Players · B · Pitcher · 2015

Mark Buehrle

Age: 36
B/T: L/L
Height: 6' 2"
Weight: 240 lb
Number: #56

Born: March 23, 1979 in St. Charles, MO, United States
MLB debut: July 16, 2000

dbWAR: 1.5
IP: 198.2
ERA: 3.81
FIP: 4.26
K/9: 4.1
FIP−: 108

Mark Buehrle was a starting pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays. In 2015 he struck out 91 batters over 198.2 innings across 32 appearances, 32 of them starts, going 15-8. His ERA of 3.81 was 3.9% lower than the league average of 3.96 — 9th of 14 on his team, and 241st of 513 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.26 FIP suggests that his ERA had some help behind him. He missed bats on 11.9% of swings (5.7% of every pitch he threw), walked 4.0% of the batters he faced and struck out 11.0%. His 1.5 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2015.

FIP4.26

K/94.1

WHIP1.24

WAR1.5

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

																				Trend
2015	TOR	32	32	198.2	15	8	0	214	84	91	33	3.81	4.26	1.24	4.1	1.5	96	108	1.5	—

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

																					Trend
2015	TOR	4	9	1	0	0	0	1	3	.143	.250	.143	.000	.250	11.1%	33.3%	.199	-0.8	18	0.0	—

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2015. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	215	203	59	8	8	21	.291	.321	.473	.345	9.8%
vs RHB	612	565	155	14	25	70	.274	.307	.428	.317	11.4%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2015.

Loading 5 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2015.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .254.

Pitch sequencing

What Mark Buehrle throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Four-seamSinkerChangeupCutterCurveballIN

Select a count to see exactly what Mark Buehrle throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.


Four-Seam Fastball	26.3%	743	83.9	1,317	47.5%	9.4%	173	.283	.769
Sinker	24.4%	690	82.9	1,641	39.6%	9.9%	225	.271	.745
Changeup	21.0%	595	78.2	1,588	36.6%	17.5%	197	.254	.681
Cutter	19.4%	549	79.4	784	42.1%	11.3%	120	.333	.868
Curveball	8.5%	241	71.2	973	40.2%	9.7%	54	.259	.643
Intentional Ball	0.4%	11	70.7	977	0.0%	—	0	—	—

Mark Buehrle's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

Head to head

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Mark Buehrle

Similar players

Nearest 2015 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Scott FeldmanHOU

ERA: 3.90
FIP: 4.32
SO: 61
WAR: 0.7

Very close

Mike LeakeCIN

ERA: 3.70
FIP: 4.20
SO: 119
WAR: 1.8

Jered WeaverLAA

ERA: 4.64
FIP: 4.81
SO: 90
WAR: 0.1

Bartolo ColonNYM

ERA: 4.16
FIP: 3.84
SO: 136
WAR: 2.3

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.