Yes, I am on Twitter.
1. I did put this concept up on Twitter yesterday, but a perfect game makes it feel big enough to repeat here and that is if Mark Buehrle is on a path to the Hall of Fame. When I have thought about Buehrle in the past I have thought: Tom Glavine lite. He is a lefty who relies on precision whose strength is metronomic consistency. Wind him up and he wins 15-ish games and throws 200 innings. I have never thought greatness when I have thought of Buehrle and that is probably the bias I share with many when watching a pitcher who thrives more with craft than overwhelming power or stuff.
But at this point in his career, Buehrle now has both a perfect game and a no-hitter. He is a four-time All-Star. He already has 11 wins this season, his ninth straight year in double-digits. He was a key force on the 2005 champion White Sox. He has 133 wins during his age-30 season. That means — with good health — he could make a run at 300. Glavine, for example, finished his age-30 season with 139 wins en route to 305.
However, Buehrle’s only time receiving Cy Young votes was his fifth-place finish in 2005. So, for now, his Cooperstown case is about being a consistent accumulator who on two days in his career (the perfecto and no-hitter) touched history. But he sure is a becoming an interesting case.
2. John Maine is on the way to visit Dr. James Andrews and the Yankees are sending their medical report on Chien-Ming Wang for Andrews to give his views. Obviously, having to deal with Andrews usually is bad news, and really there hasn’t been much good news in 2009 for Maine and Wang.
Which got me to thinking if either or both will be tendered a contract for next season. A lot will be based on their health. I assume if the Mets and Yankees believe they are getting fully healthy pitchers for 2010 that they would go ahead and tender them contracts in the offseason and risk the arbitration process. But both players have shoulder problems and the cure rate for shoulders remains dicey. Wang is making $5 million this season and Maine $2.6 million, and neither could expect much of a raise if any for next year.
But what both teams may face is the question if that money is better spent trying to find their rotation replacements than on the dubious proposition that either could return in full for 2010. Both teams could conceivably work out deals where the players are non-tendered and then re-sign at reduced rates with the chance to recover salaries in full if they pitch all year. The players would probably only accept such deals if they feared their health issues precluded them from getting similar or better deals elsewhere.
3. Joe Posnanski on SI.com tackled an interesting project in trying to come up with the top 100 players in baseball. One of the areas I found most intriguing was the battle for the second best first baseman in the majors. Because Albert Pujols actually heads this top 100 list. So who is next after Pujols at first? On Posnanski’s list he has Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder at No. 11 overall, Minnesota’s Justin Morneau at No. 14, Boston’s Kevin Youkilis at No. 16, the Yanks’ Mark Teixeira at No. 17, Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera at No. 18, San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez at No. 22, Philaelphia’s Ryan Howard at 32 and Houston’s Lance Berkman at No. 36.
The way Posnanski framed the question was not which 100 players would you like for the next five years, but which 100 do you value the most to play this season. Do you think you can make a strong case that Teixeira actually deserves to be ranked just behind Pujols as the second best first baseman in the game? I think if I had to pick just one from this secondary group I would go with Youkilis because his versatility in being able to play third base, as well, feels like a big asset when you are trying to split hairs. Teixeira and Cabrera also came up as third basemen, but can’t play there with any quality any longer. But having watched Teixeira daily now I have stopped thinking of him as just a good supplementary player. His two-way skills are superb. He is a difference-making player.
The other thing I thought about is what a fascinating free agent case Fielder is going to be after the 2011 season. He will finish that campaign at just 27. He should have exceeded 200 homers. Teixeira received an eight-year, $180 million deal in a bad economy. Both men share Scott Boras as an agent and let’s all hope the economy is better in 2011. But what kind of risk will teams see in the 260-plus frame of Fielder? And will teams be willing to invest gigantic, long-term dollars in the aging process of a player that size?
