NewsGreinke earns SN's AL pitcher honor
Ace righty becomes second Royals pitcher to win award
By Jenifer Langosch / MLB.com
10/21/09 12:39 PM ET
Still four weeks away from finding out whether his sensational season was enough to earn him a Cy Young Award, Royals starter Zack Greinke already has his first postseason honor in hand. Greinke was named American League Pitcher of the Year by Sporting News on Wednesday.Though sparse run support gave the right-hander just 16 wins -- three fewer than league leader CC Sabathia -- Greinke's 2.16 ERA in 33 starts was the lowest in the Majors in 2009. His credentials don't stop there.
Greinke, 26, finished second in the AL with 242 strikeouts in 229 1/3 innings pitched. His strikeout total fell two shy of matching the Royals' club record. He also finished fifth in the league with an average of just two walks per nine innings pitched. His six complete games and three shutouts trailed only Toronto's Roy Halladay.
"I've always thought he was filthy," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, whose team saw Greinke twice this season. "I've always thought he was really, really good. I've never enjoyed it when our club is facing Greinke."
Still, how that win total was going to affect Greinke's pursuit of a first career Cy Young Award was debated fervently as the season came to an end. Not counting strike-shortened seasons, no AL starting pitcher has ever won a Cy Young with less than 18 victories in a season. Can that win total be enough to derail his chances?
"If we could've given him some run support on the nights he's pitched, he'd have been a 20-game winner," Royals manager Trey Hillman said near season's end.
The Royals were second to last in the league with an average of 4.2 runs scored per games, an average that obviously skewed Greinke's 16-8 season record. In comparison, Sabathia, another Cy Young contender, pitched for a club that averaged a Major League-best 5.7 runs per game.
However, here's the good news for Royals fans who are concerned that Greinke's season may be overlooked because he pitched for a team that finished 65-97. Since 1995, the winner of Sporting News' award has also gone on to claim the Cy Young Award every year. The AL Cy Young winner will be announced on Nov. 17.
"There were a lot of times when we didn't score runs or we didn't play defense behind him or whatever," said Royals third baseman Mark Teahen. "But the numbers he can control, he controlled, and people can look at him and realize he's not only the best pitcher this year but he's having one of the best years of a starting pitcher in a long time."
Sporting News' award was voted upon by a group of 31 general managers and assistant general managers across both leagues. The only other Royals pitcher to earn the honor was Bret Saberhagen, who won the award in 1989.
San Francisco's Tim Lincecum took home Sporting News' Pitcher of the Year honors for the National League.
Jenifer Langosch is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
