Mark Buehrle is one of the greatest players in the history of the Chicago White Sox. He was a pitcher that had an incredibly high level of skill and will to win. As a result, he pitched in the big leagues for 16 years.
12 of those years came with the Chicago White Sox, one came with the Miami Marlins, and three came with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was good with the Marlins and Blue Jays but the greatest years came on the south side.
Throughout his career, he was a borderline Hall of Famer. He was an All-Star five times, a Gold Glove winner four times, and a World Series Champion in 2005. He also had himself a perfect game and another no-hitter to go with it throughout his amazing career.
He is still on the Hall of Fame ballot but there is an unlikely chance that he makes it. He was very good in his career but he is going to come up just short of making it. He had a career WAR of 59.1 thanks to his 214-160 record, 3.81 ERA, and 1.281 WHIP. He also had 1870 strikeouts over 3283.1 innings.
Mark Buehrle picked off 100 baserunners in his career.
— Jay Cuda (@JayCuda) December 13, 2021
That is 2nd all time to Steve Carlton who picked off 146.
Carlton also is the career balks leader with 90.
Buehrle had 16.
The Chicago White Sox were so lucky to have Mark Buehrle for such a long time.
Mark was also amazing at holding runners on first base if they made their way on against him. His move to first base was as good as any player to ever play baseball before. In his career, he picked off 100 baserunners which are the second most all-time (Steve Carlton is first with 146).
This is crazy, however, because of the fact that Carlton had 90 balks in his career. He clearly had a good move to the base but he was risky. Buehrle only had 16 balks in his career so he was much more solid with his pick-off moves. With that in mind, you can argue that he was the greatest to ever do it in that aspect.
Out of all the cool stats that are surrounded by Mark Buehrle, this one is the coolest. It is hard to pick off base runners in baseball and Buehrle was great at it. If he was pitching in 2021, he might be even more successful because they don’t even call balks nearly as much as they once did.
Thinking of Buehrle and his incredible career will always be fun for Chicago White Sox fans. Whether it was pitching well, throwing out baserunners, or just listening to him talk, he was great to have around this team for so long.