The offer on the table for Mark Buehrle is about $50 million over four years, according to one estimate, unconfirmed by the Chicago White Sox or Buehrle's camp. If true, one baseball insider said, Buehrle would be unwise to accept at a time when he'd pull far more on the free-agent market.

"Mark's better than that," the insider said. "He could easily get $15 million a year this offseason."

A National League executive put Buehrle's worth somewhere between the $80 million the Chicago Cubs initially offered Carlos Zambrano (and withdrew because of the team's pending sale) and the $126 million the San Francisco Giants will pay Barry Zito over seven years.

Buehrle's heart is in St. Louis, though it seems unlikely the Cardinals would go higher for Buehrle than they just did for Chris Carpenter, who got a five-year, $63.5-million extension (and a $15 million option on a sixth year) after a Cy Young Award in 2005 and a 36-13 record over two seasons. Buehrle's not as good as a healthy Carpenter.

In early conversations with the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox, White Sox general manager Kenny Williams aimed high, sources said, asking for Mike Pelfrey from the Mets and Jon Lester from the Red Sox. The abrupt answers he got from both might have sent him back to negotiations with Buehrle.

Neither the Mets nor the Red Sox is desperate enough (yet) to trade a future top-end starter for a three-month rental, only to get tossed in with the rest of the free-agent suitors next winter.

If Buehrle were to re-up with the White Sox, the trade market for pitchers over the next five weeks would get thinner. Meantime, scouts are keeping an eye on Matt Morris in San Francisco, Jose Contreras and Javier Vazquez in Chicago, Rich Harden in Oakland, Jason Jennings in Houston, Zambrano in the other Chicago and even Andy Pettitte in New York, shocking as that might be.

While Contreras would seem a reasonable alternative to Buehrle – and Williams does, indeed, seem motivated – scouts are concerned about Contreras' velocity (he's lost five or six m.p.h.), his contract (two more years for $20 million and a no-trade clause) and his ERA (up for a second consecutive year).

FIVE …

• Roger Clemens didn't create this. The New York Yankees did. Baseball did. The Golden Era did. And now they all have something in common: Clemens' Crummy ERA.

He didn't strike out a batter and his fastball strained to reach 90 m.p.h. last night in Baltimore, where he went five scoreless and then, as his pitch count reached the 80s, gave it up in the sixth.

Hey, he's almost 45. Sure, he should be better, but not because of the salary he's drawing. He should be better because the Yankees needed him to be, just as they needed the bullpen to be better, and the offense to kick in more than a few runs a game, and Johnny Damon to stay young.

• Pelfrey, back from his demotion to Triple-A New Orleans, will start for the Mets in Friday's doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies. If he pitches well, he could get a permanent place on the Mets' staff, either in the rotation or in the bullpen. Pelfrey, under orders to throw more four-seam fastballs, had a 3.44 ERA with 29 strikeouts in 36 2/3 innings in New Orleans.

• Here's an unfortunate coincidence, or maybe not: A segment of particularly unhappy Pittsburgh Pirates fans intend to walk out of PNC Park during Saturday's game against the Washington Nationals, a day that also features a bobblehead give-away. After the third inning, when they get up to take a walk, they can also take a small, plastic Bob Walk.

• The race is on in the Drew family.
J.D. in Boston: 67 games, .251 batting average, .736 OPS, 6 HR, 32 RBI
Stephen in Arizona: 71 games, .235 batting average, .652 OPS, 4 home runs, 27 RBI

• Shea Hillenbrand, a day after the play-me-or-trade-me act, upon getting the news the Los Angeles Angels had chosen the latter: "It's a great organization. I wished I could have finished my career here."

Well, let's see: .254 batting average, .275 on-base percentage, .325 slugging percentage. While perhaps dangerously close to getting his wish, Hillenbrand will have some teams sniffing around. The Yankees just got beat by another left-handed pitcher, so there might be something there, and the Minnesota Twins haven't done much against lefties, either.

The Angels ultimately could swap out Hillenbrand for Mike Sweeney, for whom they once offered Casey Kotchman and another high-end prospect, and now probably could get for a mid-level prospect.

… AND FLY

And the Kansas City Royals are 1½ games behind the White Sox.