9.25.2009

Exhibit 21.20

Zack Greinke Should Win Both Cy Young Awards

And maybe next year's, too. Now, lest you think this is just hyperbole, let's look at his numbers against the NL during interleague play:

3 GS
2-1
21 IP
7 ER
3.00 ERA
17 K
2 BB

Good but not so fantastic relative to the rest of his remarkable year, but let's look at the current NL Cy Young favorite, Adam Wainwright, and his performance against the AL:

3 GS
2-1
20 IP
8 ER
3.60 ERA
18 K
6 BB

Comparable, right? Ah, but one of those games was against the Royals and the Royals scored 5 runs off him in six innings. This despite the Royals being terrible at baseball. Naturally, the Royals still lost that game and Wainwright got the win, but the point is this: Zack Greinke would dominate the Royals.

So let's imagine what would happen if Greinke got to face his own Royals team. This will be like when two friends both pick the same team in a video game, same rosters, different uniforms, two virtual Mark Teahens winking at each other from across the field. My guess for a line is this:

8 IP
2 R
0 ER
14 K
0 BB

(Naturally, since Zack would still have the Royals playing behind him, he'd lose the game after an Alberto Callaspo-A error extended an inning and Mike Jacobs-A went 0-4 with 3 Ks. Kyle Farnsworth-B would get the win then promptly start a fight with Kyle Farnsworth-A).

I guess my point is this: Zack Greinke should get all the Cy Youngs we've got. Until the NL can produce a candidate who didn't allow a HR to Jose Guillen and his .367 slugging percentage, I'm not changing my mind.

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