If you look at Mark Buehrle's running total in Hall of Fame voting through the lens of what will get him in, he's light years away from Cooperstown.
If you look at that number through what will keep him on the ballot, he's making the necessary progress.
Through 141 ballots on Ryan Thibodaux's Hall of Fame tracker, Buehrle has gained eight votes from voters who hadn't previously checked his name. That gives him 15, and while that's 91 votes short of reaching the 75 percent needed for induction, his percentage of support (10.6 percent) is back to where it was in his first year (11 percent).
That's reassuring considering he flirted with dropping below the 5 percent threshold needed to remain on the ballot in his second year (5.9). That was partially a reflection of a noisy ballot that featured newcomer David Ortiz alongside Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Curt Schilling in their last years of eligibility, but it also wouldn't have surprised me if a lot of voters just wanted to give Buehrle one vote while they had the chance; a nod to a nice career they enjoyed witnessing.
As soon as the ballot softened, Buehrle's case had its best chance of getting some needed sunlight. We're a fortnight away from the Hall's announcement on Jan. 24, and with about a third of the expected electorate accounted for, we're seeing some evidence of photosynthesis.
Take the San Francisco Chronicle, which ran an article revealing the ballots of nine employees. Buehrle made the cut on three of them.
It wasn't a surprise to see Buehrle on Christina Kahrl's ballot, because she's a Big Hall voter and she lived in Chicago during Buehrle's run. But Buehrle also won a couple of converts from Steve Kroner and Susan Slusser. Both said they thought the most about Buehrle, with Kroner emphasizing the consistency that modern pitchers probably won't be able to match, and Slusser filling in the style points:
I thought most about: Buehrle is a fun addition, but I did go back and forth on him. He’s borderline, absolutely, but few pitchers were as enjoyably brisk ever. Work fast, throw strikes, maximize your ability, those are the Buehrle hallmarks. Five All-Star Games, four Gold Gloves, a perfect game — those things mean Buehrle should at the very least stay on the ballot another year.
These minor victories are enough to offset some bruising turns, like Buehrle going 0-for-14 on The Athletic's ballot reveal.
These baby steps are the whole goal at this point. The longer he stays on the ballot, the more impressive his workload looks. The more impressive his workload looks, the more public consideration he gets. The more public consideration he gets, the more he might have a shot to earn induction through a favorable committee draw down the line. It's a long game, but Buehrle's conditioned for going up and down at least six times on a reliable basis, and Game 2 of the 2005 ALCS says he'll go to 10 if needed.
