Greinke wins Cy Young, admits appreciation of stats

I like Zack Greinke. Not only is he an outstanding pitcher -- he was overwhelmingly voted the American League Cy Young yesterday over Felix Hernandez -- but he's also a much different character than many other major leaguers. Part of that is because he has battled back from being diagnosed with depression and a social anxiety disorder, but another part is that he gives unconventional (and honest) answers.

In this article by Tyler Kepner of The New York Times, Greinke explains that he follows some advanced baseball statistics, possibly becoming the best player to admit to doing so. Here are some of the quotes:

“I thought that could push [Hernandez] over the top, because his won-loss record was way better than mine,” Greinke said. “But I’m also a follower, since Brian Bannister’s on our team, of sabermetric stuff and going into details of stats about what you can control.”

Bannister, a right-handed starter, is known for his appreciation of modern pitching metrics, which emphasize the factors for which pitchers are essentially responsible: walks, strikeouts, home runs and hit batters. In Greinke, he found a like mind.

“He’s extremely bright, and he’s really picked up on using all the information out there to make his game better,” Bannister said by telephone. “He’s always had the talent. His confidence level, which is extremely high, combined with his knowledge of the numbers behind the game now, definitely makes him one of the best pitchers in the world.”

Bannister said Greinke has learned to adjust his pitching based on the advanced defensive statistics. Because of the size of the outfield at Kauffman Stadium and the strength of the Royals’ outfielders, relative to their infielders, it sometimes made more sense to induce fly balls.

“David DeJesus had our best zone rating,” Bannister said, referring to the Royals’ left fielder. “So a lot of times, Zack would pitch for a fly ball at our park instead of a ground ball, just because the zone rating was better in our outfield and it was a big park.”

To that end, Bannister introduced Greinke to FIP, or Fielding Independent Pitching, the statistic Greinke named Tuesday as his favorite. It is a formula that measures how well a pitcher performed, regardless of his fielders. According to fangraphs.com, Greinke had the best FIP in the majors.

“That’s pretty much how I pitch, to try to keep my FIP as low as possible,” Greinke said.

So not only is Greinke aware of stats like UZR and FIP, but he's actually using them to his advantage while he's on the mound. With the pitching talent that Greinke, who's only 26 years old, already possesses, opposing batters should be afraid of Greinke even more so going forward in his career.

(HT: Dave Cameron of FanGraphs)

Greinke dominates O's; Hill to start today

With the start of the game delayed for more than two hours by rain, Royals fans had to wait a little while before seeing their ace get to pitch on Friday night. But the patient fans who stayed got just wait they paid to see.

Zack Greinke (0.60 ERA) gave up one run in seven innings to improve to 7-1 on the season as the Royals cruised to an 8-1 victory. He also walked just two Orioles batters while striking out six of them.

While Greinke was fantastic, the same can't be said for Adam Eaton (7.93 ERA), who surrendered 10 hits and seven runs, including two long home runs to Mike Jacobs and Miguel Olivo.

Brian Roberts and Aubrey Huff each had two-hit games for the Orioles, while Mark Teahan had three hits and Jacobs, Jose Guillen, and Alberto Callaspo each had two hits in the Royals' eight-run, 13-hit attack.

To shift gears, Rich Hill is scheduled to make his Orioles debut tonight. With the move, Mark Hendrickson moves to the bullpen, which is exactly what happened last night, as Hendrickson gave up one run in three innings after replacing Eaton. Hendrickson has been pretty bad this season -- 1-4, 6.03 ERA, 1.38 K/BB ratio -- but, to be fair, the Orioles envisioned Hendrickson as the long man out of the bullpen from the beginning. Injuries forced him into the rotation, but hopefully Hill stays healthy, pitches well, and is able to remain in the rotation for a while.

As of this moment, the Orioles still have not made a corresponding roster move to make room for Hill. Some options include: placing Adam Jones or Luke Scott on the disabled list; sending Lou Montanez or Nolan Reimold back to Norfolk; or even, though not likely, designating Felix Pie for assignment. A move should be announced soon.

FSN Kansas City interviews Guy Fieri impostor

You probably know who Guy Fieri is, even though you may not want to. He appears in irritating TGI Fridays commercials and has his own show on the Food Network. And he has strange hair.

Well, during a Royals game the other night, Fox Sports Net's sideline reporter during the telecast, Joel Goldberg, thought that Fieri was in attendance and decided he would sit down for an interview. What followed was pretty awkward -- and very funny:



I have no idea why Goldberg thought interviewing Guy Fieri was even worth anyone's time, but it's even stranger that he didn't pick up that he wasn't talking to the real Guy after about 15 seconds. Solid work, FSN.

(HT: Awful Announcing)

The mysterious Zack Greinke

Joe Posnanski wrote a great article last Friday in The Kansas City Star on the trials and tribulations of Zack Greinke, the 25-year-old ace for the Kansas City Royals.

Posnanski tells several Greinke stories and provides tons of odd and interesting quotes from the young pitcher. My favorite anecdote from Posnanski? It would have to be this one:

So, there was this game when Royals relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt gave up a home run. He was upset in the dugout, of course, and he stormed around, muttering at himself, “Man, that wasn’t even that bad of a pitch.” Of course, all his teammates kept their distance.

All except Zack Greinke.

“That wasn’t even that bad of a pitch,” Affeldt barked at himself again.

“Actually,” Zack said, “it was a pretty bad pitch.”

Affeldt looked up at Greinke. “Thanks, Zack,” Affeldt said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“No,” Zack said, “really, I went back to the clubhouse and looked at the pitch on video. It was a really bad pitch. Right over the middle of the plate, and you got it up. I mean it was a bad pitch.”

“Thanks, Zack,” Affeldt said again.

“Right down the middle. I could have hit it out,” Greinke said.

Affeldt looked into Greinke’s eager face and just shook his head.

“Thanks, Zack,” he said.

“Yeah,” Greinke said, and he walked back to his seat in the dugout.

Kind of lengthy but definitely funny.

Greinke has been through a lot at such a young age, but it seems that he's finally turning the corner. And he seems poised to have a great season. But seriously, read the article; it's very good.

First trade of the offseason is a questionable one

On October 30, the first MLB trade of the offseason was made when the Marlins sent first baseman Mike Jacobs to the Royals for relief pitcher Leo Nunez. The motives for making this move were different for both teams: the Marlins seemingly wanted to dump Jacobs because he's now arbitration eligible and acquire a cheap, serviceable reliever at the same time, while the Royals felt Nunez was expendable and wanted to add a first baseman with some pop.

Nunez should be a reliable addition to a Marlins bullpen that posted a solid 4.04 ERA last season. He's only 25 years old, and he put up pretty good numbers in 2008: 4-1, 2.98 ERA, .249 BAA, .660 OPS against. Plus, Nunez made $405,000 in 2008 and will make about the same in 2009, which is important for a team like the Marlins that doesn't spend much money.

Jacobs, 28, on the other hand, is due for a significant raise from his $395,000 2008 salary; he'll probably be rewarded a few million in arbitration. Last season, he batted .247 with 32 home runs, and a .813 OPS -- decent numbers.

Unfortunately, Jacobs's numbers don't belong with the top power hitting first basemen in the league. Out of all eligible first basemen, Jacobs was tied for eighth in home runs. The following players (most HR first) were ahead of him: Ryan Howard, Carlos Delago, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Adrian Gonzalez, Prince Fielder, Prince Fielder, Mark Teixeira, and Jason Giambi -- not a bad group of players to be listed with. But Jacobs didn't (and doesn't) get on base nearly as much as the rest of these power hitters; in 2008, Jacobs had an awful .299 OBP (his career OBP is only .318). The closest player to that mark was Howard at .339 -- 40 points higher. Jacobs, like the rest of the group (except for Pujols and Teixeira), struck out over 100 times, but he also had the fewest walks (36). Cabrera was closest to Jacobs with 56 walks -- 20 more. Because of his low OBP, Jacobs ranked last among those players in OPS, which was more than 58 points below anyone else's.

Is it going out on a limb to say that Jacobs is not one of the league's top first basemen? Of course not. But then why are the Royals trading away a cheap, young, solid reliever for an average first baseman who hits home runs but doesn't get on base very much?

Maybe the Royals know something that no one else does.