America League Cy Young Award Goes to Zack Greinke

Greinke Wins His First Cy Young Award

Ben Wood
Ben Wood, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Nov 17, 2009 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
In a decision that should surprise no one who saw him pitch during the season, Kansas City Royals starter Zack Greinke has won the 2009 American League Cy Young award.

Landslide Cy Young Victory

Greinke received 25 out of a possible 28 first-place votes and received 134 total points, 54 more points than Cy Young runner up Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners. The only other pitcher to receive a first-place vote was Detroit Tigers hurler Justin Verlander, who finished with only 14 points towards the Cy Young.

Greinke dominates the field

Even though the Royals finished in last place in the AL Central, it definitely was no fault of Greinke's. Greinke led the league with a 2.16 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP (Walks plus hits per inning pitched), finished second in the league with 242 strikeouts, and still managed to go 16-8 on a team that finished 65-97. Although runner-up Hernandez managed to finish with a record of 19-5, he trailed Greinke in ERA (2.49), WHIP (1.14), and strikeouts (217) by a fairly wide margin.

With a better team, it's easy to imagine Greinke having a 20+ win season. Grienke gave up 4 or more runs only six times the entire season, going 0-5 in those contests. Greinke also left 19 games having given up either one or zero runs, going 12-2 in those contests, with five no decisions. Greinke's overwhelming lack of run support also hurt him, with the Royals scoring 5+ runs in only 9 of the 33 games he started.

Greinke was also helped out by the fact that no starting pitcher on a playoff bound team had an ERA under 3.37 (C.C. Sabathia), over one full run higher than Grienke finished with. In addition, Greinke's ERA was the lowest in the American League since Pedro Martinez posted an ERA of 1.74 in 2000, a year that Martinez won the Cy Young.

Although it's tough to see Greinke repeating this performance next year (Greinke's previous lowest season ERA is 3.47), it was a wonderful year-long performance in 2009. If Greinke truly has turned a page and makes this an annual performance, however, expect to see him become one of the richest pitchers ever when his contract with the Royals ends after the 2012 season.

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Zack Grienke stats

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Kansas City's Zack Grienke wins American League Cy Young award

Published by Ben Wood

Ben Wood is an aspiring freelance writer whose writing mainly consists of sports coverage, movie and television reviews/opinions, and product reviews. He's an unabashed St. Louis Cardinals and Missouri Tige...  View profile

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