In trying to come up with an unoriginal idea, Ryan will try the contrary argument to Aaron Murray's "Cheap in 2010"...
Coming off a perfect game and a flirtation with another one, fans might believe that Mark Buehrle is the next fantasy ace for their team. However the wheels on the wagon fell off in a dismal 0-3 August with a 5.54 ERA and only 10 strikeouts. Is this rust or more of the same to come?
Thankfully I found a comparison to him. Each player going into their age 31 season in 2010.
Player A: 13 wins, 3.84 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 105 Strikeouts and a career 5.19 K/9 rate
Player B: 15 Wins, 3.49 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 105 Strikeouts and a career 5.59 K/9 rate
Player A is Buerhle and Player B is none other than Joel Piniero. Yet we all hate Piniero's flirtation with disaster or think he is more of a fluke thank Buehrle because he did not throw a perfect game last year.
In 2009, Piniero struck out the same amount of batters Buehrle did in two-thirds of an inning more. Piniero had two great years with the Seattle Mariners in his age 23-24 seasons. It might also be coincidence that in his age 30 season he set his career best WHIP, beating his 2003 number, and tied his 2003 career high of two shutouts. Piniero, even when seen as a potential disaster, has bettered his strikeout to walk rate each year since 2006. Piniero had his best ERA (3.49) since 2002 (3.24) and might have another good season left in him.
On the other side, every year since 2003 Buehrle has given up over a hit per inning pitched (his H/9 over 9.1 every year). Since the White Sox won the World Series in 2005: Buehrle has pitched to a 4.05 ERA, given up 107 home runs and has a mediocre strikeout to walk rate of 2.41.
I could even make the argument the Buehrle is more erratic. Even if this statistic is skewed by his perfect game, Buehrle pitched to a 1.57 ERA and 0.88 WHIP in his wins while pitching to a 7.56 ERA and a 1.66 WHIP in his losses. Those are two extremes.
I'm not suggesting you spend the same on either of these players, I'm suggesting that having either is the lesser of two evils in the late stages of some typical leagues.
When not writing about Fantasy Baseball, Ryan can be found writing at SienaSaintsBlog.com or is evaluating his baseball team at his own personal site. Follow him on twitter at ryanarestivo.
