Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The Toronto Blue Jays have already seen their star infielder, Jose Reyes go down with an injury and the season is only days old. However, there will be a bright spot for the Jays throughout the season — the success of starting pitcher Mark Buehrle.
Buehrle joined the Blue Jays before the 2013 season. He finished 12-10 with a 4.15 ERA and 1.345 WHIP. While those numbers may not be impressive, he was able to post the second-best K/9 of his career, 6.1. Since 2010, Buehrle’s K/9 has gone up each season.
Looking at his career, Buehrle has been one of the most consistent pitchers in all of baseball. Not counting his rookie season, there hasn’t been a season in which he hasn’t started at least 30 games. He had a career-high 35 starts in both 2003 and 2004. If he can start around 33 games for the Blue Jays this season, you can expect a healthy 14 wins out of him.
Buehrle’s first start of the 2014 season was superb. He lasted 8 2/3 innings, gave up four hits, zero runs and struck out 11 batters. Eleven strikeouts in one game were Buehrle’s most since he struck out 12 back in 2005. Even though he won’t be striking out that many batters all the time, it’s good to know that he still has the skills to deceive batters.
Buehrle is owned in 28.8 percent of ESPN leagues, an increase of 20.3 percent over the last week. If you’re dealing with injuries to superstar pitchers like Clayton Kershaw, Cole Hamels or Mat Latos, then Buehrle is a pitcher you should add until they get healthy. He won’t be the pitcher he was with the Chicago White Sox, but has a fifth starting pitcher, there are much worse options on the waiver wire.
Bill Pivetz is a fantasy sports writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @Bpiv_Sports.
