he St. Louis Cardinals intend to cut ties with often-injured left-hander Mark Mulder, paying a $1.5 million buyout rather than exercising an $11 million option on his contract.

General manager John Mozeliak said Tuesday he sent a letter to Mulder's agent, Gregg Clifton, informing him of the franchise's intention. The Cardinals had until Nov. 15 to notify Mulder.

"We don't have to do anything yet, but the likelihood is we will buy him out," Mozeliak said.

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Mulder has shoulder problems and has missed most of the last 2 seasons with multiple surgeries... before the shoulder issues, he was a pretty good pitcher... but lately, he's been anything but a good pitcher. Over the last 2 seasons he's pitched just under 13 innings with and 11+ ERA. Is he even worth the risk?? He has 103 career wins and 60 losses with a 4.18 ERA... but that was before the injury problems.

I say... put him in the Mike Hampton category... if we can get him on the cheap and offer him some incentives... go for it.  But I'm not going to give him 5+ million a season or anything like that.  I'll give him... 2 million with incentives to get up to 5 million and then a guaranteed 2nd year of 5+ million if he makes 25 starts... but I'm not going much more than that.  

Mulder has a chance to make a GM look REALLY smart next season... and a chance to make a GM look REALLY stupid next season.  Being an Astros fan, it seems like we've been on the lesser end of that totem pole a few times too many.  So I would exercise this with extreme caution.  But there's no doubting the guy has talent... and if healthy, could help this team.