The Baseball Gods Must Be Crazy!

The St Louis Cardinals agreed to terms with Mark Mulder today–2 years, $13 Million!!  Yep, the baseball Gods must be crazy!!  Now, I have no problem taking a chance on the guy–the Astros did the same with Carlos Hernandez in 2003.  But, they weren’t crazy enough to pay him a multi-million dollar contract.(granted Hernandez was just a rookie at the time)  In fact, they passed on Wade Miller two years later…My suspicion is it was based on the failed Carlos Hernandez experiment. 

Carlos Hernandez, the Astros rookie phenom Lefty injured his shoulder on a freak play sliding into second base in 2001 (turned out to be a torn labrum, underwent surgery in 2002)…Wade Miller tore his shoulder up in 2004 (another torn labrum), underwent surgery, got non-tendered by the Astros after the 2004 season, signed with the Red Sox in 2005, was riddled with injuries that year, underwent another shoulder surgery, signed with the Cubs in 2006, was ineffective, underwent more surgery, and has now been re-signed for 2007…this story is so similar to that of Carlos Hernandez, who worked so hard to try to come back, but never could–In the end, the Astros finally cut him after the 2006 season.

Why the Cardinals think that Mulder who had the same surgery as both Hernandez and Miller will turn out to be different, befuddles me…medical statistics have shown that only 8 percent of pitchers who undergo the type of labrum surgery that Mulder has, ever recover enough velocity to pitch in the majors again…the only successful example that I know of is Chris Carpenter.

Do the Cardinals believe they can catch lightning in a bottle twice?  If so, more power to them.  However, a betting man (or woman) would guess that it is more likely Mark Mulder will end up just like Carlos Hernandez and Wade Miller–trying to come back year after year after year, finally to be cut by his team.

7 comments

  3. Rita

    Yes I question this signing because it was one of the stupidest signings in recent baseball history. I guess the Cardinals didn’t pay attention to the Astros woes with torn labrum injuries with Carlos Hernandez or Wade Miller or to the subsequent errors of judgement by the Red Sox and Cubs concerning Miller…

    I have done quite a bit of research on torn labrum surgery simply because I loved Carlos Hernandez and felt it was such a shame he couldn’t ever recover from it. Carlos worked so hard, harder than Miller or any other American to get his velocity and form back, but he never could–the Astros gave him every break possible, but finally they had to cut him loose. He will eventually become one of our pitching scouts or coaches at some level because the Astros organization feels they owe it to him, but, sadly, he’ll never be that #1 prospect he was back in 2001 ever again.

    Here are a couple of articles that talk about torn labrum surgery…the future is rather bleak for Miller and Mulder as it is for Carlos Hernandez…

    http://www.slate.com/id/2100895

    http://mariners.scout.com/2/422181.html

    There are more, and if you insist, I’ll post the links on those…suffice to say, torn labrum surgery isn’t TJ surgery and Mulder won’t be able to recover just as Wade Miller and Carlos Hernandez haven’t been able to recover.

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  4. Rita

    Besides, the Cardinals haven’t made any moves this off season worth mentioning…re-signing Edmonds, signing Kennedy…those are basically non-moves and you know it.

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  5. Thomas

    I think 13 million over 2 years is a little much, but it’s probably what they had to give up to get him… I’m assuming someone else was dangling some money out there as well and with all of the nothing the Cards have done this off season, they had to do something… even if the something they did was taking a chance with Mulder.

    I would have thought it would have been something like a 1 year 2-3 million with incentives though.

    -Stros Bro

    http://www.crawfishboxes.com

    Reply
  6. Rita

    It could actually end up being 3 years $45 million with all incentives met. Now I doubt he’ll meet all the incentives, but that is just a sign of how desperate the Cardinals must feel…

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