The voters for the Cy Young Award in the American League got it right. Zack Greinke was baseball's best pitcher last year. He didn't win 20. He didn't win 19 or 18 or even 17. He won 16. And the big fear in this corner was that his win total would keep Greinke out of the running for the only pitcher who should have been considered. Those fears were ungrounded as the right guy won.
Greinke was unbelievable in 2009. He led the league in ERA, ERA+, WHIP and a whole bunch of other statistics. He gave up only 11 homers all season. He struck out 242 in 229+ innings of work. His strikeout to walk ratio was 4.75. His Pythagorean won/loss record was 21-6. His FIP was 2.42. Just about every way you look at his season, he comes out a winner.
Felix Hernandez also had a wonderful season that would have garnered the award in many other seasons besides this one. But for this season, he was the second best pitcher
The only problem with the results are what it will mean for the attention that Greinke gets for winning the award. Some of his words after winning show the extent of his anxiety at the new found attention he will be receiving. He seemed more anxious about winning the award than thrilled at that's a bit worrisome. But hopefully, so day down the road, he can look back at this time in his life and really enjoy his accomplishments.
Zack Greinke was the best pitcher in baseball in 2009. And he won the Cy Young. How cool is that?
1 comment:
Greinke's performance will drop precipitously next season. On what do I base this?
On the fact that he just married his gorgeous girlfriend. Like Cole Hamels this past year, Zach will expound effort away from what made him successful. One diamond refracts another.
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