A's send Mulder to St. Louis for three players

Mulder was drafted second overall by the A's in 1998 and was signed through the 2005 season with a club option to return in 2006.

After Hudson was swapped to the Braves, the news of Mulder's departure was even more shocking. At least in Hudson's case, there had been rumors swirling.

"What, you've got to be kidding me," outfielder Eric Byrnes said. "Wow. I don't know what to tell you."

Beane still believes Oakland will be competitive in the challenging AL West, though he knows plenty of people will be skeptical about the team's chances. He watched Sandy Alderson trade Mark McGwire to St. Louis in 1997, "and at that time supposedly the franchise was going to collapse," Beane said.

Oakland competed in 1999 and started its string of four straight trips to the playoffs in 2000.

"Certainly there's a lot of the future involved in this," Beane said. "I think with certain areas, we've improved. I'm not discounting 2005 either. We have to be very patient with three positions, that being the three starting pitchers."

If he had to guess now, Beane would put Zito, Rich Harden, Dan Meyer, Blanton and Haren in the A's starting rotation. Meyer came to the A's on Thursday in the Hudson deal.

Haren, a 24-year-old right-hander, was 3-3 with a 4.50 ERA in 14 games, including five starts, in three stints with the Cardinals last season.

Calero went 3-1 with two saves and a 2.78 ERA in 41 relief appearances for St. Louis in 2004, allowing a .176 opponent batting average.

Barton was the Cardinals' first-round pick (28th overall) in 2003. He spent last season at Single-A Peoria, where he batted .313 with 13 home runs and 77 RBI.

This was the first major league trade between the clubs since the McGwire deal on July 31, 1997, for T.J. Mathews and minor league pitchers Blake Stein and Eric Ludwick.