On Wednesday, the White Sox renewed Mark Buehrle at $310,000. As he was ineligible for arbitration they did not need to consult him before assigning him a salary for this season. Although Buehrle doesn't seem to be upset over the move, the situation is not ideal.

Buehrle will be their #1 starter this season, and despite their wealth of prospects, it makes little sense to irritate a player with that level of talent. The two sides were negotiating, but Chicago decided they were too far apart. Buehrle was reportedly asking for something around $400K and the Sox weren't offering more than $325K.

Earlier in the off-season, Buehrle caught considerable slack from his teammates and the Chicago press for mentioning to Walt Jockety at a dinner that he would like to play for the Cardinals. So it isn't as though the White Sox have already established a strong relationship from which they can work. Buehrle is obviously a player with whom they will have to improve their relationship if they want to have a shot at any kind of multi-year discount during his arbitration time or wish to keep him beyond his free agency.

A year or two ago everyone was drooling over the White Sox's pitching prospects, but much of that excitement has dwindled over the last season. Something appears to be wrong with their development process as several of these pitchers are now suffering from arm troubles. After an increase from 170 IP to 221.1 IP from 2000 to 2001, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Buehrle joined the hospital rotation in the near future.

GM Kenny Williams has shipped a few off in trade. Aaron Myette and Brian Schmack went to Texas for Royce Clayton, and then there was this winter's trade of Kip Wells, Sean Lowe and Josh Fogg for Todd Ritchie and C Lee Evans. I think Ritchie has considerable talent and the club needed a guy who could handle a few innings, but the price was certainly a bit rich. Meanwhile the Clayton trade has only served to muddle up the offense by moving Jose Valentin away from shortstop, at the cost of one very good and one potentially solid pitcher.

While there was a general consensus that the Sox could afford to trade some of their pitching depth, the thought was that they would trade it for substantial upgrades in other areas. Throwing it away in bad trades just doesn't do any good. If they want to have a successful end to this rebuilding phase they will need to pull their act together in the near future.

Some suspect that Pirates GM Dave Littlefield's choice of renewal price for Jimmy Anderson was meant as an incentive for the pitcher to work harder at increasing his consistency. Anderson will receive a raise of only $20K which will take him from $285K to $305K. Considering that he's likely in his final year before arbitration and basically assumed the number one starter's position after Kris Benson went down for the season in Spring Training last year, $400K would have been entirely within reason.

However Anderson pitched very poorly last season aside from a handful of good starts. In 206.1 IP he allowed 232 H, 15 HR, and 83 BB while only striking 89 batters out. He had 5 games with 4 or less IP before the manager was forced to pull him and only made it to the 7th inning or beyond in a little over a third of his starts.

He's gone from the default #1 to a competition for the fifth starter's position with Ron Villone and Pat Rapp. He may not even be able to win that race, though he does have the advantage of already being on the roster. The organization also has a good deal of confidence in him based upon his occasional quality starts. Therefore it isn't hard to see why Littlefield didn't offer him a larger portion of the pie. Anderson might be best served by a move to the bullpen where he wouldn't have to focus on maintaining his consistency over such a prolonged period of time.

Chad Durbin signed a one-year, $275,000 contract with the Royals a week ago last Monday. He too is not yet arbitration eligible, though unlike the first two pitchers discussed in today's article, he came to terms with team and avoided having a salary simply assigned.

Despite the crowded field, Durbin is practically a lock to make the Kansas City rotation as either the third or fourth starter. He's pitched relatively well and shown improvement in the last couple of years although he still allows too many hits and home runs.

The contract includes incentives of an unreported nature. If these are IP incentives, then Durbin should be advised that reaching them might jeopardize the remainder of his career. He went form 145 IP in 2000 to 206 IP in 2001. He was left out for over 130 pitches in two starts, and 100 or more in all but 11 of his 29 games started. His control has shown steady improvement, but a stint in the bullpen as a swingman might be the only thing between this 24-year-old and an extended stay on the DL.