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In Baseball Betting Lines Mark Buehrle was to make a checklist for career accomplishments, both White Sox-oriented and of the individual variety, he would be able to mark off a number of targeted goals reached and even a few he didn’t expect.

For a 30-year-old pitcher with a fastball that can only rarely be described as “fast,” Mark Buehrle had a pretty good season, huh?

Buehrle’s latest accomplishment? Being awarded his the first Gold Glove of his career at Baseball Betting Lines.

The Gold Glove caps off an insane 2009 for Buerhle. Of course, there was the July 23 perfect game, only the 16th in the history of Major League Baseball. Then there was the following game, in which Buerhle pitched no-hit baseball to the Twins before eventually yielding a hit late, stacking a nearly perfect effort on top of a legendarily perfect one.

Buehrle led all American League pitchers in Baseball Betting Lines 2009 with eight pickoffs, 55 total chances and 41 assists and tied for the AL lead by assisting with five double plays while committing just one error. Since the beginning of the 2001 season, Buehrle leads all Major League pitchers with 63 pickoffs (20 more than Andy Pettitte) and ranks third with 501 total chances and 373 assists.

Over his 10-year career with the White Sox, Buehrle has allowed just 40 stolen bases in 95 attempts. That comes out to a 42. 1 percent success rate, which falls as an important statistic for a staff that has had its trouble holding on baserunners.

A trademark defensive move for Buehrle is his kick-save attempt on grounders back up the middle. He admitted that part of his defense was transferred from another sport.

“When I was a little kid, I used to play street hockey,” Buehrle said. “So, everything that comes my way, I take pride in knocking stuff down. ”

Then there was Mark Buehrle Day in Illinois, which Governor Pat Quinn declared on July 31. Even in a state as traditionally corrupt as Illinois, having the Governor give you your own day is a big deal.

True, the Gold Glove is easily the least important of these accomplishments

The writers who vote for award Gold Gloves tend to vote more for offense and name recognition than they do by any sort of recognizable baseball metric; Derek Jeter won the Gold Glove for shortstop, and most baseball observers agree Jeter is well past his fielding prime.

But the Gold Glove is still an accomplishment, one Buerhle deserves well enough. So congrats, Mark, and enjoy it. Few people get the have this much fun in a lifetime. You did it in one year.

Tags: 2009, Accomplishment, Adds, Andy Pettitte, Assists, Baseball, Baseball Betting Lines, Betting, Buehrle, Career Accomplishments, Defensive Move, Double Plays, Fastball, Glove, Gold, Gold Caps, Gold Glove, lines, Little Kid, Major League Baseball, Mark Buehrle, Pat Quinn, Perfect Game, Pitchers, Statistic, Stellar, Street Hockey, Success Rate, White Sox

The first thing you want to do to play fantasy baseball is find, or form, a fantasy baseball league. Ten to twelve teams is usually the norm in a league, though you may have anywhere from four to 24 teams in a given league. Each team in the fantasy league must consist of 23 players. Many of the leagues you will find use only American or National League players, so the number of quality players is limited.
Your team’s roster will consist of nine pitchers, five outfielders, two catchers, one player for each of the three bases, a middle infielder, one corner man, and a miscellaneous player (designated hitter in AL based fantasy leagues, utility man in NL based fantasy leagues.
Players: Choosing Your Team
Each owner is given a list of players, and their eligible positions on draft day. There are two methods used to select your team in a fantasy baseball league. One method is the draft method, the other is the auction method.
Draft method- The teams are arranged in a random order. Following this order, owners take turns selecting players until all teams have twenty three players. The draft order is usually reversed for even numbered rounds. Before drafting starts, decide if the league will wipe the slate clean for the next season, or whether it will protect seven to fifteen players.
Auction method- In the auction method, each fantasy baseball team owner will start with 260 units of credit. Owners will take turns opening bids on players. Bidding proceeds, as with a normal auction, until only the highest bidder remains. Bidding will have a minimum increase of one unit of credit. With the auction method, you can force teams to stay under the 260 credit unit salary cap, or allow the purchase of remaining players once the bidding is complete and the owners have their teams completed.
Players and Their Eligibility
A player may play any position that he played in at least 20 major-league games the previous year. If he doesn’t have a position that he did play 20 times, he is eligible for the position he played the most often. The player is also allowed to play any position that he may appear in through the season.
How Fantasy Baseball is Scored
Cumulative scoring system-
There are a total of eight categories each team will be scored on. These are batting averages (pitcher excluded), home runs, runs batted, stolen bases, run average, wins, saves, and WHIP (Walks and Hits divided by total Innings Pitched). At the end of the season, each team is ranked from first to last in each category. In a ten team league, first place in each category will receive ten points. Second place receives nine, so on and so forth. The champion of the league is determined by the highest score at the end of the year.
Head to head scoring system-
Based on the same eight categories, teams play a game each week with another franchise. Each team will receive a point for each category they win, and ties are thrown away. Alternatively, teams can receive two points for wins, and one point for ties. If tied games will not be allowed to stand, strikeouts, doubles, runs, triples, and home team wins are excellent tie breaking categories.

Tags: Auction Method, Baseball, Corner Man, Draft Method, Fantasy, Fantasy Baseball League, Fantasy Baseball Team, Fantasy League, Fantasy Leagues, Highest Bidder, League Games, Major League, Middle Infielder, Norm, Outfielders, Pitchers, Play, Previous Year, Quality Players, Salary Cap, Slate, Team Owner, Utility Man

Confidence in your Baseball Pitching can be a very fickle business. Some days you can feel like you are rolling along fine. Then, suddenly one bad thing happens. Then, another happens, and then another. Then, things really start to snowball. Other times you may feel that you can do no wrong. In this state, everything happens very easily for you and, you are able to do just about whatever you want. You are in what athletes call “the zone”.

Tags: 2c, Background Noise, Backstop, Baseball, Baseball Cap, Baseball Games, Baseball Pitching, Confidence, Exercise, Expression, Game, Games, Kevin Costner, Lack Of Concentration, Love, Mantra, Mind, Mind Games, Pitchers, Pitching, State Amp, Umpire