2009 White Sox player review: Mark Buehrle

Written by: JJ Stankevitz on 7th October 2009

2009 White Sox player review: Mark Buehrle | read this item

2009 was another typical season for Mark Buehrle: 200+ innings and a sub-4.00 ERA. Well, it was typical with one exception—a perfect game.

Key Stats

GS: 33

IP: 213.1

W: 13

L: 10

ERA: 3.84

ERA+: 122

FIP: 4.46

BB: 45

BB/9: 1.90

SO: 105

K/9: 4.43

K/BB: 2.33

HR/9: 1.14

WHIP: 1.25

OPS: .756

GB/FB: 1.26

BABIP: 2.82

WAR: 3.4

Mark Buehrle has spoiled the White Sox over the course of his nine seasons as a full-time starter. This year, he basically met his career averages 33 starts, a 3.80 ERA, a 1.27 WHIP, and a 2.53 K/BB ratio (among other numbers).

However, what made Buehrle’s season different this year was his start July 23 against the Rays. That perfect game is going to be what Buehrle’s 2009 season will be remembered for—not his 4.78 ERA following the perfect game.

Yes, after the perfect game, Buehrle struggled. Over 13 starts and 79.0 innings after his perfect game, hitters had a .848 OPS against him, but that’s only the start. His K/BB ratio was 29/19. He allowed four or more runs in seven of those starts (compared to doing that just five times in his previous 20 starts). And, perhaps the biggest indication of Buehrle’s struggles was the .321 batting average hitters had against Buehrle.

Buehrle’s command escaped him after his perfect game. Maybe he was trying to be perfect again, maybe his arm hit a dead period, maybe it was something else. Either way, Buehrle left his pitches up in the strike zone far too much to be effective—and it showed with all the hits he gave up after July 23.

His BABIP was high during that period, but a lot of that wasn’t so much bad luck as it was Buehrle leaving the ball up in the zone. When you only average 85 mph on your fastball, you can’t afford to leave pitches above the belt.

But enough with the bad of Buehrle’s season. From his first start of the year April 6 to his perfect game, Buehrle was once again very, very good.

Over his first 20 starts and 134.1 innings, Buehrle was 11-3 with a 3.28 ERA, 76/26 K/BB, and a .697 OPS against. He made his fourth career All-Star game—in his hometown of St. Louis, no less—and even nailed a solo home run off Milwaukee’s Braden Looper.

In the end, Buehrle’s first 20 starts outweighed his last 13. Buehrle’s decline did coincide with the Sox’ fall from contention, but blaming Buehrle for the decline wouldn’t be right. During the Sox’ major decline (Aug. 21 to Sept. 2 when the Sox went 3-10 against Baltimore, Boston, New York, and Minnesota), Buehrle made three starts—only one of which wasn’t good.

As Jim at Sox Machine said, Buehrle’s been well worth his salary halfway through his four-year, $56 million extension he signed back in 2007. While Buehrle has had a few unexpected bad seasons in his career (2003, 2006), there’s no real way to predict him having another one of those before his contract is up. He’s always been a guy who has a high FIP and a low ERA (3.80 career ERA to 4.17 career FIP), so that’s not a good way to try to project his performance. So it’s pretty safe to assume Buehrle will put up his usual solid numbers next year like he did in 2009.

Those numbers just probably won’t include a perfect game and a MLB-record 45 consecutive outs.

Topics: Babip, Bad Luck, Batting Average, Career Averages, Dead Period, Fastball, Full Time, Game Key, Gb, Mark Buehrle, Ops, Perfect Game, Pitches, Sox Player, Strike Zone, Typical Season, War 3, Whip, White Sox