The weekend discussion has really intrigued me, so I did some deeper digging and checked out Mulder's comps at baseballreference.com.  The #1 comp through age 27 was Andy Pettitte, who had some similar circumstances.  Both succeeded very early in their career, Mulder winning 21 at age 23, Pettitte winning 21 at age 24.  Both had their best seasons at age 25, then experienced 2 seasons of decline, in which both dealt with nagging injuries.  Pettitte sometimes doesn't get a lot of respect (from me in particular), but after looking back, he has had a damn fine career.  He ranks 18th among active pitchers in ERA+ (2nd last year to Roger) and is 14-9 with a 4.08 ERA in  the postseason.
Can Mulder pick it back up like Pettitte did?  I hope so, but the question, as stated in the weekend forum, is do the Cards bet on him?  Lock him up now at a discount, hoping he'll re-emerge?  Cut bait and let someone else gamble?  You can comment in the main forum, but since Mulder seems to be getting ripped there, I thought I'd throw out this little nugget.