Thoughts on Mark Buehrle

"Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing." - Warren Spahn

Mark Buehrle knows pitching.

He surely must, being a 38th round draft pick with a fastball that scrapes 90 on rare occasions. In the shadow of overpowering strikeout artists, Buehrle has managed to carve a brilliant career with the White Sox by keeping the batter off balance. The Sox' lefty grabbed headlines Thursday night with his eighteenth straight outing allowing three earned runs or less. He did it against a Oriole lineup hitting a collective .339 against him coming into the game. This is nothing new. 156 players have 20+ career at-bats against Buehrle. 22 of them are hitting .400 off of him. 69 of them are hitting at least .300 off of him. Go ahead and get your hits; they don't bother him. He's induced 274 double plays in his career. Nobody has more since he's entered the league. Score some runs off of him if you must; they don't phase him. Remember that game in Minnesota? Seven runs in the first inning? Two men in history have managed to give up seven runs in the first inning and win the game anyway. Buehrle is one of them (the other is Jack Powell of the Cardinals 9/29/1900 against the Cubs). So here are a few interesting Buehrle facts to chew on in celebration of our ace.

1) Mark Buehrle 158-115 43 games over .500 9.4 H/9IP 5.1 K/9IP
Nolan Ryan 324-292 32 games over .500 6.6 H/9IP 9.5 K/9IP

Both men have multiple no-hitters.

2) Among the 212 players who have 2000.0+ IP since 1950, in terms of career H/9IP rates...

Terry Mulholland (9.90; 6th worst)
Scott Erickson (9.86; 7th worst)
David Wells (9.51; 15th worst)
Mark Buehrle (9.43; 20th worst)
Kenny Rogers (9.42; 21st worst)

Have all thrown no-hitters.

3) Buehrle was drafted in the 38th round in 1998 (1139th overall player taken). Only
CC Sabathia (1st round, 20th overall) 48.0
J.D. Drew (1st round, 5th overall) 46.6

have a higher career WAR (according to baseball-reference.com)

4) 38th round draft pick Mark Buehrle has held #1 overall selections in the MLB draft to a collective .270 BA with 5 HR in 200 AB.

Draft
Delmon Young 2003 13-39 3 HR
Joe Mauer 2001 12-56 1 HR
Adrian Gonzalez 2000 1-3
Josh Hamilton 1999 4-12 1 HR
Pat Burrell 1998 1-12
Darin Erstad 1995 8-22
Alex Rodriguez 1993 8-34
Phil Nevin 1992 0-7
Chipper Jones 1990 1-7
B.J. Surhoff 1985 6-8