Re-visiting Buehrle's perfect game

Mark Buehrle's perfect game last Thursday seemed to come and go with very quick Buehrle-like efficiency, and one of my Sox fan friends has already been on me for not talking it up enough. At this point, I'm more upset about the Sox losing 3 of 4 in Detroit to go back to the happy place where I was last week, but my favorite stat of all the stats and facts thrown around in the last several days was that Buehrle only spent 32 minutes of game-time on the mound during the "PG."

That's just wild, and it's not like who threw 70 pitches. He threw 116 pitches in 32 minutes. This probably isn't always the case with every opponent, but the game-pace Buehrle sets often seems to get hitters off balance.

There also has been a lot of talk in the last week about Buehrle's chance for the Hall of Fame. He certainly has a great shot at 300 wins for his career (133 now), but has also strongly hinted he might quit after 2011. A Cy Young Award this year would definitely help his case, and he's definitely in the running for it right now, but even two more very strong seasons (near 20 wins, which he has never accomplished) after this one, would leave him well short of 200 wins. being a World Series Champion helps, too, but short of 200 wins, I think he would probably need another no-hitter, a couple Cy Youngs or another World Series under his belt.

And, if he does that, we're not letting him walk away. I would let him fly in from Missouri for his starts if it made a difference, though you also have to figure a good guy like Buehrle would never go for that star treatment.

The case for keeping Milton Bradley

There was a rumor in the last few days--now shot down by just about everybody--that the Detroit Tigers were looking to acquire free agent disappointment Milton Bradley from the Cubs. I think most people have viewed Bradley as basically untradeable at this point unless the Cubs are looking for nothing better than a set of steak knives. Heck, that's what I thought.

In any case, there won't be a trade, apparently, and after seeing Bradley sometimes succeeding/still essentially struggling in the last several games, I'm starting to like the idea of keeping him. Why? Three little letters: OBP.

Bradley's on-base percentage going into Sunday's game was .377, the second-best of any player on the current roster (second to Aramis Ramirez). With 44 walks, Bradley has only six fewer walks than team leader Kosuke Fukudome. I think that, used pretty strategically, which Lou Piniella has begun to do by limiting Bradley's left-handed at-bats against righty pitchers, Bradley could be a very valuable contributor down the line even if he continues to hits around .250 (at .246 now)--as long as he keeps the BBs coming and keeps that OBP at a healthy level.

Bradley's current .131 spread between his batting average and OBP is a remarkable stat. Without Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez, among others, hitting well, it may not amount to much, and when Bradley was slumping along with Lee and A-Ram was out with his shoulder injury, Bradley's few walks and a whole lot of nothing otherwise wasn't acceptable.

But, now, it's another cog, an important one, in the run-scoring machine that the Cubs finally having running smoothly. And, if Bradley starts to hit a little more--let's just say the Cubs visit to first place today, could be a long-term visit.

Perfection!

Need I say more?

Floored by Parque's HGH confession

Little Jim Parque, he of the one pretty good season with the 2000 A.L. Central Divison winning White Sox, has a lengthy (and I do mean lengthy) confession about having used HGH during the latter part of his career after his arm injury suffered in the 2000 ALDS, in which Parque started the opener in a series known best for its complete lack of offense by a Sox team that had scored 978 runs during the season.

I want to read it through a couple times before I offering too many impressions, but 1) I'm surprised 2) He comes off noth as very apologetic, but also looking for a little justification--saying essentially he did what he felt he had to do to stay in the game. Interesting...

Missed opportunity

With the White Sox up 2-1 on the Rays at the opening of the 8th inning last night, I was hoping the Sox were ready for an extra inning game. The Great and Powerful Oz had trotted Clayton Richard out to pitch the 8th, though he was already at the 106-pitch mark. Even if Richard didn't blow it, I figured, Bobby Jenks, who barely escaped a bases-loaded jam for the Sox' 4-3 win Monday, surely would blow it.

Richard turned out to be impressive in his final inning, giving up a single, but using only 10 pitches, which made me wonder for a moment if we might see him in the 9th, conventional pitcher management philosophies cast aside. Instead, we saw Jenks load the bases again, this time before he recorded a single out, on the way to a 3-2 Sox loss.

Black Jack sees it as another example of a team handing off a game to a closer without a thought, because that's the foolish way of modern baseball. There are times when I would agree with that perspective, and last night might be one of them. Richard did indeed look great, though it was already his longest outing ever. I thought the key move was leaving him in after the 8th inning single. I thought that was an inidcation Ozzie was determined to stay with him for th 9th as well.

Yet, two excellent right-handed hitters (Jason Bartlett and Evan Longoria) were due up in the 9th, which would have made sticking with Richard a very high risk situation. The problem was that the only other apparent answer was Jenks, who in July before last night had pitched 5 inning and given up 5 runs (4 ER). Ugly choices, and maybe a great spot to do something really unconventional, but the fact was that even though Jenks has not been greatly lately, he had not actually blown a save since June 11.

Ozzie may have felt his hands were tied in trying to save his bullpen for tonight, when the Sox will start minor-leaguer Carlos Torres in place of John Danks, who has a blister, but what the Sox end up with is a missed opportunity to go 2 games up in a four-game series, while also losing a game in the standings to 1st place Detroit.

C.Q. is back, B.A. is gone

Carlos Quentin officially is back from the disabled list, and to answer your next question, yes, Brian Anderson was indeed sent down to the minors to make room for him. In recent games, as B.A.'s average has again headed south while Scott Podsednik was still managing to somehow channel the 2005 version of himself, it has become clear that Pods would move over to centerfield when C.Q. returned.

At least, that's what we think is happening. Tonight's line-up for the first of four games against last year's hated play-off foe, the Rays, was not yet posted as of this writing. Maybe we'll also see a variation in coming games with C.Q. DH-ing against lefties, though Jim Thome has been hot enough lately, hasn't he?

B.J. and the baby bears

The Cubs have signed one-time superstar closer B.J. Ryan, according to the Chicago Tribune. More recently, Ryan has been a huge bust in Toronto, and was recently released. But, this looks like a low-risk move by the Cubs, landing a lefty with credentials who has only pitched in the American League thus far and could potentially do well against National Leaguers who haven't seen him.

Ryan is being sent to the Iowa Cubs, but I'll bet he gets to Wrigley before too long.

The Cubs have needed another southpaw and true bullpen-type pitcher (unlike Sean Marshall, whose good stuff and durable arm often goes to waste in short outings out of the pen). Signing Ryan also gives them some late-inning flexibility, particularly at a time when Carlos Marmol continues to amble along his strike-'em-out-or-walk-'em-in path.