Quote:
Originally Posted by BaseballMan
well i dont remeber who was involved in the trade but Mulder didnt really have a bad season his fiirst year in st.louis. Was there any indication he would develop the Kerry Wood syndrome before they traded for him?
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Actually, Mulder had started to decline the last half of the season before he was traded. He was amazing in the 1st half of the season as he started the All Star Game in Houston (where he got roughed up if I remember correctly). He then nosedived in the 2nd half (scouts started to wonder if he was hurt), got traded, started slowly with the Cards, pitched an epic 10 inning 1-0 win vs. Clemens, which got him back on track for about a month or two, then has been pretty much toast since then.
As a Cards fan, I don't hate Jocketty for this trade as Mulder was a marquee pitcher at the time and never had injury problems. I guess you can point to his 2nd half collapse, but there was really no reason to believe he wasn't going to bounce back. I remember thinking of how much we had to give up to get him, but Mulder was a total ace so I was all for it. Barton was never going to see the field in STL with Pujols at 1B and while I loved Calero, relievers of his stature aren't ridiculously difficult to replace. As for Haren, you have to admit, you didn't see ace written on him when he was with STL. He looked like he would be a solid #3 guy (John Maine-esque). If Mulder would have continued his career progress as normal, this trade would have been win-win.