It’s Nice That Someone Voted For Zack Greinke in My Poll

2009 September 14

I know I asked the general question, and I still would take Lincecum over him, but I figure Zack Greinke deserved a post. He’s been the best pitcher in baseball this season, and he SHOULD win the AL Cy Young in a landslide, but somehow the sportswriters will figure out a way to be total retards and vote for C.C. Sabathia or Justin Verlander. WINS!!!

I can throw out some stats with Baseball-Reference’s new embedding feature!

Year Age Tm Lg W L W-L% ERA CG SHO IP BB SO ERA+ WHIP SO/BB
2009 25 KCR AL 13 8 .619 2.19 6 3 205.1 42 216 200 1.067 5.14
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/14/2009.

Only 13 wins?!?! He obviously doesn’t elevate the team around him! Not good enough! He doesn’t pitch to the score! He’s not deserving of the Cy Young, even though he leads the league in ERA, shutouts, and WHIP. And also FIP, but let’s not bring “made-up” statistics into this. But really, his ERA+ is 200. Holy fuck.

I was about to make this into a Cy Young argument post, complete with stats of other candidates, but I think such work can be left until the season is actually over. I just wanted to give Greinke some props. I don’t think the results on my poll are necessarily wrong, because Lincecum has been the best pitcher in the NL for two straight years (and I picked him too), and Halladay has been so consistently great for years in the toughest division in baseball — but Greinke seems to be somewhat forgotten.

Or maybe people just figure he’ll lose his mind again next year.

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