Who the Hell Are You and What Have You Done With Mark Buehrle???

27 years old this year....breakout time for most players right? Not if your name is Mark Buehrle. What's going on with this guy? Now I know that the AL Central has really picked up its game and the Tigers are no longer a punching bag for White Sox, but really.

Before this season, Buehrle's career numbers were 94-59 with a 3.67 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP. The opposition was hitting .263 against him.

This year? How about 9-6 with a 4.43 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP? How about the fact that opponents are hitting .286 against him these days? And this is all before his ridiculous 3 innings and 7 ER against the Yankees today, defensive lapses aside.

I'm almost at a loss here, but I can say that maybe it's time to see what kind of value you can get for him. If you look at the 3 year average of his split stats, you'll see that he is almost the same pitcher in the first half as he is in the second half (Pre: 20-17 3.85 vs Post: 26-15 3.61). Better you say? Maybe a little. But if you look at last year's splits alone you might think otherwise. Before the break in '05 he was 10-3 with a 2.58 and after he was a mediocre 6-5 with a 3.84 ERA. Is he on the downslide or can he turn it around?