Mark Mulder understands why the Cardinals opted to forgo the 2009 option on his contract, but he would do anything to have pitched well in St. Louis. "It was a tough situation ... The whole time, all the way through the rehab and making those starts, I was not sure what I really had to get guys out," Mulder said. "Coming back, never once did I sit there and say, 'It?s back. I feel normal.' I never had things just click." Mulder went 22-18 in four years, having started just 53 games. "I would have given up anything to have done well in that city and with that team," Mulder said Wednesday. "I saw how it was. I saw why kind of teams we had there. It would have been so much fun, so incredible, to have been healthy and pitching like I?m capable. The last few years had nothing to do with the team or with the city. I wasn?t able to pitch for either of them. That?s disappointing."