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Cardinals place LHP Mulder on DL; recall LHP Garcia

St. Louis Cardinals

Placed LHP Mark Mulder on the 15-day Disabled List with a strained left shoulder; Recalled LHP Jaime Garcia from Triple-A Memphis.

TG Analysis

Sadly, Mulder’s career may well have reached its nadir. Just 16 pitches into his first major league start in ten months, Mulder was removed with shoulder discomfort. The 6-6 lefty’s struggles hardly come as a surprise, though, as multiple shoulder injuries, a plummeting K rate and a lowered arm slot (a concession to those shoulder woes) conspired to stunt Mulder’s career. If this is all she wrote, the former Big Three member goes out with a 4.18 ERA (good for a 106 ERA+) and two All-Star appearances, coming in 2003 and 2004.

In happier news, the Cardinals have called upon another well-regarded, groundballing lefty in Garcia. A 22nd round selection out of Mission, Texas in the 2005 Amateur Draft, Garcia features a low-90’s sinker and a plus curve, mixing in an occasional changeup that needs some polish. The 6-1, 200 pounder has split the 2008 campaign between AA Springfield (35 IP, 2.06 ERA, 41/16 K/BB) and AAA Memphis (68.2 IP, 4.59 ERA, 57/25 K/BB), burning plenty of worms in the process (62 GB% at AA, 56% at AAA). Whether Garcia (likely to pitch out of the ‘pen initially) is ready for primetime is debatable- his BB/9 at the AA/AAA levels is 3.65- but as a lefty with groundball tendencies and a good hook, he has the look of a solid mid-rotation starter in the long run.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Jamie Garcia, Mark Mulder, Cardinals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.