Zack Greinke Shuts Down Twins, Improves his Cy Young Resume
by royalsreview on Sep 28, 2009 12:20 PM EDT
29 comments
Zack Greinke struck out eight Twins, walked just two (thanks to a bizarre strike zone) and scattered merely seven hits over seven innings. Six of the seven hits were singles, with Orlando Cabrera the only Twin to manage an extra-base hit with a double.
Greinke is now 16-8, with an ERA of 2.06. There's no point in bringing up more advanced stats, because they won't matter to 90% of the voters. The ironic thing is that although Greinke has now earned three straight wins, he was actually pitching better a month ago, when he was in the no-decision zone thanks to his horrible teammates.
Greinke has not allowed more than two runs in a start since August 19th.
The scary thing is that the Royals very nearly did not do enough to support Greinke. The key moment in the game was an unlikely three-run homer by Yuni Betancourt. I expect an eight year extension for Betancourt to be announced tomorrow morning.
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CC has more wins, he is clearly a better pitcher
Desperately hoping for Desperate Measures
by averagegatsby on Sep 27, 2009 5:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
x
Scott Feldman would like to speak on this issue as well....
by Fernando Vina School of Linguistics on Sep 27, 2009 5:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I read Kurkjian's piece on ESPN
and then made the mistake of reading the first page of comments.
Jesus wept, the average IQ on ESPN Conversation has got to be lower than Teahen’s RBI total…
This space for rent.
by jonfmorse on Sep 27, 2009 5:51 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I hate theoretical arguments like
“Zack would crumble if he pitched for New York.” And this is known how?
by NotAHippie on Sep 27, 2009 6:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Maybe Reggie said that
Zack reminds him of Jose Contreras.
by 2X2L on Sep 27, 2009 6:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I think it's more reasonable
to say that CC would crumble if he pitched for KC.
Think about it, he would have 3.5 runs of support per game instead of 8.
He’d be like 12-12 for us.
"You know what, I mean I cried in bed for a while, moaning 'Why!? Why did this have to happen?'"
Zack Greinke on the Brad Pitt - Jennifer Aniston split
by DCRoyals on Sep 27, 2009 7:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Usually it's the idiots who are most vocal
but the majority of the espn reading population are actually non idiots:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/fp/flashPollResultsState?sportIndex=pollindex&pollId=78191
by swing and a miss on Sep 27, 2009 8:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
How old is that?
Desperately hoping for Desperate Measures
by averagegatsby on Sep 27, 2009 8:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
about a week old
there’s an older one with a lot more votes in which Xaq has a commanding lead too:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/fp/flashPollResultsState?sportIndex=frontpage&pollId=78164
by swing and a miss on Sep 27, 2009 8:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The folks that will vote in a poll
vastly outnumber the idiots who post comments.
This space for rent.
by jonfmorse on Sep 28, 2009 10:18 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Back from the game
I was upset when I got there too late for one of the t-shirts, but upon seeing one, I became less upset. Who designed that shit?
Greinke wasn’t his dominant self, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t get goosebumps when he recorded three straight outs (2 Ks) to get out of a fluke bases loaded jam. His strikeout of Kubel was electric.
Finally, after 12 games and no luck whatsoever, I got to see Joakim Soria live for the first time this year. He REALLY didn’t have his best stuff, but Butler made a really, really good snag of a Yuni wild throw to turn a much needed double play. Butler really showed how much he has grown at 1B this season. He started a great 3-6-1 double play in addition to that snag. I’m really proud of Billy.
- W. Bloomquist homered to deep center
- P. Earth explodes
by JobDDT on Sep 27, 2009 7:07 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I'm not sure that...
…Soria has had his best stuff all season. He’s excellent, but not as amazingly dominant as last year—it feels anyway.
Great win! And it’s good to see Greinke with a .666666666 win percentage. It feels better.
by timlacy on Sep 27, 2009 7:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Maybe all those 2 inning saves...
Overuse? Extending his pitch counts…. you know.
Coffee. The NEW Performance Enhancing drug for Sport's Writers. Just ask Ken Rosenthal.
by 306008 on Sep 28, 2009 9:32 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Not to mention that Mauer went in as hard as ever in while losing.
I love to see guys play old school baseball like Mauer does. He nearly broke that DP up because he got a piece of Yuni coming over that bag. That’s just hustle and GRIT!!
:)
Coffee. The NEW Performance Enhancing drug for Sport's Writers. Just ask Ken Rosenthal.
by 306008 on Sep 28, 2009 9:32 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Don't Forget Talent.
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 28, 2009 12:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I just plugged the new numbers into the Neyer/James Cy Young predictor
Zack has a 1.3 point lead on CC. And CC gets 12 bonus points because the Yanks won the East.
Desperately hoping for Desperate Measures
by averagegatsby on Sep 27, 2009 8:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
It's ironic that we look at this computer generated predictor to see if he'll get enough votes
When the reality is if anyone actually looked at the computer generated advanced metrics, the numbers are so overwhelming the vote would be unanimous.
by KCScuba on Sep 28, 2009 12:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
well...
the Cy Young predictor is just a tool to predict future winners based on the way people cast their vote in the past.
Desperately hoping for Desperate Measures
by averagegatsby on Sep 28, 2009 12:56 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
So interesting argument by KCScubar
Isn’t that exactly what stats are and what their for? A predictor of what they’ll do in the future based on what they’ve done in that past….?
Irony strikes again.
Coffee. The NEW Performance Enhancing drug for Sport's Writers. Just ask Ken Rosenthal.
by 306008 on Sep 28, 2009 9:33 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
But the Cy Young predictor
Isn’t so much a stat as a correlation measure. Someone has “reverse engineered” (not strictly speaking, but kind of) previous votes and from there attributed weights to various variables. The variables are still bullshit, like wins and losses, but they correlate.
According to the CYP, Zack wins even by these crappy measures (Victory bonus, WTF?) which weigh heavily against him. But it doesn’t tell us that Zack is the best pitcher in the American League. It just tells us who is most likely to get the votes.
If you wanted to find out who is actually best, there are real stats that tell you. And of course, they tell you that Zack is, by a considerable margin, the best player in MLB this year, let alone best AL pitcher.
by kcbottom9th on Sep 28, 2009 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Zack said after the game
that all the focus, signs and chatter about the Cy Young was “annoying.”
Is this being humble? Does he not like the attention even though we have NOTHING else to root for?
I’ll never understand Zack, and I’m not sure that is a bad thing. But I think Zack saying that this city finally getting behind something and showing appreciation is “annoying” is awkward.
- W. Bloomquist homered to deep center
- P. Earth explodes
by JobDDT on Sep 28, 2009 12:29 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
tact has never been his strong suit...
…but i understand where zack is coming from here. He expected this team to be a good team capable of making the playoffs. Instead it’s a terrible team. He wants to win and he’s annoyed that he has to celebrate a season that’s been so awful. He’s a team guy. I totally understand. “We just finished 30 games under .500 and you really expect me to celebrate?” It’s too bad that he can’t feel as good about it as he should, but i definitely empathize with him on this front…
by billexgordler on Sep 28, 2009 12:56 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
It probably has a little...
lets not worry about this until the season is over.
Desperately hoping for Desperate Measures
by averagegatsby on Sep 28, 2009 12:57 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
my take on it is
“if they could vote, the support for the cy young would be nice – but they can’t, so just relax”
you gotta remember, he doesn’t want attention – positive, or otherwise. you have to admire his consistency. also, zack is definitely a team player, so it has to feel awkward for HIM that the season basically is all about him at this point. would you really enjoy that? i know i wouldn’t
-
by slayor on Sep 28, 2009 1:28 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
It's probably really awkward for him to be singled out all the time
and having to act as the face of an otherwise horrible franchise.
In Mellinger’s Sunday story, Zack is clearly NOT happy about all the standing pat during the season while they were scoring zero runs and blowing the few leads they had left and right.
"This season, no matter what, is a huge disappointment," he says. "The last month, I don’t think it really does anything.
"Last year, I thought it did, but obviously it didn’t help. We should’ve been doing this a lot earlier. It’s too late. It really doesn’t matter."
"You can’t just stay with the same stuff that isn’t working," Greinke says, "keep making the same mistakes."
I get the feeling he’s developed a similar mistrust of the team’s management that a lot of fans have over the course of the season and isn’t too keen on being paraded around as Dayton’s pretty prize pony.
by swing and a miss on Sep 28, 2009 1:30 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
BUT THEY TRADED FOR YUNI!!!!!
AND THEY GOT JOSH ANDERSON AND RYAN FREEL AND HIS BUDDY FARNY!!!
Stand pat, my ass!
Obviously Greinke didn’t like those moves if he called them “standing pat”. I wonder what he wanted done?
by AxDxMx on Sep 28, 2009 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
He has 1 more start, against the Twins right?
Also, wouldn’t it be sweet if Royals management start benching St. Willie now so he doesn’t hit his 130 game “performance bonus” of 100k. And instead, put the Royals fan of a certain game(Greinke’s last start?) into a drawing so a Royal fan who watched a whole year of sorry Royals baseball can win 100k?
Mourning Guy Carbonneau...
Royals obscure player to watch in ST: Lenny DiNardo
by playingwithfire on Sep 28, 2009 1:28 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
We aren't losing 100 so no 100K.... maybe 96K though...
Coffee. The NEW Performance Enhancing drug for Sport's Writers. Just ask Ken Rosenthal.
by 306008 on Sep 28, 2009 9:36 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
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