Mulders sister was abducted by aliens and he has not been the same since.

The Cards managed to deal the A's there first series loss in almost 3 weeks this weekend. Real ugly series with alot of crappy pitching on both sides. Its pretty embarrasing losing a series at home to a club like St Louis, but the usual sharp A's staff just wasnt there this weekend. But this series against the Cards make me think back on the trade that sent Mulder to St Louis for Danny Haren, Kiko Calero, and Daric Barton. At the time me and most of the A's faithful were pretty upset to see him go, but looking back now I doubt there is anyone complaining in Oakland.

While Mulder has never really gotten back to pitching like he did back in his glory days in Oakland, and is currently on the DL for likely the rest of the season, Dan Haren is pitching like the ace everyone thought he would become. He is leading the league in ERA, BAA, and WHIP and is the front runner to start the All Star game this year. Since coming to Oakland, Haren has pitched 34 more games the Mulder and has an ERA of 3.49, compared to Mulder, who has been injured the past 2 seasons and in that same time has an ERA of right around 5.

While Haren has clearly been much better then Mulder since the trade, he wasnt the only big part of the trade. Kiko Calero has been solid the past 3 seasons in the A's bullpen and uber prospect Daric Barton is expecting a call to the big show by September at the latest. Compared to the likes of Albert Pujols at the time of the trade, Barton has been slowed down by a couple injuries but is finally healthy and swinging the bat well for the Sacramento RiverCats.

When its all said and done, this may be looked back on as Beanes best trade, but thats just what we in the Bay have come to expect from him.