Roy Halladay
Zack Greinke Wins A.L. Cy Young Award
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | Cy Young Award, Kansas City Royals, MLB, Sports | No Comments
Zack Greinke is your 2009 American League Cy Young Award winner. It is a bittersweet award win for Greinke because he would rather be out of the spotlight than directly in it. You see Greinke led the American League in losses (17) in 2005 and he took time off from the sport the following season after he was diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder that hampered his ability to perform in public. His statements after he was informed that he had been named the Cy Young Award winner demonstrate his reluctancy to be in the public spotlight: “A lot of stuff going on today when I usually just like doing nothing. But just part of life… Back in Orlando, I haven’t really got a whole lot of attention from people, which has been nice. So I hope it doesn’t get that way, where everyone if like, ‘Oh, hey, Zack, hi.’” Greinke acknowledges that he would rather stay anonymous and not always be referred to as a Cy Young Award winner, so “in that way, it’s kind of like a negative for me.” But he understands that he will have to deal with it. “I really don’t like having a bunch of attention, so even if I did see myself in that light, I don’t do anything about it. I’m real uncomfortable doing stuff like that, to be around people and doing stuff like that.”
As for his numbers, the voters gave the award to Greinke even though he did not have the most wins in the AL. He led the AL with an unbelievably low 2.16 ERA. Greinke racked up a career high 242 strikeouts – 2nd most in the American League behind Justin Verlander (see below). His ERA was the lowest for a starting pitcher since Pedro Martinez finished with a 1.74 ERA in 2000. Greinke received 25 of 28 1st place votes and 3 2nd place votes, good for a total of 134 points. At 16-8, Greinke probably would have had a lot more wins if he didn’t play for a team that won just 65 games all season long. In Greinke’s 8 losses, the Royals scored just 13 runs and in his 9 no decisions, the Royals scored just 21 runs in support of Greinke. There were 6 times during the season that he allowed 1 run or less in an outing and did not qualify for a win.
Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners finished in 2nd place in the voting (2 1st place votes, 23 2nd place votes and 1 3rd place vote for a total of 80 points). Hernandez went 19-5 with a 2.49 ERA. Any other year, Hernandez would have likely won the award.
Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers finished in 3rd place. Verlander led the American League in strikeouts with 269 K’s and was tied for the American League in wins with Hernandez and CC Sabathia with 19 wins.
6 other pitchers had more wins than Greinke – Hernandez, Verlander and Sabathia each had 19 wins, while Roy Halladay, Josh Beckett and Scott Feldman each finished with 17 wins on the year. Joe Saunders and Jered weaver of the Angels matched Greinke’s 16 wins.
Congrats Zack – you deserve to be recognized for your achievement, and whether you like it or not, you will serve as a great example to those out their that suffer from similar anxiety issues that you can overcome.
