Zack Greinke for Cy Young [Forum Archive]

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Zack Greinke for Cy Young

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Posted by: soxmuscle

He follows up his 15 strike out performance this afternoon with a complete game one hit shut out.

His record isn't quite there because his team isn't good but he's most definitely been the best pitcher in baseball this year.

Joe Posnanski » Blog Archive » Zack

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4. He never gets to face the Royals lineup.

This is more of a funny line … but it’s absolutely true. You know that wins play a big role in Cy Young voting. Well, four the last five Cy Young winners have come out of the American League Central. Last year, Cliff Lee won the American League Cy Young. He went 5-0 against the Royals. C.C. Sabathia went only 2-2 against the Royals the year before (his team was the Twins), but Johan Santana in 2006 went 3-0 against Kansas City, and in 2004 he went 3-1.

A few potential Cy Young Candidates against Royals this year:

Roy Halladay: 1-0, 0.00 ERA.
Josh Beckett: 1-0, 0.00 ERA.
C.C. Sabathia: 1-0, 0.00 ERA.
Scott Feldman: 1-0, 0.00 ERA.
Jon Lester: 1-0, 0.00 ERA.
Justin Verlander: 2-0, 2.08 ERA — 19 Ks in 13 innings.
King Felix: Has not faced Royals yet .. might in coming week.

That's pretty remarkable stuff - to think Cliff Lee went 5-0 against them last year... wow.

Posted by: min0 lee

Zack gets it, if he doesn't get then the MVP is a sham.

Posted by: Triple Threat

Think he would look good in pinstripes?

Posted by: min0 lee

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Originally Posted by Triple Threat

Think he would look good in pinstripes?

He would look awesome, all players look better in Pinstripes.

Posted by: I Are Baboon

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Originally Posted by Triple Threat

Think he would look good in pinstripes?

It's really unfortunate that these small market teams can't keep their good young players because of the economics of baseball. I'm definitely in favor of a salary cap even though I know the Red Sox are one of the teams that have an advantage from an uncapped payroll. Grienke is actually locked up through 2012 though.

Posted by: min0 lee

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Originally Posted by I Are Baboon

Funny you say that...

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• The very fact that the Angels landed lefty Scott Kazmir in a trade after claiming him on waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays says volumes about other clubs' concerns about taking on money. The Red Sox, who desperately need a starter, had to pass on Kazmir in the waivers process. Maybe they figured the Rays would never trade him to them anyway, but they didn't want to block him from going to another contender and risk taking on the $20 million owed to the pitcher through 2012. Meanwhile, what does it say about the Rays, who would trade one of their starting pitchers in the middle of a pennant race for prospects? These are the same Rays who couldn't sign either of their top draft picks but invested $2 million for a piece of a United Football League team.

The Red Sox became a better when they started to invest in their team, same as the Yankees did when the Boss brought them from CBS in the 70's.
I should make this clear, owners who care to win. The Cubs make a shit load of money but suck...

Posted by: min0 lee

Greinke pitches 1-hitter, Royals beat Seattle 3-0
SEATTLE (AP) His team may be in last place, but that hasn't stopped Kansas City ace Zack Greinke from building his case as the best pitcher in the American League.
Greinke pitched a one-hitter Sunday, allowing only a second-inning single by Kenji Johjima as the Royals beat the Seattle Mariners 3-0.
Greinke (13-8) retired the final 22 batters after Johjima's two-out, soft single to center field.
The right-hander leads the majors with three shutouts and six complete games, and his 2.32 ERA is best in the AL, all substantial arguments for the Cy Young Award.
It was the best low-hit game of his career - he pitched a three-hitter on April 24 against Detroit.
"He's just a full-dimensional guy," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "He's overpowering, he misses bats, he knows how to use his defense and that's what he did today. He was just in total command the whole day. Very impressive."
Last Tuesday, Greinke struck out team-record 15 against Cleveland. He didn't fan any Mariners until the sixth inning and finished with five overall.
A few days ago, Greinke talked about how Toronto's Roy Halladay and Seattle's Felix Hernandez were economical with their pitches and got more grounders than strikeouts. Greinke talked about saving himself some pitches, and also said the Mariners' hitters made more contact than the Indians' big hitters.
Greinke has 202 strikeouts this season, making him the first Royals pitcher to reach 200 since Kevin Appier in 1996.
"This one's a lot of luck, a complete-team effort," Greinke said. "That other one (Cleveland) was as good as I could pitch, as nasty as I could be. Today, everyone just played well behind me."
Seattle's lone threat was in the second. Bill Hall drew Greinke's only walk with one out and took second on Johjima's single.
Johjima's ball fell in front of center fielder Mitch Maier. He played it on one hop, holding the runners at first and second. The next batter, Jack Wilson, bounced out to short to end the threat.
"Had I taken another step and dove, there's a chance I could have come up with it," Maier said. "But that's something they teach all the time, if you're diving and you don't have someone backing you up, you better make sure you're going to catch it. If I miss that and it bounces over my head, a run scores and the guy gets at least a double, maybe a triple."
Greinke said that if he tried to catch it, "more likely than him catching it, it gets by him and they score a run and the ballgame is a different story. He's smart. He knows what he's doing out there."
Seattle was held to one hit for the 16th time in franchise history, the first since April 8, 2006 by Oakland. It was the 10th individual one-hitter, the last one coming by the Yankees' Ted Lilly on April 27, 2002.
"That's one of the better pitched games I've seen in a long, long time," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said. "Just a clinic today. The guy was almost unhittable. I think you go into a ballgame like this offensively with a guy that struck out 15 in his last appearance, and really the only way you beat a guy like that is try to get his pitch count up.
"You look up on the board in the last inning, on his 113th pitch it's 96 miles per hour, and with that he complements it with a 65-66 mph curveball with command," he said.
Ryan Rowland-Smith (2-2) went a career-high eight innings for the Mariners, allowing five hits and three runs. He walked one and struck out a career-high seven.
Rowland-Smith matched Greinke for much of the afternoon except for one bad inning - the Royals' three-run fifth.
Alberto Callaspo opened with a double that left fielder Michael Saunders had trouble finding in the sun. Miguel Olivo's RBI single with one out made it 1-0.
Maier walked with one out, David DeJesus singled home a run and another scored on a wild pitch.
Greinke fanned Josh Wilson to end the sixth for his first strikeout of the game. That began a string in which Greinke struck out three of four hitters. Hall was his 200th strikeout.
"It feels good," Greinke said. "It's really, really hard to do. But people do it."

Posted by: I Are Baboon

I heard on ESPNRadio that he's got nine quality starts this year in which he didn't pick up a win. In those games, he is 0-3 with an ERA around 2.00 (I can't remember the ERA exactly).

He'd have 18-19 wins with a decent offense backing him.

Posted by: IainDaniel

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Originally Posted by min0 lee

I should make this clear, owners who care to win. The Cubs make a shit load of money but suck...

We had an owner who cared, until he passed this passed this past winter. He invested in the Jays, but as a smaller market how will you ever compete with 160-200million dollar payrolls? especially when you are in the same division as the two biggest markets.

Don't use tampa as an example, because the only reason they are competitive is because they absolutely tanked it, and picked up some solid draft picks. Once they can't afford these players they will suck dick again.

Posted by: min0 lee

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Originally Posted by IainDaniel

I didn't know this about the Jays, the prevouis owner did a decent job of keeping them competative....that's all it takes, just look at all the money the Mets spend but look at who beats them.

In my heart Tampa will never be a real MLB team, not the way they conduct business. They wonder why they don't have a strong fan base.
Ever hear the fans when the Mets or the Yankees play them?

Posted by: IainDaniel

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Originally Posted by min0 lee

The money invested when the Jays were competitive prior to 94, was no where in comparison to salaries now a days.

That and the impact of the Canadian Dollar really hurt this franchise, in the early 2000's the until 2007 the dollar was at $0.55-$0.75 of the American dollars, which is a huge difference when you are paying out salaries in American Dollars.

Posted by: soxmuscle

I understand why at first glance the Scott Kazmir trade is remarkable because I had the same initial reaction.

When you dive deeper into it, however, you'll find out some pretty interesting things.

Scott Kazmir hasn't been the same pitcher that he once was and he's incredibly injury prone to boot:

Scott Kazmir Is Busted | FanGraphs Baseball

Additionally, the Rays ownership shelled out money this offseason adding roughly $22 million dollars to their payroll. Attendance has only increased by about 3,000 after last years World Series appearance. The ownership group put money into the organization and the fans didn't do their part.

The more incredible thing to me is that the Rangers, who have a worse record than the Angels and thus are ahead of them on the waiver claim list, refused to even put in a claim (which would have blocked him from being traded to the Angels) for no apparent reason. It's mind boggling to think an MLB executive fell asleep at the wheel here - that or money is a real problem in Texas.

Posted by: min0 lee

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In his career against the Red Sox, Kazmir has an 8-7 record and 3.59 ERA.

In his career against the Yankees, Kazmir has a 6-4 record and 2.53 ERA.

Kazmir has made four combined starts against the Red Sox and Yankees this year. He is 4-0, including three quality starts.

I see what they did there, it looks like a smart move on paper....if he stays focused and healthy.

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And the Red Sox, who eliminated the Angels from the postseason three times since 2004, have a better record against right-handed starters (50-34) than left-handers (25-20).
Before Joe Saunders returned from the disabled list last week, the Angels' rotation didn't have a left-handed starter. Instead, it included rookies Sean O'Sullivan and Trevor Bell.
But after Saunders' effective start against the Tigers (five innings, two earned runs) and the Kazmir trade, the Angels have two left-handers with the stuff and experience to win postseason games.
As long as Kazmir stays healthy — hardly a given, since he's been on the disabled list in '08 and '09 — this trade could also help the Angels in their planning for 2010 and beyond.

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