Mark it down: Mulder still looks like a star

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Mulder’s
career marks

Year W-L ERA

2000, Oakland: 9-10, 5.44

2001, Oakland: 21-8, 3.45

2002, Oakland: 19-7, 3.47

2003, Oakland: 15-9, 3.13

2004, Oakland: 17-8, 4.43

2005, St. Louis: 16-8, 3.64

2006, St. Louis: 6-7, 7.14

2007, St. Louis: 0-3, 12.27

2008, St. Louis: 0-0, 10.84

Totals: 103-60, 4,18 ERA

Article Extras

Updated: January 23, 2012 3:54AM

Mark Mulder had an arm made for the big leagues, until elbow and shoulder issues forced him out of the game in 2008, at the ripe old age of 31.

He has a face, few would argue, for TV. Or to put it in the proper topical context, it would not be a stretch, aesthetically at least, if casting agents sought him to play a younger version of fellow southpaw Brad Pitt.

The 34-year-old ex-pitcher and the 47-year-old actor are linked in current events because Pitt is currently in theaters playing Mulder’s ex-boss, Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane, in “Moneyball,” the second-highest grossing film in America last weekend, the film’s second weekend in release.

But Mulder need not simply bask in the reflected glow of an aging heartthrob. He’s in the stretch run of his first season as an analyst on ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight.” Figure there will be a second for the South Holland native and former Thornwood star.

“There’s an option for next year,” Mulder said last week from his Arizona home. “It’s about 95 percent sure I’ll be back.”

He’s been getting positive reviews for his ESPN work. But then, he’s been getting positive reviews from media types ever since he began answering their questions with genuine thought and charm upon bursting into the big leagues as a 22-year-old less than two years removed from Michigan State.

And speaking of positive reviews, what about “Moneyball?”

“I haven’t seen it,” Mulder said. “A 4-year-old and a 2-year-old will stop you real quick.”

Please. The guy made $33 million over nine seasons in the majors, ending when St. Louis bought out an $11 million option on what would have been a 2009 contract for $1.5 million in 2008. You’d think he could afford a babysitter.

Besides, grandma and grandpa Mulder live in Arizona, too.

“They saw it,” Mulder said, laughing. “They said it was good.”

Mulder said he intended to see the film, though he had some concerns about what he’d seen and heard leading up to its release.

Dwelling on Oakland’s 2002 season, in which the A’s won 103 games with a $30 million payroll, “Moneyball” posits Beane and his assistant, a fictional version of Paul DePodesta, as statistical visionaries, dumping conventional baseball wisdom to win on the cheap with guys whose value was revealed in lesser-known numerical evaluations.

“People who aren’t familiar with the team, I think they kind of get the perception we were a bunch of nobodies,” Mulder said. “That is so unfair to the guys.”

For starters, the A’s could run out Mulder, Barry Zito and Tim Hudson, who combined to go 57-21 that season.

“It wasn’t just myself, Hudson and Zito either,” Mulder said. “That team had Eric Chavez, Miguel Tejada, Jermaine Dye — it wasn’t a team of castoffs. This was a very talented team.”

Another talented team, ESPN, recruited Mulder to join its rotation. Mulder was first approached in the spring of 2010. He finally decided to audition in the winter.

“I wasn’t thinking about doing it at all,” Mulder said. “But one night I was talking to my wife and my brother-in-law and ... It’s just the longer you’re out of it, the quicker you’re forgotten.”

So, if he was ever going to do it ...

“Yeah,” Mulder said. “And it’s funny, as long as I’ve been around cameras, I’ve always had you (media) guys telling me, ‘You could do this for a living.’ For me to talk to a camera, I’ve never had a problem with it.”

The only problem now is the commute from Arizona to Bristol, Conn., where Mulder will spend the entire week working on the studio panel for one or two shows a night. He’ll be back on the air for ESPN’s World Series coverage.

“It’s not bad,” Mulder said of the time away. “It probably keeps my wife from killing me.”