Mark Buehrle won both the Gold Glove and Fielding Bible Award last season, and justifiably so. The White Sox southpaw saved a league-leading seven runs by fielding his position, according to the Plus/Minus System.
However, Buehrle also excelled in the often-overlooked part of pitcher defense: controlling the running game. Buehrle only allowed four stolen bases in 213 innings, but he didn’t get any help from his catchers. Buehrle caught four runners stealing without a throw to the plate, and picked off four additional runners, tops in the league. All said, this adds up to four Runs Saved for the holding runenrs component:
| Stolen Bases Runs Saved Leaders | ||||||
| SB | CS by | CS by | Runs | |||
| Player | Attempts | Catcher | Pitcher | Pickoffs | CS % | Saved |
| Mark Buehrle, CWS | 8 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 50% | 4 |
| Clayton Kershaw, LAD | 13 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 54% | 4 |
| Justin Verlander, Det | 25 | 15 | 1 | 2 | 64% | 4 |
| Several Tied | 3 | |||||
Over the past seven seasons, Buehrle has led the league four times and has totaled a remarkable 27 Stolen Base Runs Saved by controlling the running game.
Carl Pavano is the other extreme. Pavano has rated below average in six out of the past seven seasons costing his teams an estimated ten runs (-10 Runs Saved); the only thing that kept Pavano from rating below average in 2006 was an injury which forced him to miss the entire year. AL Central baserunners were thrilled to see Pavano re-sign with Minnesota this offseason. The worst pitcher at holding runners over the last seven seasons was Tim Wakefield with -10 Runs Saved.
| Stolen Bases Runs Saved Trailers | ||||||
| SB | CS by | CS by | Runs | |||
| Player | Attempts | Catcher | Pitcher | Pickoffs | CS % | Saved |
| Carl Pavano, Cle/Min | 39 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 15% | -4 |
| Brad Penny, Bos/SF | 31 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 10% | -3 |
| Jose Contreras, CWS/Col | 26 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12% | -3 |
| Tim Wakefield, Bos | 26 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12% | -3 |
| Chris Young, SD | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | -3 |
“Used with permission from John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™, www.statoftheweek.com.”
It’s hard not to admire Buerhle. He’s, in many ways, a left-handed Greg Maddux. (OK, maybe not that good – but similiar in savvy and getting the most from his repetoire. Oh, and good at defense.) It’ll be interesting to watch how the White Sox rotation fares this season.
Aaaaaaaaand I misspelled his name. Damnit. Buehrle.
I hate Mark Buerhle. He is a village idiot. I predict the White Sox won’t make the playoffs in 2010. Buerhle is a #1, Danks is emerging into a #1, Floyd is a #4, and Peavy is no longer pitching in spacious PETCO Park to light-hitting lineups in the NL West. His league and ballpark adjusted ERA is over 4.50
@Terrelle Pryor 2: What exactly did Buerhle do to earn the “village idiot” label? He’s always seemed a pretty down to earth, low-key player to me. Also, where are you getting that league and ballpark adjusted ERA from? Can’t seem to find that on baseball-reference. I do know Jake hasn’t fared as well away from Petco than in it, but he’s still a pretty solid pitcher. I’d put the Sox rotation as follows:
Peavy
Danks
Buerhle
Floyd
Garcia
…though Buerhle may wind up pitching fourth to break up the lefties.
Daver – Buerhle is a village idiot because he accused Dempster of juicing, said Maddux doctors baseballs, trashed Wrigley Field, tried to kill Pronk in 2005, said the Rangers use a scoreboard to steal signs, said if he was ever traded to the Yankees he would say screw you to Steinbrenner and not shave his beard and demand it be negotiated into his contract, he plays for the White Sox, and overall he comes off as a douche to me, not to mention he looks like one. I can't remember where I found it, but I remember reading about it after the trade.
There are a lot of things going against Peavy here. He is moving from the NL to the AL, he is leaving spacious PETCO Park to the launching pad that that Southside dump is, and he is moving from the NL West with those light-hitting lineups to the AL Central with lineups that while they aren't the Murderer's Row lineups of the AL East, they are pretty heavy hitting lineups.
If you can't tell from this post, I gregging HATE the White Sox. The only time I root for them is when they are playing the Cardinals during the regular season. If my worst nightmare came true and there was a White Sox-Cardinals WS, I would root for the Cardinals, because Cardinals fans are smart, they appreciate their baseball, and I wouldn't have to deal with them. White Sox fans are not true baseball fans. They are Cubs haters who need a team to root for. The only words in the baseball vocabulary of a White Sox fan are Cubs Suck. I was at a game last year talking about this with a guy, he was like in 1997 when the White Sox were in contention with the Tribe for the division, he was at the Sox game with a buddy, the Cubs were playing the Tribe, the Cubs lost, and everyone was cheering. Oh and in 2006, Pierzynski was like I'm rooting for the Tigers to beat the Cubs. And later that year when we traded Neifi and Nevin to the Tigers and Twins, I was reading the Sox boards, the fans were complaining that we traded with the Twins and Tigers, but we wouldn't give them Howry and Eyre. We were doing the White Sox a dis-service. LMAO, it was hilarious. They should change their name to the Whiney Sux, because they whine so much and they suck.
Daver – Buerhle is a village idiot because he accused Dempster of juicing, said Maddux doctors baseballs, trashed Wrigley Field, tried to kill Pronk in 2005, said the Rangers use a scoreboard to steal signs, said if he was ever traded to the Yankees he would say screw you to Steinbrenner and not shave his beard and demand it be negotiated into his contract, he plays for the White Sox, and overall he comes off as a douche to me, not to mention he looks like one. I can't remember where I found it, but I remember reading about it after the trade.
There are a lot of things going against Peavy here. He is moving from the NL to the AL, he is leaving spacious PETCO Park to the launching pad that that Southside dump is, and he is moving from the NL West with those light-hitting lineups to the AL Central with lineups that while they aren't the Murderer's Row lineups of the AL East, they are pretty heavy hitting lineups.
If you can't tell from this post, I gregging HATE the White Sox. The only time I root for them is when they are playing the Cardinals during the regular season. If my worst nightmare came true and there was a White Sox-Cardinals WS, I would root for the Cardinals, because Cardinals fans are smart, they appreciate their baseball, and I wouldn't have to deal with them. White Sox fans are not true baseball fans. They are Cubs haters who need a team to root for. The only words in the baseball vocabulary of a White Sox fan are Cubs Suck. I was at a game last year talking about this with a guy, he was like in 1997 when the White Sox were in contention with the Tribe for the division, he was at the Sox game with a buddy, the Cubs were playing the Tribe, the Cubs lost, and everyone was cheering. Oh and in 2006, Pierzynski was like I'm rooting for the Tigers to beat the Cubs. And later that year when we traded Neifi and Nevin to the Tigers and Twins, I was reading the Sox boards, the fans were complaining that we traded with the Twins and Tigers, but we wouldn't give them Howry and Eyre. We were doing the White Sox a dis-service. LMAO, it was hilarious. They should change their name to the Whiney Sux, because they whine so much and they suck.
Now that you mention it, at least a couple of those stories about Buehrle do sound somewhat familiar. I guess I haven't paid that much attention.
As far as the whole Cubs-Sox thing goes, I'm a little bit more moderate about it than you. For the most part, I view the Sox as just another MLB team and really don't attach much emotion to whether they win or lose. I do get annoyed when players or members of Sox management (Ozzie, Kenny Williams) takes cheap shots at the Cubs. And, yeah, I do get a little extra pleasure when the Cubs beat the Sox. After all, the two teams do have a historic and, obviously, geographic rivarly.
When it comes to Sox fans, I think a lot depends on who you come in contact with. I have friends/family members/co-workers who are White Sox fans and I've never really had a problem with any of them. (OK, my Sox fan co-worker does go out of his way to talk crap about the Cubs, which annoys me. But I know he's basically a decent guy so I try not to hold it against him.
Plus, I can tell he doesn't really know all that much about baseball to begin with.) And, yeah, there seem to be way too many Sox fans who invest more time in hating the Cubs than they do in rooting for their own team. But I'm sure there are some true, knowledgeable baseball fans who happen to root for the Sox…somewhere.
Plus, I can tell he doesn't really know all that much about baseball to begin with.) And, yeah, there seem to be way too many Sox fans who invest more time in hating the Cubs than they do in rooting for their own team. But I'm sure there are some true, knowledgeable baseball fans who happen to root for the Sox…somewhere.
It seems that way because that's how it is. I would say for 98.6% of White Sox fans Cubs Suck is their entire baseball vocabulary. The other 1.4% are smart. I used to not care about the White Sox, only in 2005 after I started reading the message boards did I start hating them. I don't care if the Sox win or not, but I feel happy when they lose. And I find the whole support your city argument of bunch of Gregg. In 2005 I was rooting against the White Sox, everyone was like support your city. Why should I? Did White Sox fans root for us in 2003? No! They glorify Steve Bartman for what he did, yet at the same time they say we Cubs fans are stupid for blaming him for what he did. Whenever I am at Wrigley or on the L during baseball season, I incite trouble with White Sox fans, I always make sure to start up a White Sox suck chant
Another thing that makes Buerhle a village idiot is his rig. He drives a semi.
Yeah, one thing I'll never forget about the '03 playoffs is watching TV one night and seeing a Miami reporter interview a fan outside the Marlins' stadium (whatever it was called back then). The guy being interviewed said he was from Chicago but he wasn't a Cubs fan – he was a Sox fan who travelled all the way to Florida just to root AGAINST the Cubs. Now that is fucked up.
Yeah, one thing I'll never forget about the '03 playoffs is watching TV one night and seeing a Miami reporter interview a fan outside the Marlins' stadium (whatever it was called back then). The guy being interviewed said he was from Chicago but he wasn't a Cubs fan – he was a Sox fan who travelled all the way to Florida just to root AGAINST the Cubs. Now that is fucked up.
Hmpf, something else about Buehrle I didn't know.
Hmpf, something else about Buehrle I didn't know.
He needs a commercial drivers license to drive it
http://deadspin.com/5263393/mark-buehrles-truck-w...
He needs a commercial drivers license to drive it
http://deadspin.com/5263393/mark-buehrles-truck-w...
When we win the World Series (not if, we will win a World Series before I die), I'll be sure to thank that man for giving the Cubs his money so we can spend it on players to help us win
When we win the World Series (not if, we will win a World Series before I die), I'll be sure to thank that man for giving the Cubs his money so we can spend it on players to help us win