Can Mark Buerhle hit 300 Wins?
After watching Tom Glavine get his 300th victory, I thought to myself what would it take for Mark Buerhle to do it.
So far in his full 6 seasons that he has played in the MLB, he has averaged 15.5 wins a year and currently he is only 28 years. Mark Buerhle is a finesse pitcher that does not put a lot of pressure on his arm which means if all holds up he should only get better with age. Based on his statistics this season, it seems as if his second half blunders last year were a far cry from his career stats.
If Buerhle continues on his current pace of 15.5 wins a year for the next 14 years including this season and lasts as long as Tom Glavine has lasted (age 41), Buerhle would win 217 games and if you add that total with the 97 wins at the beginning of the season he would total 314 wins. In fact, Buerhle will only have to average 14.5 wins for the next 14 years to get to the magic 300 number.
Tom Glavine, in the 19 full seasons that he has pitched in the majors, not counting this year averaged 15.15 wins a season. The benefits that Glavine had to his credit was that he was on a great Braves team for all those years and that will be a big factor in Buerhle winning 300.
Buerhle has had a couple tough losses this year on a substandard White Sox team. What Buerhle does have going for him is that he tends to work deep into games which typically aids pitchers in getting decisions.
It will help matters of course if Buerhle can have a couple huge seasons the next couple seasons. While it is doubtful that he can get 20 wins this year, he still is on pace to win about 15-16 games.