Current Contract
Signed a three-year, $25.75 million contract extension with an $8 million option for 2008 on February 23, 2005.

2005: $7,000,000
2006: $8,750,000
2007: $8,750,000
2008: $8,000,000 (or $1,250,000 buyout)

*The Cardinals exercised the $8 million option for 2008 on October 5, 2007.

Agent: Dan Horwits, Beverly Hills Sports Council

Became a Cardinal
Signed as a free agent on December 10, 2001.

2008 Season
It was hard to watch the Cardinals all-time saves leader in 2008. He appeared in 42 games, posting a record of 1-5 with just 12 saves and a bloated 5.70 ERA. Losing the closer job during the season, Izzy was place on the DL with a right hand laceration in May, at the time with a 1-5 record and an 8.00 ERA. He was given the opportunity and attempted to reclaim the closer role, before tendinitis and a partial flexor muscle tear near his right elbow, forced Izzy to leave the team and ending his season and perhaps his career.

2007 Season
Isringhausen tallied a 4-0 record in 2007, picking up 32 saves in 34 chances. He posted a 2.48 ERA in 65 1/3 innings, which was his highest total since pitching 75 1/3 innings in 2004. His save percentage of 94.1% (32-for-34) was tops in the National League and second-best in Major League Baseball behind the American League pacesetter, Seattle’s J.J. Putz at 95.2% (40 of 42).

Career Notes
Isringhausen is the Cardinals career saves leader with 217 and is just seven short of 300 for his career at the end of the 2008 season.

A 44th round draft pick of the New York Mets in 1991, out of Lewis and Clark Community College, Isringhausen was a very highly touted prospect coming up with the Mets in the early-'90s. Izzy along with fellow pitching prospects Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson drew considerable press attention and the nickname "Generation K".

Isringhausen began his career as a starter for the Mets near the end of the 1995 season, posting a 9-2 record in 14 starts. But a steady progression of serious injuries- tuberculosis, a broken wrist (sustained while punching a dugout trash can) and three major operations on his pitching arm derailed his progression into a major-league rotation.

Consequently, he was forced to miss most of the 1997 season, as well as the entire 1998 season. When he was finally healthy in 1999, he was moved to the bullpen after only five starts. After inconsistent play with the Mets, he was infamously traded to the Oakland Athletics at the trading deadline for reliever Billy Taylor.

Isringhausen soon became the Athletics' closer and has prospered since his move to the bullpen. After the A's made the playoffs in 2000 and 2001, Isringhausen left the team to sign with the Cardinals as a free agent before the 2002 season. Since then, he has had a league-leading 47 saves in 2004 and had a career-best 2.14 ERA in 2005. Following the 2004 season, Izzy underwent surgery to repair the labrum of his left hip. He became the Cardinals all time career saves leader in 2006 before having another operation on his hip.

Player Awards
2005 NL All-Star
2000 AL All-Star

Photo: MLB Photos