Mark Buehrle Was Baseball's Speedrunner | Baseball Bits

[Music] mark burley was baseball's speedrunner speedrunner what does that word mean it's not a reference to burly speed or athleticism although he certainly demonstrated it on this play that's wow that's one of the most athletic things i've ever seen no speedrunning in the video game community is a word used to describe the act of completing a video game as quickly as possible for example the speedrun world record for the original super mario brothers is 4 minutes 55 seconds and 646 milliseconds and my personal record is 0 seconds because i'm terrible at platformers and according to gamers i'm also a noob with no friends in a world where esports and traditional sports are converging i want to talk about someone who brought the speedrunning mentality to the game of baseball every time mark burley got on the mound it was as if his goal was to complete the game in record time when he called it quits in 2015 the average length of a nine inning baseball game had ballooned to three hours in response to that pace of play has become a frequently discussed topic throughout mlb and as the league tries to speed up the game for spectators it is becoming more and more clear that mark burley's time on the mound or lack thereof made him really special [Music] in 2019 it took three hours and five minutes on average to complete nine innings of baseball 20 years prior it was two hours and 53 minutes and 20 years before that it was right around two and a half hours now i enjoy baseball but look at it this way would you rather watch a baseball game or a baseball game plus an episode of curb your enthusiasm where larry commits a faux pod that comes back to buy them in the end that's every episode by the way let's go back even further in 1946 the average baseball game lasted one hour and 56 minutes sub two baby maybe baseball was played at a lightning pace that year because people were amped up from the war ending bob feller would even speed things up by throwing two pitches at once kinda makes sense how he struck out 348 batters that year we all know that major league baseball is trying to speed up the game in 2020 and beyond a pitch clock at least with the bases empty seems inevitable in fact the double a and aaa levels of the miners have already been using one since 2015. some people seem to dislike the idea of a pitch clock but many of them have attended a pitch clock baseball game and never noticed it that's actually what happened to me and now i support the idea of one at the major league level perhaps the biggest problem with the current pace of play is that it drags on the greatest stage of all a 3 hour regular season baseball game might not seem too bad but the average world series game in 2019 lasted 3 hours and 45 minutes beyond the pitch clock mlb has also started limiting mound visits but these mound visits are necessary when say your opponent has a penchant for stealing signs the nationals knew about the astros tricks and swapped signs often throughout the series but that would have been difficult to do with a pitch clock and fewer mound visits in order to address pace of play the league must also address you know cheating i've had enough of these four hour playoff games let's look at the opposite of that how about a mark burley game instead [Music] it's june 3rd 2015. we're nearing the end of mark burley's fast-paced career his blue jays are visiting the washington nationals and he's a man on a mission sub 2 baby that's the goal we're trying to play frantic 1946 baseball and speed run the game in less than two hours but much like a video gamer a speedrunner like burley is highly susceptible to three dreaded letters rng no this isn't a fancy new baseball stat rng stands for random number generator but has become a catch-all term for the randomness one can experience while speedrunning a game in super mario it could mean an enemy behaving in a way that isn't conducive to a fast time in burley's case it's shenanigans in the top of the first inning nat's starter taylor jordan throws 32 pitches and allows four runs in the first it takes him about 17 minutes to get three outs before burley can even get started this is the point where a speedrunner would reset their video game but burley has to see this speed run through he cruises through the bottom of the first in just four minutes and 15 seconds in the second burley both hits a single and breaks up a double play good for the blue jays bad for the speed run in the third he quickly retires danny espinoza and dinard span on one and two pitches respectively now you're starting to see one of burley's methods strikeouts take three pitches but he can get you out faster than that by pitching to weak contact in this game he'll face 32 batters 15 of those played appearances will end in one or two pitches in the fourth we can see him speeding up his opponent ian desmond by simply staying on the mound despond's like i guess i'll take some swings oh he's ready to go more swings swingy swinging oh i better just play baseball in the top of the seventh the gnats bring in a new pitcher which adds another 45 seconds or so as he needs to warm up meanwhile burley is still cruising jose bautista homers in the ninth but has the decency to speed things up on the base paths he runs like ronetto doors after him burley's final line a 93 pitch complete game shutout where i'm from we call that a maddox he also only strikes out two batters because in this case believe it or not strikeouts are for suckers burley has done seemingly everything right is it enough for sub 2 nope this game ends after 2 hours and 13 minutes i broke this game down into four categories either burley's pitching the gnats are pitching there's an ad break or the broadcast is going but there's no action yet this is burley's rng problem he only controls about a quarter of the pie chart well actually technically this is a donut chart maybe we should look at the most famous game of burley's career instead july 23 2009 while burley was a very good toronto blue jay the white sox are always the team he'll be associated with most they're at home taking on the tampa bay rays his opponent scott kasmir was a pretty good pitcher back in his heyday but he loads the bases and suffers a grand slam at the hands of josh fields not that one that one it results in a dreadful 16 minute inning in the top of the fourth burley gets back to work so fast that the broadcast isn't even ready for his first pitch he gets three outs in just two and a half minutes impressive stuff he's working at a pace that would give other pitchers a panic attack kasmir allows a run in the fifth but gets out of it in around 6 minutes not too bad the camera catches a glimpse of burley in the 6th at this point he hasn't allowed a single base runner there are murmurs of a perfect game but i like to think burly is just thinking about getting that sweet sweet sub 2. in the top of the eighth burley finds himself in a couple battles it takes him seven pitches to retire ben zobrist who works him into a full count the next batter pat burl also works burly for seven pitches before hitting an unlucky line drive right to the third baseman burly is three outs away from perfection dwayne wise comes in as a defensive substitute in the ninth inning surely that won't make a difference right or maybe he immediately makes one of the greatest catches in baseball history burley then battles back to get his 26th out and then jason bartlett grounds out to end the game mark burley has just thrown the 18th perfect game in mlb history yada yada who cares the final time drum roll two hours and three minutes wow not even a perfect game can get you sub two the race pitching staff failed him in this one and it would have been even worse if the home team hadn't won as tampa would have been responsible for three more outs otherwise this should illustrate exactly how difficult it is to play nine innings in two hours on september 16th 1988 tom browning etched his name into baseball history by throwing a perfect game in one hour and 51 minutes since then pitchers have thrown 11 more perfect games ranging from dennis martinez in 1991 to most recently king felix in 2012 none of them have gotten below two hours we're going to have to pray to r in jesus to get a good speed run [Music] it's july 6th 2015. we're back in burley's toronto years but he's having a chicago homecoming as the blue jays will be taking on the white sox and burley the white sox former ace lefty will be taking on their new ace lefty chris sale burley always worked faster than everyone else but sale is known for his pace as well and he came to play he pitches his second inning in 2 minutes and 10 seconds that's the shortest inning i recorded for this whole video he also allows a home run in the third but still gets out of that one in just 4 minutes but bad rng was bound to happen about 30 seconds are added just so chicago can choose not to review a close call at first base in the top of the fourth josh donaldson tries to get out of the way of this pitch and oh no gibby's gonna challenge yep hit by pitch that's two more minutes of time in the bottom of the fourth this tag for a potential inning ending double play is called safe and here comes gibby again at least this review gets us out of the inning just an incredible replay review performance from john gibbons the ad break in the middle of the seventh runs about 20 seconds longer than in other innings hey how do i skip take me out to the ball game it's impeding my progress the clock is ticking burly takes the mound in the eighth jose reyes commits an error to allow a runner on base that's when burley executes his master stroke c burley is winning as the visiting team meaning that he'll have to pitch the bottom of the ninth to win the ball game but if he can somehow get the white sox out in front they'll be in position to shorten the game by removing a half inning no extra commercial break and three less outs to worry about much like a video game speed runner would burly abuses his game's mechanics to create a skip the white sox rally for three runs all unearned and lead 4-2 then it's up to chris sale to close this one out but he finds himself in serious danger time is running out the blue jays have put the tying run on base and sale has thrown 107 pitches if the blue jays knock things up the game will continue to the bottom of the ninth with no chance at sub two another potential disaster a pitching change those take forever he needs to find a way to get two outs asap so he does and time one hour and 53 minutes sub two baby burly and sale have gone sub two in a world where the average ball game is three hours this was the last sub 2 game of burley's career bringing him up to 10 no other pitcher in the 21st century has more than five as for his personal best on april 16 2005 burly and ryan franklin of the mariners combine their efforts to get through a game in just one hour and 39 minutes that's not just the shortest nine in in game of burly's career it's the shortest major league baseball game in the last 35 years at 99 minutes we're talking about a run time shorter than the wizard of oz just look at the pace on these pitches to raul labanes you also have to give props to ryan franklin as it definitely takes two to tango so what can we learn from these speed runs if burly worked quickly who in today's mlb is rather slovenly on the mound if there's any picture with that reputation it's dodgers reliever pedro baez this is as unfair comparison as it gets we can still learn from it left side of the screen is bias in the nlcs right side is from burley's perfect game in the time bias takes between pitches burly throws seven to retire gabe kepler then the next hitter waltzes up to the plate and burly throws strike one to him as well burley has just thrown eight pitches before pedro bias throws a single one as first pointed out by current tampa bay rays baseball person jeff sullivan this 111 seconds without throwing a pitch is downright aggravating it's characterized by really lazy pick-off moves but the worst moment has to be this interaction between pedro baez and the hitter david ross ross is in the batter's box ready to go bias doesn't come set ross still ready to go bias he's just he's just standing there eventually ross has to call time to reset his concentration it's basically the polar opposite of the ian desmond mark burley interaction we saw previously and here's the crazy thing although pedro bias was the slowest pitcher of 2017 according to the pacemetric he was actually just the 10th slowest in 2019 behind emilio pagan who took over 31 seconds on average between pitches an example of a starting pitcher who has become more methodical so slow would be david price price has slowed his pace down considerably over the course of his career in 2019 bias and price took around 30 seconds between pitches whereas burley for his career worked more than a second per pitch faster than any other pitcher ever since pace has been measured i think that's a wonderful legacy and at a time when many are focused on speeding up the game it's only fitting that we remember mark furley not just as a very good pitcher who won a world series and tossed a perfect game but also as baseball's greatest speedrunner by the way mlb if you want pitchers to be a little more comfortable speeding things up on the mound please consider making a baseball that obeys the laws of gravity [Music] you

Channel: Foolish Baseball

Views: 810,312

Keywords: mark buehrle, speedrun, baseball speedrun, shortest baseball game ever, mlb shortest games, buehrle white sox, buehrle blue jays, buehrle perfect game, 99 minute baseball game, white sox mariners 2005, sub 2 baby, pedro baez, pedro baez slow, david price, david price slow, mlb pace of play, mlb pitch clock, mlb, baseball, foolish baseball, baseball bits, video game speedrun, mario speedrun, mark buehrle speedrunner, buehrle franklin 2005, chris sale, buehrle vs sale

Id: p9YTo0ZDhLE

Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/CydoniaKnight]

AKA what basically is the /u/foolishbaseball / Summoning Salt collab I didn't know I wanted.

[u/TrophyGoat]

I LOVE when pitchers go out there and act like they have somewhere else to be. I know im dramatic as hell but i feel borderline disrespected when David Price goes up there and wastes my time to the tune of 1 pitch per 30 seconds

[u/harriswill]

Buehrle taking those unearned runs accidentally generated a secondary Buehrle fun fact

Mark Buehrle twice had starts where he went 8 innings, gave up 0 ER and took the loss. 5/2/2008 pitching for the White Sox against the Blue Jays, and 7/6/2015 pitching for the Blue Jays against the White Sox

[u/BeefCurtain96]

This guy posts great quality content. He gets some attention and views, but not nearly as much he deserves. So glad he’s out with another video

[u/JamesDaBatman]

Are there separate categories for Any% and 100% (full 9-inning games)?

[u/ItsUhhEctoplasm]

Belongs in the Hall. I'll die on that hill.

[u/Thromnomnomok]

In that 1:39 game against the Mariners, the two teams combined for only 8 baserunners, and Ichiro accounted for all 3 of the Mariners' hits. Buehrle and Franklin threw fewer than 200 pitches between the two of them. The only runs that scored in the game were from two solo homers by Paul Konerko and from Ichiro tripling and then scoring on a groundout.

Here's all 10 of Buehrle's sub-2 hr games, plus one game he pitched that was ended after 6 innings due to rain but technically was less than 2 hours long. Some other notes:

• His first 3 games are in 2003, and all three of them are against fellow speedrunner Mark Mulder. Mulder did more to keep the first two game that short than Buehrle did- Mulder threw complete games both times allowing 1 and 0 runs, while Buehrle didn't pitch great and left early, the only two times he's pitched in a sub-2hr game where he didn't go at least 8 innings. In their 3rd matchup that year, they both threw complete games, with the home White Sox winning 3-2, and it's good the home team won, since they were just 7 minutes away from the 2 hour mark.
• He also did it 3 times in 2005, but against 3 different pitchers- Jake Westbrook of the Indians, the aformentioned Ryan Franklin, and Francisco Liriano of the Twins. The first two games were well-pitched by both sides, enough so that a reliever could even come in for the 9th against the Indians and still keep it under 2 hours. In the third one, Liriano wasn't nearly as good and left after 6 innings with 4 runs allowed, but relievers Jesse Crain and Juan Rincon kept the pace going quick enough to end the game in 1 hour and 53 minutes.
• After 2005, he never did it again twice in one year, unless you count the rainout game as a sub-2 hour one- he pitched that one in 2010, and also pitched another one earlier in 2010, against the Twins' Carl Pavano. Much like the 3rd Buehrle game from 2003, that one was a 3-2 game where both pitchers through Complete Games and the home team won, but this time Buehrle was on the losing side.
• As you saw in the video, his final Sub-2 hour game was pitching for the Blue Jays against his former team the White Sox- but he also pitched one for the White Sox against the Blue Jays in 2007, against Roy Halladay, who allowed 0 runs in 7 innings and was followed up by 2 relievers breezing through the 8th and 9th, while Buehrle pitched a CG but lost 2-0. He allowed only 2 baserunners, but they were both solo home runs, by Frank Thomas and Aaron Hill.
• His second-to-last sub-2 hour game, and one of 2 he pitched while a Blue Jay, came in 2014, against Taijuan Walker of the Mariners, one of the fastest-working starting pitchers currently active. Walker pitched an 8 inning complete game, Buehrle went 8 shutout innings and started the 9th, gave up a hit, and was relieved by Aaron Sanchez. The two teams combined for 1 run on 9 baserunners (2 of whom were erased by double plays, and a 3rd was picked off) and 202 pitches. Things went about as fast as they could... and they just barely were able to get it under 2 hours, with a game time of 1 hour and 59 minutes.

[u/TheRealPeteWheeler]

My favorite stat about my favorite pitcher: Ninety pitchers in MLB history have thrown a nine-inning complete game while facing the minimum 27 batters. Walter Johnson did it twice. Cy Young did it twice. Sandy Koufax did it twice.

Mark Buehrle did it three times.

[u/SlowMotionSprint]

In high school I answered the door to a knock. It was Mark Buehrle. He and his buddy got their truck stuck hunting. Had to get a tractor to pull them out.

This would have been in 2000 or 01 so he was not yet a household name. Dad told me "that guy I just pulled out of the ditch said he pitches for the White Sox".

I always wondered if Buehrle remembered that.