On Monday, pitching coach Don Cooper told the Chicago Sun-Times: "Buehrle has never been a Johnny-condition guy in the winter, but now he's getting older and he needs to do more. We talked to him about this. He needs to pay more of a price before spring training."

But rather than the organization dwelling on the fact that he has turned 30 and might need to do more to keep his body in shape, the numbers Buehrle was pointing out were the 200-plus innings and at least 30 starts for eight consecutive years -- the only pitcher in baseball who has accomplished that.

"Yeah, I'm sure some of it (has to do with concern over my age), but at the same time, I've been doing it for so long and I've pitched 200 innings a year," Buerhle said. "The way I look at it, I use the offseason to chill out, recover and get ready for the next season.

"I don't want to start throwing in December and have two months of playing catch and then come into spring training worn out. I use spring training to get ready."

The problem is that's exactly what manager Ozzie Guillen doesn't want his players to do -- use spring training to get ready.

"When you're at 200 innings every year for the last six or seven years, you've got to be careful, you've got to take care of yourself a little bit better," Guillen said.

"He's had so much success. You don't want him pushing or do something different. I don't worry about him. As long as he's healthy, I know we're going to have good Buehrle all summer."

The club did not like the offseason conditioning program of Bobby Jenks a few years back and stepped in. Buehrle is signed through 2011, so this will likely come up again.

"I'll listen to what they're going to say," Buehrle said. "I'm not going to go against what they say, but at the same time I'm not going to go play catch every other day for four months, come in and take a chance of getting hurt. I don't think I need to throw that much in the offseason to get ready."

ROYALS 2, WHITE SOX 0: It was easy to point fingers at Dewayne Wise and his second consecutive 0-for-4, but his teammates thought the real credit should go to what Kansas City RHP Zack Greinke did to the entire lineup Wednesday.

Greinke held Chicago to three hits in six shutout innings while striking out seven.

According to White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, Gavin Floyd would have had to match Greinke pitch-for-pitch, and he came up a little short. Floyd allowed two runs in seven innings while fanning nine.

The teams will play the rubber match of the series Thursday afternoon, with manager Ozzie Guillen saying that he would stick with Wise in the leadoff spot for now.