My plan for my weekly post coming into Thursday was to do our next Position in the Spotlight city, St. Louis (look for it on Sunday). As a White Sox fan, the events of Thursday definitely changed my mind. In case you haven’t heard, Mark Buehrle became only the 18th player in major league history to pitch a perfect game, as the Sox beat the Rays 5-0. Something that makes it even better is that the Sox are now in a virtual tie for first with the Tigers in the AL Central (silly percentage points).
Today’s feat got me thinking though….is Mark Buehrle quietly building an extremely strong case to be a hall of famer some day? He’s only 30 right now, so he is probably a little more than half way through his career barring injury or early retirement (which he has hinted at). But let’s take a look at the resume he has put together so far in his first 9 years in the majors.
Buehrle has never been dominant in any statistical category, other than time elapsed between pitches, which doesn’t mean a whole lot, but he has already accomplished a lot of things that even the most dominant statistical pitchers long for. He has now thrown 2 no-hitters, including the perfect game, he was the ace of a World Series winning team, and he has made the All-Star game 4 times so far in his 9 years, and started the game for the AL in 2005. Another amazing thing about his 2 no-hitters is that when he pitched his first one 2 years ago, he only walked 1 batter on the Rangers (Sammy Sosa) and then immediately picked him off of 1st base, which means he only faced 27 batters in that game as well. This is probably the closest anyone has ever gotten to pitching 2 perfect games in a career. He also faced the minimum 27 batters in a game in 2004, where he gave up 2 hits but another batter later grounded into a double play that inning, which makes him the only pitcher ever to face the minimum 27 batters in a game 3 times.
Statistically, he has a respectable career ERA of 3.78, which isn’t bad for the steroid era, and 133 career wins, averaging 15 a season (he already has 11 in 2009). That’s a pretty good amount of wins for a 30 year-old, and if he can keep up that pace for 8 more years, he’ll have 250 wins. Ten more years puts him at 280 at 40 years old. Of course anything can happen, but has been a workhorse over the years, pitching over 200 innings every year so far in his career.
Back on the intangibles side, he still has some opportunities on the horizon. With the White Sox, he plays for a well paid team in a pretty weak division, so he has the potential to add to his 3 playoff appearances. This perfect game might also boost his popularity more among the sports writers and around the league, which could lead to some more love from the Cy Young voters (here’s hoping Halladay gets traded to the NL next week) and more All-Star selections by the managers. I guess now that he has done it twice, there’s always a chance he might throw a 3rd no-hitter down the line….
This can all be discussed again 15 years from now. For now, we’ll see if Buehrle can carry his team back to the playoffs again, and I’ll definitely be watching to see what happens next in his unpredictable career.
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