Results tagged ‘ Kansas City Royals ’
Making an early case for Zack
Off the top of my head, I can’t name the last pitcher to be awarded an MVP award. The old argument always goes, pitchers have their own award (Cy Young), so they should not be considered as legitimate MVP candidates.
For the record, in the American League, the last pitcher to claim the MVP was Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in 1992 (7-1, 51 saves, 1.91 ERA and 93 strikeouts). Eck, obviously, also won the CY Young Award that season. In the National League, you have to go back to 1968, when the Cardinals’ Bob Gibson won (22-9, 1.12 ERA and 268 strikeouts). Coincidentally, ’68 is the last time a pitcher won the MVP in BOTH leagues as Denny McClain of the Tigers (31-6, 1.96 ERA and 280 strikeouts) took home the hardware as well.
The last starting pitcher to win the award was Roger Clemens, who won it in 1986 as a member of the Red Sox. The Rocket was 24-4 with a 2.48 ERA and 238 strikeouts. For a frame of comparison, the Yankees’ Don Mattingly finished second in the AL voting. Mattingly received five first place votes to Clemens’ 19 (Clemens’ teammate and 2009 Hall of Fame inductee, Jim Rice, got four votes) while batting .352 with 31 HR and 113 RBI.
I am one of those fans who believes that the MVP award should be given out to the player who best embodies the true meaning of ‘most valuable.’ Should Alex Rodriguez have won in 2003? Probably not. He had awesome numbers, but his Rangers team was pretty bad at 71-91, 25 games behind division-winner Oakland. If you took ARod off that team, they are probably not more than five or six games off that mark
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It is with all that in mind that I would like to make an early case for Zack Greinke, starting pitcher for the Kansas City Royals.Here’s why:
- Greinke is 8-1; the Royals are 8-2 in games that he has started and 15-22 in games started by anyone else.
- He leads the league in the following categories: wins (8), ERA (0.84), CG (5), shutouts (2) and WHIP (0.88). He also leads in HR/9.0 IP because HE HASN’T GIVEN ONE UP YET.
- His five complete games equal the total of the Rangers (tied with KC for most in baseball) and are more than the entire NL East combined (3).
I wrote about Greinke a few weeks ago and I believed then, as I do now, that he has finally figured everything out. He’s come a long way from the time he was ready to walk away to be one of the most dominant and fun-to-watch pitchers in the game today. With the way the AL Central is shaping up, the Royals could be in the thick of the race deep into September. If they are, it’ll be because of the right arm attached to No. 23.
Greinke finally gets it
All the way back in 2005, the Chicago Tribune’s national baseball writer, Phil Rogers, made a bold prediction. He tabbed Zack Greinke from Kansas City to be his American League Cy Young Award winner. Don’t believe me? Click here (for some reason part of the story is cut off, but find Greinke’s name and trust me, it was Rogers).
As a 20-year old rookie in 2004, the right-hander went 8-11 with a 3.97 ERA (64 ER/145.0 IP). He averaged 6.2 K/9.0 IP compared to just 1.6 BB/9.0 IP and he finished fourth in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting (Oakland’s Bobby Crosby won). It was a solid start to his career, but what made Rogers believe he could make such a huge jump?
Greinke didn’t take the next step in 2005, in fact he stumbled backwards. He won only five games, led the AL in losses with 17, his ERA ballooned to 5.80 (118 ER/183.0 IP) and his K/9.0 dropped while his BB/9.0 rose. He opened the 2006 season on the 60-day disabled list and spent most of the season with Class AA Wichita before a late-season call-up. He spent most of 2007 coming out of the bullpen, making only 14 starts out of 52 appearances.
(1)
Greinke got back on the right track in 2008, finishing with career-bests in wins (13), ERA (3.47), IP (202.1) and Ks (183).
In four starts in 2009, Greinke has been nothing shy of phenomenal. He is 4-0 and he is yet to allow an earned run. He leads the AL in strikeouts with 36, he has thrown complete games in his last two outings (equalling his career high set in 2005) and he has one shutout (4/18 at Texas). He will undoubtedly be named AL Pitcher of the Month later on this week and All-Star manager Joe Maddon would be a fool not give him the ball in the bottom of the first in St. Louis.
It seems like Phil Rogers was on to something in 2005. Now, Zack Greinke is ready to show it to the world. His next start is tomorrow night against the Toronto Blue Jays.
UPDATE (12:41 EST): Greinke is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week. I can’t wait to read the accompanying article by Joe Posnanski. Click the link to see the cover.
UPDATE II (4/29, 3:35 EST): Here’s an article from Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan on Greinke. GREAT read:
Greinke’s redemption and pursuit of perfection
Photo Credit:
1 – http://hbcprotocols.com/Images/greinke.jpg
Fine Nine
Sure, they’ve only played a handful of games this season, but I want to take a look at how the Top 9 8 picks from the June 2008 draft are playing in a small town near you. Partially because I’m curious myself, but mostly because I like typing Minor League team names.
1. Tim Beckham (Rays) : The shortstop drafted out of Griffin High School in Georgia has been assigned by the big club to the Class A Bowling Green Hot Rods of the South Atlantic League (SAL). In 11 games this season, Beckham is hitting .326 (14-43) with a homer and eight RBI. He’s off to a much better start than last summer when he hit just .243 (43-177) with two home runs and 14 RBI in 46 games with the Princeton Rays in the Appalachian League (APPY).
2. Pedro Alvarez (Pirates) : The former Vanderbilt star is playing third base for the Class A Lynchburg Hillcats. The slugger’s power numbers are there through 11 games with three homers and 16 RBI, but his average sits at .250 (9-36). The RBI number is impressive, however, keep in mind that he collected four on Opening Day and six on 4/16 against the Winston-Salem Dash (Warthogs, R.I.P.). In that game, he hit a walk-off three-run blast to lead the Hillcats to a 9-6 win.
3. Eric Hosmer (Royals) : Kansas City made the left-handed slugger the third overall pick and the second high schooler taken in June. Hosmer is playing first base for the Class A Burlington Bees in the Midwest League. Hosmer played well in the Bees’ opening series against Clinton, batting .364 (4-11) with two doubles and an RBI, but since then he has just one hit in his last five games, bringing his average down to .172 (5-29).
4. Brian Matusz (Orioles) : The southpaw was the first pitcher taken in the 2008 draft and joins Alvarez in the Carolina League, throwing for the Frederick Keys. In three starts in ’09, Matusz is 1-1 with a 3.45 ERA (6 ER/15.2 IP). He’s averaging 10.7 K/9.0 IP and has walked seven batters this season.
5. Buster Posey (Giants) : One of the hottest hitters in all of Minor League Baseball to start the 2009 campaign, Posey was named California League Co-Batter of the Week (4/8-19) along with teammate Brandon Crawford. Posey is hitting .391 (18-46) with four doubles, three home runs and 11 RBI in 12 games for the San Jose Giants. He has reached base safely in every game and collected three hits on three different occasions thus far. Posey launching a three-run homer (1):
6. Kyle Skipworth (Marlins) : The Marlins followed the Giants’ lead in grabbing a catcher, only they dipped into the high school ranks. Skipworth has tremendous talent at the plate and is beginning the season with the SAL Greensboro Grasshoppers. The left-handed batter is hitting .235 (8-34) with three doubles, a homer and eight RBI in the early going. Like Beckham, he received some heavy playing time last summer with the Gulf Coast League Marlins where he batted .208 (33-159) with five homers and 21 RBI.
7. Yonder Alonso (Reds) : The power-hitting Alonso was the first college first baseman selcted in the draft, ahead of USC’s Justin Smoak who went later to Texas at No. 11. Like Hosmer, Alonso has gotten off to a bit of slow start, batting .200 (8-40) through 10 games with the Sarasota Reds of the Florida State League.
8. Gordon Beckham (White Sox) : Beckham begins the season at Class AA Birmingham, the highest of all the Top 10 picks. He opened eyes in Spring Training and even made a push to make the Opening Day roster as second baseman. So far with the Barons, Beckham is hitting .366 (15-41) with four doubles, two homers and seven RBI in 10 games. He has played nine games at shortstop and one at second base so far. Like Posey, Beckham is making a name for himself and could be getting promoted to Class AAA Charlotte by the All-Star break. Here’s Beckham turning a double play against Chattanooga (2):
9. Aaron Crow (Natinals Nationals) : Did not sign. The right-hander will be eligible to be selected in the June 2009 draft.
There you have it, a brief synopsis of how some of the top picks from June are doing today. Alvarez has shown flashes, Hosmer and Alonso are off to slow starts and Posey and Beckham are on the fast track to the show.
1 – https://www.sedonamg.com/sjgiantssecure/ConPics/Con1669/Posey,_Buster_by_Chris_Talley_web.jpg
2 – http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-sports/2009/04/large_Beckham%20throws.jpg
3 – All stats are from Howe Sports Data
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