If You Want The Job Done Right: Mulder and Halladay May Be The Last True Aces

Mark Mulder’s career probably ended last week, not with a bang but with a whimper. Mulder couldn’t get out of the first inning of the Cardinals game July 9 against the Phillies, throwing 16 pitches and getting only one out before leaving the game due to yet another injury, possibly the final setback of his extended comeback attempt.

Mulder’s gradual fade hasn’t gotten a lot of attention – it has been spread over three years to the point that people have just forgotten about him, and while his statistics are good, they were never eye-popping. One year leading the league in wins (2001), but no ERA crowns, no strikeout titles (never even in the picture on strikeout races, in fact), little jumping off the back of his baseball card.

But I, for one, will miss Mark Mulder. Not because of any connection to the A’s or the Cardinals; I have none. Not because of any personal connection to Mulder. I’ll miss him because he was one of the few true aces left in baseball, along with marvels like Roy Halladay (who finishes more games that he starts than any other team in baseball right now). I’m not talking about guys who put up the aforementioned eye-popping ERAs and strikeout totals and WHIPS; I’m talking about a stopper, a starter who can put his team on his back for a whole game and just carry them, even when nothing else is working for the team. The whole nine innings.

Don’t get me wrong – I love Johan Santana and think he’s an incredible pitcher; his arsenal is just devastating at times, and it’s just fun to watch guys like him pitch. He’s up to his usual tricks this year, with an ERA under 3.00 and stellar ratios all around. But were you aware that in his 194 career starts (to date), Johan has completed exactly 6 of them? In other words, Johan is an incredible pitcher and will give his team a chance to win almost every game he starts, but he will always need somebody else to finish the job. And even when that somebody else is his team’s closer, be it Joe Nathan or Billy Wagner or whomever, I think it’s safe to say that somebody else is a less talented pitcher than Johan himself. So a Johan start means you get Johan’s innings plus the less talented bullpen innings to finish the job. And those bullpen innings are too many to just give to the Nathans and Wagners – Johan has only once in his career averaged seven innings per start for a season, and that just barely in 2005 at 7.02, leaving 2-3 innings for less talented pitchers than himself, less talented pitchers who could lose the game.

I’m by no means arguing that Mulder is a better pitcher than Santana for a 162 game season – but rather that because he was able to go the distance when necessary, he was better equipped to win tough, close games, when the offense is getting shut down or in a slump (these kind of games, coincidentally, become more frequent in the postseason, where Mulder was incredibly successful).

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