Mark Buerhle > Jack Morris?

The status of "ace" is subjective with Morris and Buehrle. Morris was generally considered an "ace" because he was the top starter, or deemed to be. Often Buehrle was a top starter for the White Sox, but was never an "ace" mainly because he didn't throw 95 mph fastballs.

Also, Buehrle never had eye-popping numbers. He never got 20 wins, he never won a Cy Young, and he most definitely never came close to leading the league in strikeouts. The term "ace" is usually reserved for someone overpowering. Buehrle was merely frustrating (to hitters if his curve was down, to his own teammates and fans if it stayed up.)

 

Morris actually has four World Series rings, with three different teams -- Detroit (1984), Minnesota (1991) and Toronto (1992 and '93, although he stunk in the regular season in '93 and didn't pitch at all in the postseason).

 

I've always been a huge Buehrle fan, too ... but I compare him more to Jamie Moyer than Jack Morris.

Moyer had a couple 20-win seasons, a very strong postseason in 2001 with Seattle, and threw more than 4,000 innings.

That's a very good career, but not HOF.

Buehrle is a very similar type of pitcher, albeit with a better career ERA, a perfect game and no hitter.

 

No, you can't.

 

I can't see how anyone who would visit both Twitter and Facebook would think that Facebook's stock price would be higher.

 

Morris is frequently listed on a lot of all 1980s teams, but it's really misleading since most of the best pitchers from that era, the ones who are in the HOF (Ryan, Carlton, Seaver, Palmer, Sutton, Perry, Jenkins, Niekro, Blyleven... ) were retired by the end of the decade (I think Ryan may be the only exception in that group...) and had their best seasons or are more identified with the 1970s. Others, like Greg Maddux didn't come along until the end of the decade.

Morris may have the best numbers from 1980-89, but he was never the best pitcher in the game. He never won a Cy Young...

I remember a veteran baseball writer who I worked with at my first stop said, "If you even have to think if someone is a Hall of Famer, then they're not..." and while I usually agree with that, I think Morris may be an exception, because you hear the name and you, or at least, I would think, "Oh, absolutely, he's a Hall of Famer", and then you take a look at his numbers, and it's a much tougher sell.

I definitely think Morris is better than Buehrle. I see Buehrle as a good pitcher and a compiler, but not on the level of Morris.

 

I'm not sure Buehrle has ever had an arm or shoulder injury, which seems implausible in this day and age.

As calling a pitcher a "compiler" -- I know that's often meant to be a bit of an insult, but the nice thing about compilers is you know they'll rarely miss a start.

 

It's not an insult on any level. He's had a very good career. How many times has he finished top 10 in CY Young voting? I know all-star games can be really misleading, but how many times was he considered one of the top 10 pitchers in his league?

 

You cannot make a serious argument that Jack Morris was the best pitcher in the 1980s.