Mark Buehrle May Consider Retirement After 2011

Consider the source on this story. You can take pretty much anything that Phil Rogers says, and take it to the bank that the exact opposite is true. This is the same guy that wrote an article last year saying that the Cubs-Brian Roberts trade was official. He also came up with the stupidest offseason scorecard that I've ever seen. Basically, according to Phil, you get one point for adding a regular player and lose one point for losing a regular. So, in Phil's book, the Brewers adding Braden Looper should even out them losing CC Sabathia. This guy shouldn't be allowed to attend an MLB game, much less write about it.

jneely77 is right.
Rogers is a complete moron, consider any and all of his articles worthless...

this isn't gonna happen, he CAN'T walk away from a job like this.....playing in the MLB...what's he gonna do for money then?
he'll be but 32, 33 years old....
it's just for hype i think

For some reason I feel like Rogers is essentially the Steve Phillips of Chicago baseball.

He'll say a ton of really dumb stuff, get it right once in a blue moon, everyone notices, and yet he still keeps his job.

How so many bad writers continue to hold jobs still bothers me. (Heyman!!!! He breaks stories but his articles suck nutss.)

I remember watching an interview with him a couple years ago right when he signed his new contract. He said he has no desire or intent to think about 300 wins and he doesn't care about the HOF. Since he has won a world series, he's very content with pitching enough to sustain his life after baseball.

That said, I'll be so sad to see this guy leave. By far one of my all-time favorite sox players. Goes out whenever he's needed (3 days rest or relief duties) and gives his all.

He is a great pitcher, even if he doesn't strike out a ton of batters... but who cares if he gets the outs?

Buehrle just says what's on his mind. He going to have a baby in a couple weeks and had his family on his mind. Who wouldn't love this guy? Other than BP, of course who treat his 8 years of good to great pitching as anomolies and his 1 horrible year as the norm.

He really is a very good pitcher - wish he was on my team. Better ERA and more IP than the $83-mil man, A.J. Burnett.

That said, you guys are kidding about the money, right? Enough to retire?

The guy has made FORTY ONE MILLION DOLLARS at age 29, and will get another $42 mil the next three years.

Hope he can work out the struggles between family and baseball - seems like a good guy.

Jneely,

If he were to hold up and continue to pitch into his mid 40's, he could possibly make 300, and if he makes 300 he's probably going to make the Hall. But he has to start winning more of those games where he gives up less than 3 runs. If he did pitch to 45 he would only have to average 12 wins a year until then. That isn't too much to ask for, and he's the type of pitcher who could make it that far.

I Like Baseball,
I realize he won't be making as much as he has used to, but what outside of pro sports gives you that much money? If he invested it right, and I don't even mean stocks, and he is careful with his money, he could easily have enough to at least make it through when his kids would retire. I don't see Buehrle as one of those athletes (Latrell Sprewell) who can't feed his kids on $14 mil a year. If he put it in a bank and made 3% interest, he's making over $500,000 a year for his money to just sit there, that's at 20 mil. Even at 0.3% it's over 50,000 a year, and that's without spending a dime of the original money.

MARK BUEHRLE, A NO HITTA!

Consider the source on this story. You can take pretty much anything that Phil Rogers says, and take it to the bank that the exact opposite is true. This is the same guy that wrote an article last year saying that the Cubs-Brian Roberts trade was official. He also came up with the stupidest offseason scorecard that I've ever seen. Basically, according to Phil, you get one point for adding a regular player and lose one point for losing a regular. So, in Phil's book, the Brewers adding Braden Looper should even out them losing CC Sabathia. This guy shouldn't be allowed to attend an MLB game, much less write about it.

Posted by: jneely77 | February 16, 2009 at 09:21 AM

I remember that scorecard...what a disaster...

I like this guy even though i am a cubs fan. I even picked him up off the free agent list on two of my fantasy teams wondering why no one already got him. He is solid and I would take him on the cubs any day.

NO .Stay until you cant phsyically play anymore.Or until you suck.I want him to retire with us but not this soon.

He's only received votes for the Cy Young once in his career (2005), and he finished 5th. He's only made the All-Star team 3 times, and one of the years he was an All-Star he finished with a 12-13 record and a 4.99 ERA.

He's a good pitcher. But he's not a great pitcher. Is he in the top 25%? Sure he is. But I can think of 20 guys that I'd rather have.

Sorry, maybe I'm missing something here... why are we talking about a guy who is talking retirement at age 29 pitching until he's 45? Seems kinda unlikely to me.

And though a good pitcher, the only way Buehrle makes the HOF is if he wins 300 games (and he better start winning about 17 a year if he's gonna do that). Otherwise, no chance.

Can we say Andy Pettitte, #2? Nothing like creating drama three years before the drama is necessary. He's just planting seeds to get out of his contract now so that when it's up he can go play for the Cardinals and not seem like a bad guy for bolting.

"Mark Buerhle has thrown more pitches since the start of the 2001 season than any other pitcher in baseball. He's averaged 225 IP per season over his career. There's not a doubt in my mind that he'll break down long before he gets to 40, much less 45 year old."

Buerhle is known to be a finesse guy as well as having a pretty low stress delivery, which is why he's so durable.

I'd be surprised if Buehrle broke down long term, he doesn't have that type of violent delivery that's generally associated with long term health issues.

"He's only received votes for the Cy Young once in his career (2005), and he finished 5th. He's only made the All-Star team 3 times, and one of the years he was an All-Star he finished with a 12-13 record and a 4.99 ERA."

Right, because obviously Cy Young votes and All Star appearences are a good way to judge players, because the writers really know their stuff.

As you said, Buehrle made the all star team with a near 5.00 ERA. So obviously, AS appearances a very poor way to judge a player.

This guy is extremely consistent and durable and he rarely gives up big innings because he doesn't walk many guys or give up many home runs.

He's definitely not an ace, but he's surely a good 2/3 starter.

Jneely,

And if Wins and Losses were the only stat to look at for a pitcher, you would be right. But those can be very misleading. A pitcher can lose a 1-0 game, but win a 7-6 game. I don't know the other stats for these guys, but you brought up wins, which is why I say anything. I wouldn't call Dempster a better pitcher than Buehrle yet anyway, prior to becoming a closer, he had problems staying healthy. I'd rather have a guy who is healthy year in and year out, making 35 starts, than not knowing what will happen. Dempster just pitched the most innings in a season than he has pitched in a while, I'm guessing he's going to struggle at some point next year for an extended period. Harden, I agree has better stats all around than Buehrle, except 2, games played and innings pitched. Buehrle will give you 35 starts, and go into the 7th inning of almost every game. The Cubs are hoping that Harden will be able to start 25 games this year, and he rarely makes it out of the 6th. In the long run, guys like Buehrle are going to help your team more than Harden would, which is why a guy like Vazquez still has a job, inning eaters are a big thing.

pageian,

If he wants to play for the Cardinals, why not just say it? If that's what he really wants to do, not many people will have problems with that. I would have a bigger problem with him saying, I'm going to retire, and then the next year he's with St. Louis. I believe he wants to stay his whole career with the Sox which is why at the time, he took a pay cut, and less years than what he would have gotten on the open market to stay with them. I would think if he really would rather be on the Cardinals, he'd be there already.

I love Mark Buehrle as much as any die hard White Sox fan does, but let's be realistic here. It would take him pitching well into his 40s to get to 300 wins, unless he gets consistent hitting behind him and a solid top to bottom bullpen. He has never been the type of pitcher that gets inducted to tv HOF so 300 wins is about his only avenue. How we feel as fans is completely irrelevant in HOF voting.

Now, let's talk about what his hypothetical role would be on other teams. He's obviously Ozzie's ace, but we'll start with the Cubs. I believe if he were to start camp this year with the cubs, he's their number 2 behind Zambrano. This is not to take anything away from Lilly or Dempster, they had great years last year, but their win totals were partly due to (it's painful to say it) the Cubs having a stronger offense than the Sox. That is why when looking at a pitcher you can't simply go by wins and losses alone. I think had Buehrle played for the Cubs last year, he might have won 17. Dempster put up better numbers than Buehrle last year but, as someone pointed out, it was his first full year as a starter. There is no telling whether he will be able to reproduce those numbers consistently. If he proves that he can, he could even supplant Zambrano as the Ace. Without certainty, however, I think you go with a pitcher who has proven that he can put up a sub-4 ERA every year ahead of Dempster. Lilly, on the other hand, has a career ERA of 4.40. Hardly numbers that suggest he should be higher in the rotation than Buehrle who is 3 years younger with better numbers and more consistency.

Let's say Buehrle goes to his home team, the Cardinals. You have Lohse, Wainwright, and Wellemeyer who would already be part of the rotation, with Carpenter hoping to make A comeback. Wainwright is probably your ace, with Buehrle and Lohse competing for #2. Wellemeyer just doesn't have the numbers to put him any higher than 4 in that bunch, and until Carpenter proves he can stay healthy, he's a back end kind of guy.

Obviously, on a team like Boston or the Yankees, Buehrle would't be a number two, but on most teams he wouldn't be
Lower than three, and the funny thing is, if you compare his numbers with Burnett, the only thing Burnett has a clear advantage on is SO. Buehrle walks considerably fewer batters and that in my opinion is a far more important stat. I think in NY Buehrle is number 3 behind Sabathia and Burnett. Wang needs to prove he's healthy, and Joba needs to prove he can handle full time starting duties. In Boston, who despite popular opinion has better starting pitching top to bottom than the Yankees, you have Beckett, Masterson, Lester, Penny, Matsuzaka and Smoltz. That is 6 starters for 5 spots. It's worth pointing out, though, that Buehrle has better numbers than both Penny and Matsuzaka.

Biottom line is, Buehrle is underrated partly due to his lack of velocity and strikeout numbers. It is that same set of statistical shortcomings that will likely keep him out of Cooperstown.

Later,
Aaron

The point that I'm making with the Randy Johnson/Tom Glavine reference is that Buehrle is past his prime. Buehrle has thrown more pitches since 2001 than any other pitcher in baseball. He's wearing down because he's been overworked.

I'm not saying that Buerle is a bad pitcher. He's a really good pitcher. But even Scott Boras called Lilly one of the top 5 lefties in the game, along with Cole Hamels, Johan Santana, CC Sabathia, and Oliver Perez.

But Buehrle was great in 2005, so most Sox fans have this nostalgia attached to him where they overvalue him incredibly. I think that it probably has to do with having to listen to Hawk Harrleson broadcast games. That guy never saw a player put on the White Sox uniform who wasn't the greatest to ever play his position.

And Buehrle is 30. He's hardly past his prime. He throws a lot of innings because he can, not because he has to. The fact that he has a really natural low stress delivery allows him to stay healthy. There is nothing in his numbers or in his pitching style that suggests that he will break down. Sometimes one guy is just more durable than another. It's not like a pitcher has a set number of innings or pitches he can throw before he falls apart.

Later,
Aaron

Buehrle is one of the better pitchers in the game today. However, I think there are too many people nowadays that can't seperate fantasy baseball from real-life...

Buehrle is a crappy fantasy baseball pitcher, but he is a wet dream for any big league manager to have on his staff. I wouldn't call him a #1 by any means, but he's a low-end #2 or high-end #3 and has the potential to put up low-end #1 numbers every single year.

He's thrown over 200 innings for the last 8 seasons. He's never been on the DL in his entire career. He's won a World Series - he even closed out a game in one. He's not flashy. He's not going to strikeout anywhere near 200 guys in a season. He doesn't complain. He's the ultimate team player. He genuinely enjoys the game of baseball. He's averaged 15 wins a season if you take away his first year where he only pitched 51 innings and has a career 3.80 ERA in the steroid era while pitching half of his games in one of the most hitter friendly parks in baseball. And he pitches in the AL.

I'm not going to argue that the guy is a Hall of Famer, because he's not. If he pitched another 10-15 years and kept up this pace, then I think that argument would hold some water. However, you couldn't assume he could keep this pace up as he got well into his 30's and beyond. But, there aren't many pitchers in the game today that are more dependable than #56.

I, for one, can't wait for Buehrle's new career as a hip-hop artist.

MRWHITESOX, its funny that you say that about Mark Buerhe, because in my eyes he has been better than those two pitchers you mention. No his ERA isnt as good at those two, but consider the time period that they play in, and you will probobly agree with me.

If you notice that while it was towards the end of both careers, that those two had a huge jump in their ERAs around '69 and '70 when the pitchers mound was lowered. During Horlen and Peters' days, MLB was a pitchers league with the rules heavily favoring the pitchers. In 1968 Carl Yastrzemski won the American League batting title with an average of just .301!

Also, Wins isnt the best statistic, but Joel Horlen ended his career with a LOSING record.

Next.