Mulder not coming back

Derrick Gould reported yesterday the Cardinals have not picked up Mark Mulder's option for the 2009 season, instead bought out his contract for $1.5 mil. I don't think this comes as surprise to anyone, including Mark Mulder. The article stated Mark's still working out at his home trying to rehabilitate his arm, but I don't think anyone's going to come calling.

We also found out yesterday that the Cardinals probably aren't really in the Jake Peavy sweepstakes, based on Bernie Micklasz's article (which referenced a SD Union Tribune article by Tim Sullivan). That, I think, is unfortunate, but in some ways understandable. If they really, really believe that Colby Rasmus will be the franchise's CF for the next 15 years, then trading him to San Diego for 5 years of Jake Peavy might not be worth it. And if the Padres won't even start negotiations if the proposal doesn't include Rasmus, then perhaps it's DOA. But boy wouldn't a rotation of Peavy/Carpenter/Wainwright/Lohse/Wellemeyer be fun?


Some belated comments/thoughts about Game 7 of the ALCS:

- You realize no Florida-based ML team has ever lost a post-season series?
- The Jon Lester that pitched the first 3 innings of Game 7 is the Lester I thought would show up for Game 3.
- I knew Matt Garza was good, but I didn't think he was good enough to 2-hit the Red Sox for 7 innings.
- In the crazy eighth, Pedroia JUST MISSED hitting a 3-run HR. And he knew it, judging from his reaction in the dugout after the at bat.
- This is the first time a Wild Card winner won't be in the world series since the Mets/Yankees series (as we mentioned before).

Of course, the 'this sucks, no one's going to watch this series' articles have started appearing (here's one on sportsline.com). No big media market involved. No 'As The World Turns' drama with Manny. No end the curse stuff with the Cubs. Boo frigging hoo.

I'm sure the fans in Philadelphia and Tampa will be respectfully apologetic they're in the WS. If asked, I'll bet the teams will defer to Chicago and Boston to give Fox the matchup they really wanted.

Yeah right.

What you will get, however, is some excellent baseball. Lots of young pitchers, good hitters, and solid defense in this series. For the baseball fan, this will be a great series. In fact, I don't think the Rays are that overwhelming a team when compared to the Phillies. I think this series will be competitive and a lot better than expected. I also think it will be the first series since 2003 to see a Game 6 at least.

Should be fun.

One more interesting little tidbit. Jimmy Rollins recently said he wanted to change the culture of losing in Philadelphia when he got there. The Phillies have been around for 126 years. If he'd played during the first 98 years, there'd have been a culture of losing needing fixing; after all, the Phillies won exactly 2 NL championships in those 98 years (1915 and 1950). However, starting in 1980, guess who the teams are to have appeared in the World Series more than twice?

AL - NY Yankees (7 - 1981, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003), Boston (3 - 1986, 2004, 2007)

NL - St Louis (5 - 1982, 1985, 1987, 2004, 2006), Atlanta (5 - 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1999), Philadelphia (4 - 1980, 1983, 1993, 2008).

The Phillies have been to twice as many World Series in the last 28 years than in the first 98. I think the culture has already changed, and that change started with Michael Jack Schmidt and those great Philly teams in the 1970s. For what it's worth.

Cardinals Taking On Water, Limp Towards Pittsburgh

(Heh heh heh - a nautical reference in the title. Go Navy).

To go into Whatever-the-Vet-is-Called-Now Park (with apologies to Bill Simmons) and limit the Phillies to 8 runs is a feat worth celebrating. But only if you score more than 8. Five? Not going to get the job done. Like the Cubs series last weekend, the club is lucky to escape with a win and not get swept.

And it's not like the Phillies sent Curt Schilling, Steve Carlton, and Robin Roberts (in their primes, of course) to the mound in this series. Cole Hamels? He's legit. But to get shut out for 6 innings by a rookie (who was sent down after the game, to add insult to injury) and score one run off a guy who pitched when Moses managed the Israelites? Wow.

Thanks to Cincinnati clubbing the Cubs yesterday (7 HR in the game, guess the wind was blowing out at Wrigley) the Cardinals remain 4.5 games off the pace. They have been no further from first than that all season. As PNC Park is usually a tonic for all that ails Albert Pujols (his numbers at that park are ridiculous, according to reports; anyone know of a website where they show statistics by ballpark?), hopefully they can win the series going into the break. Chicago enterains the Giants - Matt Cain draws our ol' buddy Marquis tonight, then Correia gets Rich Harden's Cubs debut, and Lincecum hooks up with Dempster on Sunday - so there is a chance the Giants could get 2 of those games. I'd really like to be 3.5 or less games out going into the break, even if we still have to leap over Milwaukee in the standings.

**********

I keep turning over Mark Mulder's last 2 years in my mind. Bryan Burwell wrote an excellent column on Mark that appears in today's Post-Dispatch, and for once, I agree with everything he said. If there are folks out there who feel that Mark somehow didn't try hard enough, or stole money from the Cardinal organization during this entire ordeal, well, please don't reproduce and pass your ignorance on to another generation.

But that's not what troubles me. Ever seen The Pentagon Wars? Highly entertaining movie about the M1A1 Bradley development contract. I won't turn this into a review of the movie, but suffice it to say the Bradley continues to receive government funding for development in spite of repeated, and obvious, flaws in the design; the Army's top acquisition folks continue to push forward the project regardless of what the warning signs tell them. This approach nicely approximates how the Cardinals handled Mark Mulder (for more thoughts in this vein, see the first couple of paragraphs of this piece). Mark continued to get promoted up the ladder during his rehab, even though all the evidence said he can't get hitters out anymore. There was no reason to subject him to the beating he took at AAA and the Major League level if he couldn't do it.

One of my favorite bosses was fond of saying, "My success is a direct reflection of the great work everyone here does. I'm not this good; I'm riding on the coattails of your hard work, and I thank you." This is true for any organization. Since the contribution of everyone is so core to the success of the group, a leader is obligated to take care of his people. Hopefully what's best for the employee is also best for the organization, but in some cases it isn't, and that's why we get paid the big bucks - to make those evaluations and pick the right course of action (in the military it's a little different; people come first in peacetime, but in war the job comes first). After watching Mark Mulder stuggle for the past two years, and really after his rise through the minors when he obviously wasn't ready, the organization didn't do that.

It's the same bull-headed wrong thinking that keeps pitchers who are Major League ready (Reyes) off the ML roster, and those who really aren't (Parisi, Perez, Boggs, now Garcia) get promoted.

And it's the same medical incompetence that Scott Rolen dealt with his last 2 years here.

I'll wrap this up, because I have real work to do. Mozeliak has done a fine job rebuilding the organization's talent pool, as has been documented elsewhere and praised here. He would be well-served to take a hard look at those in positions of power who advocated the medical and personnel decisions that have backfired badly this season. And if he is the source of this, he'd better take a long hard look in the mirror. Being in charge isn't about doing the easy and making sure everyone likes you. You get paid to make the hard decisions based on sound judgment.

And that was sorely lacking for Mark Mulder.

Cards win 2-0; Cubs Get Harden from A's

My work-league softball game was last night, and while warming up one of my buddies casually mentioned the Cubs trading for Rich Harden. My initial response was "Get out of here!" It was only Sunday that (at least to my attention) the rumor of Chicago trying to acquire Harden from Oakland was broached anywhere (specifically Baseball Tonight on ESPN), and now 2 days later he's wearing blue?

Of course, it's true - Harden and Gaudin for Gallagher, Murton, Eric Patterson, and a minor league catcher.

There was a Calvin N Hobbes cartoon several years ago where the two main characters were having a water fight - first Calvin hit Hobbes with a water gun, then Hobbes hit Calvin with a water balloon, and so on. At one point, Calvin exclaims, "Aha! He's escalated the war!" That memory is what leapt into my mind when I realized the Harden trade was official. And it applies not only to the Brewers, who doubled down with the Sabathia trade a day earlier, but to the Cardinals as well.

John Mozeliak will be under some pressure to make a counter move in the starting rotation now. Not only because the Cardinals rotation, as currently constructed, can't match the 1-2 punch Milwaukee and Chicago can field, but also to lift spirits in the locker room, which I'm sure are a little bit down right now as the guys realize their quest for a playoff spot just got a whole lot tougher. You never want to give up on a season; it's too rare a thing to be in a position to make the playoffs (I think as a whole we Cardinals fans don't realize how lucky/blessed we've been this decade by the quality of teams St Louis has put on the field, and the runs they've made in October), and once into October anything can happen (a la 2006); but this team has, realistically, played over its head for 3 months.

So I implore Mozeliak: Don't make a rash move in a narrow-minded attempt to stay with Chicago and Milwaukee. You've done a tremendous job rebuilding the farm system since stepping into the GM position, and your trades/free agent signings have been deliberate and tactically sound. Don't misstep now and overreach, which jeopardizes the team's chances to compete in 2009 and beyond.

From yesterday's game, Piniero pitched his butt off, and the Cardinals got just enough offense to win 2-0. Solo shots by Ankiel and Ludwick provided all the offense Piniero would get; thankfully, it was all the offense he and a trio of relievers would need. However, the offense has become a big concern lately. Going back to the Cubs series over the weekend, the Cardinals have scored exactly 9 runs their past 4 games. 5 of those 9 runs have come on solo HR (Ludwick 2, Ankiel 2, and AP). In fact, the only inning they manufactured any kind of rally was the ninth inning of Saturday's game against Kerry Wood. I'm not sure if they've faced superior pitching lately (which is possible; Zambrano, Lilly and Hamels will make any lineup look bad), or if their lack of patience which first manifest itself when Albert went on the DL is now endemic in their approach at the plate, or if they continue to struggle mightily with RISP to get a hit. Whatever it is, they need to straighten it out pronto, or they'll get buried.

We already are functioning at a high level with a spit-and-bailing-wire rotation, that's been bailed out partially by a competent offense; if the bats go to sleep, we'll drop like a stone. I for one would rather not see that happen.

Mark Mulder's High Wire Act gets the start tonight. I don't want to watch, but I can't look away. I've got a $5 bet he won't last 3 innings; prove me wrong, Mark.