Know Your Enemy: Mark Buehrle

Houston Astros (3-4) @ Toronto Blue Jays (3-4) - 6:07pm Central

*The Blue Jays play the Astros having just dropped two out of three to the Yankees (who had just dropped two of three to...THAT'S RIGHT HOUSTON ASTROS WOO). They're 1-2 at home, the Astros will be playing their first road games of the season.

*Houston leads the all-time series with Toronto, 8-5, but Toronto won the 2013 season series, 4-3.
*The 2013 Astros dropped three games of a four-game set at Toronto in July 2013, but won two of three from the Blue Jays in Houston in late August.

*Mark Alan Buehrle of St. Charles, Missouri.
*Was cut from his high school baseball team as a sophomore. 
*Drafted in the 38th Round of the 1998 draft. Three other players from that round of the draft made it to the Majors: Tommy Watkins (MIN), who played in nine career MLB games; Trey Hodges (SD) who pitched in 56 games with a -0.7 WAR; and Dennis Tankersley (BOS), who pitched in 27 major-league games for a -1.5 WAR.
*Buehrle threw two starts against the Astros last season, on July 25 and August 25. His total line in those two games? 17IP, 9H/1ER, 16K:4BB. This includes a complete game shutout of the Astros in which he allowed 2H/0ER, 9K:2BB - and did it all in 2h 18m. The two hits were by J.D. Martinez and Justin Maxwell.
*Jesus Guzman is a career 3x6 with two doubles off Buehrle; Jonathan Villar is 2x5, Bob Grossman is 2x4. Chris Carter is 2x8, Jose Altuve is 1x8.

*Mark Buehrle is coming off an April 2 start in which he held the Rays to 4H/0ER, 11K:1BB in 8.2IP.
*Thing is, he's not going to smoke a fastball by you. His fastball last week sat around 82mph, 2mph off his 2013 average. But he throws a four-seam (10.2%), two-seam (30.6%), and a cutter (9.3%) to mix it up. He'll also throw a 76mph changeup a third of the time.
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*Brett Oberholtzer gets the start for the Astros.
*He took the loss in G3 vs. New York last week, allowing 5H/3ER, 5K:1BB.
*In the final five starts of his 2013 season, Oberholtzer allowed 26H/7ER, 20K:7BB, a .566 OPS on a .235 BABIP...and the Astros went 1-4 in those games.
*Oberholtzer has never faced Toronto, or any current Blue Jay.

From the Office of the County Clerk - G101: Astros @ Blue Jays

Welp. The Astros were held to two hits and no runs as the Blue Jays beat the Astros, 4-0.

*Mark Buehrle's 90 Game Score is the highest since he posted a 93 in his perfect game against the Rays back on July 23, 2009, which just so happened to be his last complete game shutout.

*Erik Bedard threw 5IP, 3H/1ER, 6K:1BB but was again inefficient as he needed 95 pitches to get those 15 outs.
*Bedard's last two outings: 11.1IP, 3H/2ER, 16K:6BB, two losses.
*Bedard threw first-pitch strikes to just six of 17 batters faced.
*Oh and then Lucas Harrell came in. In 3IP he allowed 4H/3ER, 2K:2BB to raise his ERA to 5.17.
*In Harrell's last ten appearances, he has thrown 44.1IP, allowing 47H/27ER, 28K:25BB.
*The Astros haven't won a game in which Harrell appeared since June 20.

*Justin Maxwell and J.D. Martinez had your only hits.
*This is the 4th time the Astros have been held to two hits or less, and the tenth time they've been shutout this season.

*The Astros are 1-6 since the All-Star Break, and have been out-scored 43-25. Jason Castro is 5x29 with 13 strikeouts in those seven games.

Buehrle vs. Wandy

So Mark Buehrle just signed a 4-year, $58m deal with the Marlins. What does that mean for Wandy's contract, which is basically 3-year, $36m?

TALE OF THE TAPE!

Buehrle: 32-year old lefty
Wandy: 32-year old lefty.

Name	IP	ERA/WHIP	K:BB
Buehrle	2476.2	3.83/1.28	2.48
Wandy	1176.0	4.07/1.35	2.38

Let's keep going (career)...

Name	H/9	HR/9	WAR
Buehrle	9.5	1.0	46.6
Wandy	8.9	1.0	10.2

How about the last three seasons?

Name	IP	ERA/WHIP	K:BB
Buehrle	629	3.91/1.32	2.25
Wandy	591.2	3.36/1.28	2.69

More 2009-11:

Name	H/9	HR/9	WAR
Buehrle	9.9	0.9	12.1
Wandy	8.5	0.9	10.1

The point is, for the past three years, Wandy and Buehrle have been two very similar pitchers. Buehrle is getting a deal that pays $14.5m for the next four years, while the team that trades for Wandy is getting a similar pitcher for $12m/year for the next three years.

Ultimately, Buehrle's deal is going to skyrocket Wilson's asking price, which means that the team that wants Wandy is going to deal with a franchise motivated to move him, with a friendlier contract than expected 20 minutes ago.