The Gas House Gang

The Cardinals re-signed Mark Mulder yesterday to a two year, $13 million deal that has a ton incentives.  If Mulder meets all of them, the deal transforms into a three year, $45 million deal.  Mulder is still relatively young (29) but he had rotator cuff surgery that limited him to 13 pretty poor starts in 2006.

There’s no doubt that Mulder at his best is very good.  His walk rate has come up a bit the past couple of seasons and while he is hittable, he was also a workhorse before his current injury.  The downside here is if you look at his numbers, they’ve regressed in just about every season since his 21 win season in 2001.

At least we’re not locked in for a lot of money here.   If he comes back and flops, the $6+ million will hurt but not as bad as if we signed him to what he’s potentially worth.