Oh, come on. Mark Buehrle's Hall of Fame chances?

[the 'stache]

ESPN keeps stooping to new lows with their baseball "journalism".

Now, David Schoenfield has written an article talking about Mark Buehrle's Hall of Fame chances. According to Schoenfield, Buehrle, who has 200 wins at age 36, "can pitch into his 40s like Jamie Moyer."

I don't care if he pitches into his 50s. This guy is not a Hall of Famer. Have we really devalued Cooperstown this much?

Buehrle has been a good pitcher throughout his career. In 2007, he threw his first career no hitter against the Rangers. Then, in 2009, he threw a perfect game against the then Devil Rays.

Ok, so he's had two awesome games. And, 200 wins is fairly impressive.

But 1,780 strikeouts in 3,090 2/3 innings pitched is not. He was 5th in the 2006 American League Cy Young Award vote. He's never received a single Cy Young vote in any other year. And while wins is, as we've already noted, not the be all end all metric for pitchers, since Schoenfield is bringing up his 200, it should be noted he's won 19 games in a season once--in 2002, his second full season. He's won 16 games three other times--2001, 2004 and 2005. He's not won more than 15 in the last nine years, and the 15 games he won in 2008 is the only time he's won more than 13 games in the last nine years. The last nine years, he's 114 and 99.

Look at his record the last six years:

2009: 13-10
2010: 13-13
2011: 13-9
2012: 13-13
2013: 12-10
2014: 13-10

Not to mention, his career 3.81 ERA would be the highest of any pitcher in the Hall of Fame. Red Ruffing, at 3.80, is the current high water mark.

200-152, 3.81 ERA, 1,780 K's.

That is NOT a Hall of Fame pitcher. I don't care if he pitchers another 10 years. It's an absurd suggestion that he is.