Successful career (is ending) quietly for pitcher Mark Mulder

[Auggie]

MLB.com / June 15, 2010

It wasn't big or flashy, but on Monday, Mark Mulder stated his retirement from baseball for the first time. "I guess I am ," Mulder told AOL FanHouse on Monday. "I haven't touched a baseball since February." The former A's and Cardinals hurler, who at one time was part of Oakland's young "Big Three," along with Tim Hudson and Barry Zito, is now spending his days on the golf course instead of the baseball diamond.

In another life, Mulder was a bright 23-year-old left-hander for the A's, who won 21 games in 2001. He, Hudson and Zito carried the Athletics into the playoffs several times in the early part of the decade. But after a 2005 trade to St. Louis, Mulder soon began experiencing shoulder injuries that would plague him for the rest of his career.

SNIP

The 32-year-old's baseball career ended quietly in February after an attempt to come back with the Brewers this spring never materialized. Milwaukee was thought to be a likely fit because Mulder's former pitching coach Rick Peterson was there. Peterson told MLB.com this spring that it appeared Mulder was headed for retirement, but Mulder's agent, Gregg Clifton, denied that was the case. "Mark has not decided to retire," Clifton wrote in an e-mail to MLB.com. "He is reassessing his options in his efforts to come back.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100615&content_id=11200204&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

If he is retired, his career stats as of today: 103-60 career record, 4.18 ERA. From 2001 thru 2005 he won 15 or more games.

Mulder, Hudson and Zito -- an awesome trio of starting pitchers.