This is why Buehrle is a Hall of Famer

On the floor, Mark Buehrle might not bounce off the web page as a Hall of Famer.

The remarkably constant left-hander posted a 3.81 ERA over 16 Major League seasons. Buehrle was a five-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner, however he in any other case didn’t obtain any main awards. He garnered Cy Young consideration solely as soon as in his 16 seasons — and that was when he completed fifth in AL Cy Young voting in 2005.

As for his Hall of Fame candidacy, Buehrle acquired simply 5.8% of the vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America final season. That was a drop from the 11% he acquired in his first 12 months.

As Buehrle enters his third 12 months on the poll, it’s price taking a better have a look at his case for the Hall of Fame. While the normal general numbers might not be Hall worthy, there are fairly just a few issues that put Buehrle in classes that in any other case solely characteristic Hall of Famers.

There was by no means any query of what you have been going to get out of Buehrle from season to season: a good ERA over 30 begins and 200 remarkably environment friendly innings. In truth, Buehrle topped the 200-inning mark in every of his first 14 full seasons from 2001-14.

The solely pitchers within the Modern Era with 14 consecutive seasons of 200 innings are Buehrle, Christy Mathewson (1901-14), Warren Spahn (1947-63), Gaylord Perry (1966-80), Greg Maddux (1988-2001), Phil Niekro (1967-80) and Don Sutton (1966-80).

Six of these seven pitchers are within the Hall of Fame. The different is Buehrle.

Buehrle’s streak got here to an finish in his ultimate season in 2015 with the Blue Jays — when he pitched “only” 198 2/3 innings. With 4 extra outs, he would have joined Spahn, Perry and Sutton — all of whom pitched a long time sooner than Buehrle — as the one pitchers with 15 straight 200-inning seasons.

Just how uncommon was it for Buehrle to do what he did when he did it? His 3,232 innings from 2001-15 weren’t solely essentially the most within the Majors throughout that span, however he pitched 243 1/3 extra innings than every other pitcher (CC Sabathia was second with 2,988 2/3). In different phrases, Buehrle basically pitched greater than a whole season’s price extra innings than any large league pitcher throughout his outstanding 14-year run.

Overall, Buehrle completed his profession with a 3.81 ERA and 214 wins over 518 video games (493 begins) and three,283 1/3 innings. The solely different pitchers with no less than 200 wins and 500 appearances since 2000 are Sabathia and Zack Greinke.

Few pitchers, if any, fielded their place higher than Buehrle. For starters, Buehrle racked up 87 profession Defensive Runs Saved — and FanGraphs didn’t even begin monitoring it till 2003.

To put that quantity in perspective, Buehrle’s 87 DRS are tied with Greinke for essentially the most by any pitcher throughout that span, even if Buehrle — who averaged 6.7 DRS per season — is lacking 3 1/2 season’s price of information. The solely different pitcher with even 50 DRS throughout that span is Jake Westbrook, who had simply 63.

But Buehrle didn’t simply excel as soon as the ball was in play. His defensive prowess included bringing the opposing working recreation to a close to halt.

Buehrle allowed solely 59 stolen bases over his 16-year profession — and by no means greater than eight in a single season. He mixed together with his catchers to throw out 81 tried base stealers throughout that very same span, leading to a caught stealing share of 57.9%. That’s not solely double the league common of 29% throughout his profession, however it’s the sixth greatest by any certified pitcher since that knowledge was first tracked in 1974.

And whereas any pitcher wants assist from his catcher to sluggish the working recreation, Buehrle definitely did his half. He picked off 102 baserunners throughout his profession, which ranks fourth since 1974, behind solely Steve Carlton (118), Mark Langston (105) and Andy Pettitte (103).

At the top of the day, pitching is all about run prevention. Sure, Buehrle racked up the innings on a yearly foundation and shined defensively, however how did he handle to get by means of so many innings with out overpowering stuff?

After all, Buehrle had just one,870 strikeouts in his 3,283 1/3 innings. He additionally had a 1.28 profession WHIP. Only 9 pitchers who’ve that few strikeouts and that prime of a WHIP are within the Hall of Fame — and the most recent debut season for any of these pitchers was 1941.

Situational pitching. Buehrle wasn’t a dominant groundball pitcher — his groundball price was proper consistent with the league common throughout his pitching days — however he was pretty much as good as anybody at getting a groundball when he completely wanted one.

Despite his league common groundball price, Buehrle pressured opposing hitters into floor into 362 double performs. That’s the fourth most by any pitchers because the stat was tracked in 1974, trailing solely Greg Maddux (422), Tom Glavine (421) and Pettitte (363).

Any time a participant doesn’t have a clear-cut Hall of Fame case, it helps to have historic moments or milestones to sway issues in his favor. For Buehrle, a type of moments got here when he tossed a complete-game victory in opposition to the Angels in Game 2 of the 2005 ALCS on his method to serving to the White Sox win the World Series.

Another got here on April 18, 2007, when he confronted the minimal in a no-hitter in opposition to the Rangers. The solely blemish was a fifth-inning stroll to Sammy Sosa, who was promptly — and unsurprisingly — picked off by Buehrle.

Two years later, Buehrle turned simply the 18th pitcher in AL/NL historical past to throw an ideal recreation when he retired all 27 Rays batters in a July 23, 2009, recreation at U.S. Cellular Field. Tampa Bay’s lineup that day included B.J. Upton, Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria, Carlos Pena, Ben Zobrist and Pat Burrell, amongst others.

Buehrle stays one in every of solely 23 pitchers to throw an ideal recreation — and one in every of solely seven to throw each an ideal recreation and one other no-hitter.

The different six are Sandy Koufax, Cy Young, Roy Halladay, Randy Johnson, Jim Bunning and Addie Joss.

All six are within the Hall of Fame.