirely — always a possibility when it comes to surgery — he needed the second surgery to get healthy.

That prompted this lengthy rehab for healthy but also afforded him time to repair his mechanics. He said they looked at video of him when he was younger and healthier and determined that his slot was up and it had dropped over time. So, they worked to RESTORE that arm slot. As you mention it’s not unusual for a pitcher to try different arm slots for comfort during a career. Whatever the shoulder will allow. As a scout said to me in Springfield as Mulder threw: “Look at John Smoltz.”

PostCards will return this week. Started digging into the questions last night and will do so again during tonight’s game. I do think I need to up the price of admission to hit the ‘bag with the Bard of Blogs …

Oh, heck, I can’t even fake it.

dg
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The galling thing about the Mulder trade is that it was very clear from his catastrophic decline in the second half of 2004 that something quite serious was wrong with him physically. The A’s (and/or Mulder himself) explained this as “fatigue,” and the Cardinals apparently bought it. Abysmally stupid. In my opinion, the Cardinals (i.e., Jocketty) were motivated to make the trade because: 1) Tony is in love with anything left handed pitchers (if he had stayed in California, he could marry a left handed pitcher now; too bad); 2)Tony drastically under-rated Haren because at the time his MO was to avoid inexperienced players at all costs (remember he was going to pick Bobby Bonilla over Pujols); 3)there was a lot of media pressure to match the move the Braves made in picking up Hudson from the Braves. All of these motivations are horrendously stupid, and (I think) eventually cost Jocketty his job. Tony deserved the sack too, but I believe he is a changed man since cirumstances forced him to rely on young pitching in the 2006 post-season, which delivered him his first non-earthquake-assisted championship. So it’s time to move on. Mulder is toast (toast who happens to hold a big claim on Cardinals’ revenues). The Old Griz.

At the time I hated giving up Haren, but I could see why management thought it was a good idea. Mulder was the one of the top-ten pitchers throwing at the time. I think we all could tell that Haren had the stuff to be really good, but a lot of pitchers have great stuff ad can’t put it together. The odds that Haren would realize his full potential, as he has, were low.
This also took place during the time when Larussa refused to play any players and especially pitchers who were less than 25 years old. I just hope the same thing doesn’t happen to the young pitchers we have now. It seems they’ve already given up on Anthony Reyes, and that’s bad enough. TLR and Duncan have a ton of wisdom regarding pitchers, but after Reyes failed to producing using the sinker style they imposed on him they should have let him pitch the way he wanted. He couldn’t get any worse than last year. If we trade Anthony this year, and he gets a coach that will work with him rather than against him he’ll be the next Dan Haren.

I’m just sick of hearing about Mulder and Clement. People, people please, they ain’t coming back and they ain’t gonna contribute to this team, not this year, not next year, not ever. It’s time to think about packaging up some talent and getting another starter at the deadline (if the Cards are still in contention, which I’ll bet they will be, depending a lot on this road trip). I do not want to hear anymore of this pinning our title hopes on has beens and retreads. As Jim and Tammy Faye used to say, “enough is enough”.

Say what you want..but that deal for Mulder was on link in an chain of events that help lead the Cards to the 2006 WS title.

Could we have won with Haren? Sure
Would we have been better with Haren in 2006? Yes

But we dont know for sure, maybe if we keep Haren we dont get Eckstein, who doesnt win the WS MVP.

Maybe we keep Grudz and Belliard doesnt make that game saving diving catch in SD.

Maybe Kiko Calero is on the team and there isnt a need to bring up a tall right hander named Adam to pitch in the bullpen.

Of course I would love to go back and change the deal…but with having so many things go right in 2006…I dont think we get the same results.

So I would make that Mulder deal everytime if it resulted in a WS title.

Indirectly or directly….the trade of Haren for Mulder in some way helped this team win a WS.

You get what I am talking about? Sometimes even the worst things play a positive role in what happens!

What people forget is at the time the deal was made the Cards were looking for a front-line proven starting pitcher to take them further into the playoffs. While I’m sure they felt Haren would be a good future starting pitcher prospect, the pressure was on Jocketty because of the advancing age of some of the teams stars to adopt the ” The future is now ” team policy and beside that St Louis fans were crying not just for a playoff winner but a World Series winner. With Carpenter as the one punch, I’m sure they felt they needed a one-two punch in the playoffs and in adding Mulder they felt they getting that. Many teams have mortaged part of their future in order to win today. If the Cards had won a World Series with Mulder the deal would have been look at as a brilliant move by the fans today. — Ed H

When dealing with arms this expensive I wonder how much research is put into looking at video of things like pitchers arm slots, velocity, degree of movement etc. It is hard to imagine that the A’s didn’t fulling understand the problems that Mulder was experiencing with the degree to which they are said to measure such.

Mulder isn’t the only problem on the club. As I look at the transaction list for this year, the Cards are tied for second with 20 (and several more in the coming days we expect). In first place with 22 are the Tigers (the year’s biggest disappointment) and tied with the Cards are the Rockies (right up there with Detroit as far as drop-offs). Signs confirming Bernie’s judgement that our manager is doing another bang up job. (As I have mentioned before, it seems as if Bernie calls each year Tony’s best managerial year to date. This year should be no exception.)

DG, you re-opened a can of worms on steroids with this blog

this article is another example of why I cant stand or deal with the post disgrace
If its either being reminded of how Jocketty made 2 bad deals in his tenure as GM or How much of a great manager whitey Herzog is and was and how his name always pops up when Tony decides or is on the verge of walking away…makes me sick and feel the after effects of a long night of Jack/Coke on ice.
Whitey is a quitter and not a great manager
The Mulder deal is not like the cardinals traded a player the caliber of a Pujols,Molina,Wainwright.
Last time I checked this morning the year was 2008 and this town, writers for the disgrace and “cardinal” fans are still ranting abut this deal

A quote from one of my favorite 80’s movies that sums up this article,everyones comments…”Its over ,Johnny…ITS OVER!!’-FIRST BLOOD 1982

It’s always tricky to play The Time Traveller* with these things, but it wouldn’t take long to unravel time and find an alternate reality where not dealing Haren for Mulder means not needing to acquire Jeff Weaver (for Terry Evans, mind you) and where would that leave the Cardinals come the World Series?

Not sure what you mean, but cans of worms are welcome. They ain’t pretty but they’re necessary.

* Too obscure of a reference? Sorry. Perhaps Quantum Leap, Rip Hunter, or Dr. Who would have been the better time traveler to use instead of referencing H.G. Well’s unnamed chap.

dg
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