The next time Mark Buehrle pitches will likely be Monday at Kansas City. The Royals are No. 27 in the majors in batting, and not much better (only .220) against left-handed pitching. So why am I advising fantasy owners that the window of opportunity to deal Buehrle to another unsuspecting owner is, oh, about four more days? It can't get better than this for Buehrle. It won't get better than this. And, to be blunt, I think it's going to get a lot worse than this. What's the most amazing thing about Buehrle throwing a no-hitter against the Texas Rangers? That he did it against a good offense (it's not, really, since only the White Sox have a lower team batting average)? That he was the first White Sox pitcher to do this since 1991? That he faced the minimum 27 hitters, allowing only a single walk, and then picking Sammy Sosa off? I think the most amazing thing is that only one pitcher in baseball allowed more hits in 2006 than Buehrle, and few allowed a .300 batting average against. Even when Buehrle was at his best, averaging 16 wins over a five-year period ending with 2005, he was baseball's most hittable ace. In fact, since the start of 2001, the only player in baseball to allow more hits than Buehrle was Livan Hernandez. In fairness, he's also the only one to throw more innings. The point clearly is that Buehrle isn't a guy who makes hitters miss, he relies on control, defense and durability, and if you asked 100 people to pick someone to throw a no-hitter, his name probably doesn't come up. (Thanks to David Pinto's terrific www.baseballmusings.com web site for the stats info.) Last season Buehrle was bad. Only Zach Duke allowed more hits. Buehrle's 4.98 ERA wasn't the worst in the league, but those 12 wins weren't worth it, especially since he didn't even manage to reach 100 strikeouts. Chien-Ming Wang, Aaron Cook and Kenny Rogers were the only other pitchers to reach 200 innings without fanning 100 hitters, but Wang and Rogers won 19 and 17 games, respectively, and Cook had a solid 4.23 ERA and serviceable WHIP. Buehrle did not. So it was that we really didn't recommend Buehrle for this season. The White Sox didn't seem too interested in working out a new contract, either. We ranked Buehrle No. 75 among starting pitchers alone, behind Jeff Suppan and Cliff Lee, knowing the former is very average and the latter would miss April while on the DL. Sell high, my friends, sell high. I know Buehrle looked fine in his first start of this season, allowing three runs over seven innings against the A's. Doesn't matter. Here are the other White Sox hurlers to throw no-hitters since, well, since the last time the Phillies won the World Series:-Wilson Alvarez, 1991-Melido Perez, 1990-Joe Cowley, 1986Do me a favor and look up the career stats of these guys. Want more? -The last MLB no-hitter was thrown by Anibal Sanchez late in 2006. He's a decent starting pitcher, but hardly guaranteed a spot with Dice-K in the Hall of Fame. Sanchez did fine in his outing after the no-no (three earned over seven innings), but currently sports a 4.32 ERA and 1.86 WHIP. -Bud Smith threw a no-hitter in 2001. Last pitched in 2002. -Kevin Millwood, the opposing starter last night, tossed a no-hitter in 2003. In his next outing he allowed a home run to Ramon Vazquez, the fourth of seven he would hit in his career. Millwood lost the game. -Jose Jimenez threw one in 1999. He went 5-14 that year with a 5.85 ERA. Maybe you're getting the hint that throwing a no-hitter, while being a great accomplishment, also takes a great deal of luck? Greg Maddux hasn't thrown one. Roger Clemens hasn't done it. Steve Carlton never did it. Here's more from our pals at ESPN Research: -The last pitcher to throw a no-hitter the season after allowing a .300 batting average was Scott Erickson in 1994. -The only pitchers to sport a higher ERA the season before doing this, in the last 20 seasons, were Erickson, Tommy Greene and Eric Milton. In short, I'm not a believer. Fantasy sports are all about value, and what you do with it. If someone wants to give up a king's ransom for Buehrle, I'd make the deal. In fact, I looked at my shallow ESPN leagues today and Buehrle was still available in a few of them! In the Hot List head-to-head league I did pick up a starting pitcher for Wednesday's games, and chose Kyle Davies against the Cubs. He got lit. Buehrle sat there on free agency all night, for everyone to see. Who believed? Buehrle might not get tagged on Monday against the Royals, and for all we know, the 2006 campaign was a fluke for him and he's ready to go back to the value he owned before that. Buehrle was normally a valuable fantasy option, an innings guy who won games. I'd take 16 wins and a 3.50 ERA, wouldn't you? Problem is I don't see that coming. But if someone else in your league does...