Buehrle's glove good as Gold again

Mark Buehrle is not an agent, and he's not a general manager.

The White Sox' 31-year-old starting pitcher is a two-time Gold Glove winner, however, and that's why Buehrle was on a conference call Tuesday to talk about his second straight fielding award.

Buehrle basically sealed the repeat honor on Opening Day when he made a spectacular play against the Cleveland Indians at U.S. Cellular Field, flipping the ball between his legs and retiring Lou Marson at first base.

“Obviously, it didn't hurt, but everybody kept on saying all year long that one play won it,” Buehrle said. “But for me, I don't want to be where once you win it you just kind of keep on getting it handed to you. Overall, I think I've done a good job of fielding my position and holding baserunners and doing everything that's involved with winning a Gold Glove.”

He certainly has, but the real news from Tuesday's call came when Buehrle was asked about teammates Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski, who are both free agents.

Are they coming back?

“My feeling, and it's just my feeling, I think A.J. has a better chance of coming back than Konerko,” Buehrle said. “Just in talking to Konerko and hearing some of the stuff he says, I don't know what the deal is with other teams offering him money and if that's going to be a better situation for him and his family or what.

“I just have a feeling that A.J. has a better chance of coming back. I'm not saying he is or they're even going to offer him a contract. I don't know that side of it.”

Ideally, the Sox will bring Konerko and Pierzynski back.

“I'd love to have both of them back,” Buehrle said. “They're the core group of this team, or at least they were. (Six) years for A.J. and 10-plus for Konerko, I'd love having both of them back.”

With Bobby Jenks expected to be nontendered and Freddy Garcia on the free-agent market, there is a chance Buehrle is going to be the only holdover from the 2005 World Series champions next season.

“It would be real weird,” Buehrle said. “(Konerko) has been the captain, the face of the organization and has been here longer than I have. For him not to be in a White Sox uniform would be different. Both have been big parts of this team. Seeing them in a different uniform, seeing Konerko and A.J. in a different uniform, it would be really weird.”

As for winning the Gold Glove, Buehrle led all major-league pitchers with 11 pickoffs, opposing base stealers were successful just 6 times in 12 tries and he didn't make an error in 50 total chances.