Zack Greinke has been a super hero from beginning to end of the 2015 campaign. From carrying the weight of two aces with Kershaw being injury prone in the first half, to starting the all-star game, to nipping at the heels of the scoreless inning record, Zack has been the definition of a Cy Young Award winner. With a few starts left before October baseball, Greinke is 16-3 with a 1.68 ERA (league leader), and is going hard after his second career Cy Young Award. There are a few other aces in the race for the award as well, but with Greinke leading the Dodgers to a 8.5 game lead in the NL West, he seems to have the trophy in his grasps.
Zack may not be the most electrifying ace in the league with 95+ mph fastballs, but he is most definitely the best controlled. He has only hit 5 batters this year, while only throwing 7 wild pitches. An ERA+ of 100 is about average when taking the ballpark into effect in calculating a pitcher’s ERA, so anything over 100 is very good. Well, Greinke in 2015, has a league leading ERA+ of 224. Due to his nasty repertoire of 5 phenomenal pitches, Greinke is able to fool batters by perfecting every pitch and changing them up oh so often. In 2015, batters are hitting just .192 against the Dodgers star, only scoring 36 runs off of him. Of Zack’s 28 starts, a whopping 93% of them have been considered of quality, also giving him a league leading winning percentage of .842. 93% of the time he has started this season, Greinke has pitched a mere 7 innings striking out 6-7 batters allowing, most of the time, less than 2 runs. In 2015 Zack has been the definition of a team leader and game changer.
Others such as Jacob Degrom and Jake Arrieta also have stellar numbers and have been a big part of their team’s success, but haven’t been as exceptional all year like the Dodgers’ ace has been. Arrieta is right behind Zack in Cy young predictions, and could surprisingly win the award, but its only once in many years does baseball see a season performance like this. Sure Arrieta has 3 complete games, one being a no hitter, but his stats still aren’t where Greinke’s are (Arrieta only has a 194 ERA+). Degrom has lead the Mets staff to keep the team’s hopes alive until more offense came, but a power pitcher can’t be consistent enough to win without run support. With the hits that the Dodgers’ rotation has taken this season, along with the offense being inconsistent, Greinke has managed to represent the rotation on his own, thus being the obvious choice for the NL Cy Young Award.
