Comments on: Zack

By: Zack Greinke for Cy Young | Hard Sweat

Zack Greinke for Cy Young | Hard Sweat — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:04:19 +0000

[...] Joe Posnanski » Blog Archive » Zack Quote: [...]

By: Joy of Sox: AL Cy Young / Baseball Bloggers Alliance

Joy of Sox: AL Cy Young / Baseball Bloggers Alliance — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:07:19 +0000

[...] Posnanski loves [...]

By: Roy Halladay Should Win the AL Cy Young Award « No Pun Intended

Roy Halladay Should Win the AL Cy Young Award « No Pun Intended — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:12:52 +0000

[...] groundswell has been growing (budding? Swelling? What do “groundswells” do, exactly?) in the race for this year’s American [...]

By: The Minnesota Twins are a Bunch of Silly Gooses « Officer Blog

The Minnesota Twins are a Bunch of Silly Gooses « Officer Blog — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:20:46 +0000

[...] the Twins bullpen, it was Dusty Hughes who technically “lost”) despite him being the best pitcher currently alive and playing professional baseball. And THAT could very likely be the reason the Minnesota Twins make the playoffs at such long odds. [...]

By: Sigh Young Watch « KC Monarchy

Sigh Young Watch « KC Monarchy — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:02:00 +0000

[...] Zack’s line: 8 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K. Season ERA is a preposterously low (especially for the AL) 2.22. Can you imagine what his ERA would be if he got to face the Royals offense five times a year? [...]

By: We’re Going Streaking! The return of Adam LaRoche’s better half | Newstion.com

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:18:30 +0000

[...] Having a nice little Saturday: In Zack Greinke’s last two starts, he has given up two runs in 17 innings and has racked up 20 strikeouts while giving up just two walks. Luckily, he won both games, which is never a given with the team behind him. Greainke is leading the AL in ERA by more than half a run, and his won-loss record would be much more impressive if he played for anyone other than the hapless Royals. Even so, he’s a serious Cy Young candidate, and considering that his performance is coming in the offense-heavy American League, Joe Posnanski writes that there’s a serious case to make for Greinke as the best pitcher in baseball. [...]

By: We’re Going Streaking! The return of Adam LaRoche’s better half | Lancilo USA

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:19:14 +0000

By: We’re Going Streaking! The return of Adam LaRoche’s better half

We’re Going Streaking! The return of Adam LaRoche’s better half — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:36:30 +0000

[...] Having a nice little Saturday: In Zack Greinke's last two starts, he has given up two runs in 17 innings and has racked up 20 strikeouts while giving up just two walks. Luckily, he won both games, which is never a given with the team behind him. Greainke is leading the AL in ERA by more than half a run, and his won-loss record would be much more impressive if he played for anyone other than the hapless Royals. Even so, he's a serious Cy Young candidate, and considering that his performance is coming in the offense-heavy American League, Joe Posnanski writes that there's a serious case to make for Greinke as the best pitcher in baseball. [...]

By: We’re Going Streaking! The return of Adam LaRoche’s better half | Sports News Images and Videos

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:01:09 +0000

By: jay

jay — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:40:21 +0000

rivera’s cutter is actually better than any of the 100-MPH-or-in-that-vicinity fastballs out there. plenty of relievers throw “cheese” but rivera’s is more like trying to hit the cow–it’s “heavy.” and it “mooooo(ve)s.” okay, that was an atrocity against humor.

if one pitch made a guy the greatest reliever of all time, it’s on the short list of the greatest pitches ever. (i love reading people’s takes on that subject…i wonder if joe’s ever written one? )

further, it’s kind of silly to say things that have said here like “if people had more chances to hit him, they would!” and “move him out of the short stint, he’d be below average.” c’mon, we obviously don’t know that–unless you’ve got some dr. manhattan bayesian-probability-master type abilities going on (in which case, i don’t want to piss you off, lest you inform me of my future’s exact time-of-death, like the cyclops in Krull). he was a starter for a brief blip, and moved to the bullpen, where his “one pitch” approach has made him the best reliever of all time. he might have been a great starter…pedro wasn’t really “pedro” until year 6, and “pedro” is the (if I’m being honest) “best.”

and here comes the master of the obvious: if no one can hit a pitch, why the hell would he bother with more pitches?!?!? (and how can you say it’s not as good as a freaking knuckleball…the point is that he has perfect control, everyone knows it’s coming, what it’s going to do, and they still can’t hit it!!! that’s like some crazy voodoo…it’s like a gyroball that actually “is,” for criminy’s sake! )

rivera actually hasn’t *really* struggled against any team. the best team OPS against him is .676 (Angels). The Red Sox are 6-12 against him, 2.96 ERA, under 1 hit per inning, almost 1 k per inning…and they’ve slugged .337 against him. and on and on. And that would qualify as “great” success versus the complete impotency of many other clubs. i’m pretty confident that a regression model would say that familiarity only explains a small bit of the variance in his performance stats…but i have spent way too much time on this already, to the point that i am 99% certain that 99% of you would classify this as “forensic narcissism.”

Okay, I can’t resist some expert testimonials (from 7/21/09 washington post):
“Derek Jeter has called him the greatest player he has ever played with. Andy Pettitte said Rivera “has literally dominated the game” like Michael Jordan on a basketball court or Tiger Woods on a golf course. ”

and come to think of it, all this talk of just one pitch is wrong anyway…
“He’s got two different cutters,” Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners said. “One that’s good, and then he’s got one that’s devastating.”