About two years ago we heard that Mark Buehrle may consider retirement when his current contract expires after the 2011 season, something he reiterated that yesterday's SoxFest '11 according to MLB.com's Scott Merkin. The White Sox ace did leave the door open for a return though; allow me to quote…
"If I have a good year, and something happens and there's an opportunity out there to sign, I'm open for it," said Buehrle. "I talked with the wife about playing for a couple more years possibly, so we'll see. It's a long year, so if I decide to retire at the end, I'll retire. If not, I'll sign somewhere."
"If a deal gets done and talks are going on, it's between me and the team. That's where it ends at, and people don't need to know what's going on or the battling back and forth or the numbers involved. I just want to concentrate on playing baseball."
Buehrle will turn 32 towards the end of Spring Training and is still a highly effective starter. He's thrown no fewer than 201 innings in a single season since 2000, and he's pitched to a 3.84 ERA during that ten-year stretch. He'll earn $14MM in 2011 and looks to be the best free agent starter on the market next winter, barring some unexpected option decisions involving other players.
“I’m signing with the St. Louis Cardinals” will be the discussion about his future.
Yeah, I gotta wonder if he’d try to sign cheap with the Cards.
He has stated in the past and more so recently, if he does decide to play after this contract(probably wont he really loves his kids and wants to be around them) He would either play for the sox or cards. So really there are only 3 options, unless some team comes out with a huge over pay and he simply cant turn it down. He will either go home, finish his career where it starter(hope he does but for cheap) or Play in his home for the cards…Either way there will be no bad blodd from sox fans and we will all wish him luck
Allow me to quote:
“if the Cardinals are the least bit interested, Ill sign, even if its the league minimum, Ill sign. When Pujols gets his extension and the Cardinals do not pick up Carpenters option, Ill be his replacement, If I had a chance today, Id sign”….. Welcome home Buehrle, we’ll see ya next year!
No way he retires. Even if his season is awful and injury plaqued. He’ll get big time bucks being the best FA pitcher in the offseason. Look at Lackey, guy is a middle of rotation innings eater playing in one of the worst divisions and the Red Sox give him a HUGE deal to play in a division where 4 of the 5 parks are bandboxes.
Man, it would be weird to see him in another uniform, but I know he would absolutely love to pitch for the Cards. I’m assuming the plan is that Sale is getting ready to be a starter so that he can replace Buehrle?
One of my close friends brother is good buddies with mark. There is basically no chance he pitches for anyone but the white sox or stl.
When Buerhle retires he will go down as one of the greatest draft day steals in the history of the game. A guy drafted in round 38 having this kind of career is a rarity to say the least.
The best ever has to go to pujols
how about Mike Piazza in the 62nd round?
yeah piazza and pujols would both trump buerhle. Piazza may be #1.
62nd round pick ends up the GREATEST hitter at the catcher position and one of the greatest players of all time. We got a clear cut winner.
should edit to make it best pitcher draft steal
he didn’t even make his high school team his freshman or sophomore year and now is one of the best pitchers in the league, IMO.
If Buehrle doesn’t retire, he probably comes back to the Sox on a 2 year deal, assuming he wants to play until konerko’s new contract is finished. He would probably sign for less than the 14m he made this year too. After that I wouldn’t lose any respect for him if he decided to move the the cardinals because if I was in his shoes and I happened to play for the Cardinals my whole career, I’d want to atleast make one stop to play for my White Sox.
Yes. Pujols. Round 13. Quite a steal. Even more remarkable is Mike Piazza. Round 62(!) That’s 1,390th overall. Redonkulous! And there’s a neat story to go along with it.
Ohh Ohh I wanna play!. Piazza def #1. Somewhere among some of the bests…
Pettitte #22nd rnd 1990 (240 wins)
Posada #24th rnd 1990 (260 hrs +, .375+ OBP as a C)
Keith Hernandez 47th rnd 1971
Mattingly 19th rnd in 1979
Bam! Completely forgot about Hernandez, even though I’m from the STL area. Good call, YanksFan.
I was curious, so I researched and found some other names of interest to add to our list:
Ryne Sandberg R20
Kenny Rogers R39
Mark Grace R24
John Smoltz R22
Brad Ausmus R48
Jeff Kent R20
Jason Isringhausen R44
Raul Ibanez R36
Mike Lowell R20
Roy Oswalt R23
Orlando Hudson R43
Ken Griffey, Sr. R29
Dusty Baker R26
And because I’m a Cards fan, I’ll throw in a few of my fave (probably forgotten) Cardinals just for good measure:
Bob Forsch R26: Two no-hitters!
Bake McBride R37: The original “Shake’n’Bake” and ROY. Phils fans may remember him.
Darryl Kile R30: Turned into a stud ace for the Cards’ early 00s teams ’til tragedy hit.
And last but not least, Roger Freed R38: Okay, so I’m sure no one outside of 70s Cardinals fans know this name. But during that dark period for Cards fans, his game-winning GS was a thrilling highlight that will last forever. Certainly worth a few of the #1 busts STL has had. In fact, instead of STL signing Kozma, they should have just allocated the money to a Roger Freed highlight reel to play in their MiLB dugouts. And at the end of the reel: “This is what you play for.” 😉
Welcome back home to the Lou, Mark. Love the Sox fans’ respectful comments for the Cards here, too. Ahhh, my enemy’s enemy is my friend, indeed.
love the my enemies enemy is my friend….but a ton of whitesox fans just straight up like the cards. And most sox fans are actuall baseball fans (unlike our north side cousins…just kidding) we like and respect most teams because we have a true love for the game not just for overpriced horrible beer and cute girls in tube tops like cubs fans
Even as a Jays fan, Buehrle was one of my favourites to watch. I love the pace at which he moves. A Halladay-Buehrle game could come in under two hours.
The Cards could definitely use another lefty in the rotation. At the right price, I would love to have him pitch here to finish his career. If he stays with the Sox, that’s cool, too since they’re my favorite AL team.