Mariners get shut out by Greinke again

Mariners fans... did you really expect Felix to win the Cy Young Award? The AL announced their awards today and Zach Greinke of the Kansas City Royals has been named the best pitcher in the league despite (GASP!) just 16 wins.

However if you look at his ERA (2.16) you can see why the choice was made. I'd also imagine that his wins and ERA might be better if he had a better team behind him. While the Royals are Casey's team, that doesn't mean they're good or even competitive. In fact they were so bad I think Casey is thinking about reporting to Spring Training.

However when Greinke was pitching, it was an event and you knew that the other team was going to struggle with him. Just going by the eyeball test, I can see why Greinke was picked over Felix. He's damn good, but Greinke was phenomenal this season.

KC wins again

I'm almost postitive that after the game tonight Brandon will have a post about the Red Sox and Yankees. (BTW at the time I wrote this post, the Red Sox were spanking the Yankees 4-0)

But right now I just wanted to pat those Kansas City Royals on the back. Yes, they are my favorite team, but my oh my.

How about Zack Greinke? He won his sixth game of the season, improving to 6-0 with an ERA of 0.40. Wowza.

In the win he became the first pitcher to win six games this season and the Royal improved to 15-11 on the season with the 3-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.

While on the mound, Greinke didn't walk a batter and struck out 10. Greinke also became only the third pitcher in frachise history to win his first six games. Brett Saberhagen (1987) and Jose Lima (2003) are the other two.

This is the Kansas City Royals 40th season and what a way to start!

Sure looks like I picked a good time to be a fan. But remember, this is the Kansas City Royals. So I won't get too excited as a fan just yet.

The Royal Treatment

Well it looks like Just South of North's very own Casey Knopik has started a trend. That's right everybody is hopping on the Kansas City Royals bandwagon. The Royals currently are tied in 2nd place in the American League Central division, 1 game back of the Detroit Tigers, which is as close to the lead in the division this team has been since the 1st Bush was working on starting a recession. Royalmania has gone nationwide as evidenced by Sports Illustrated featuring the star of the Royals staff, Zack Greinke, being this weeks cover boy (this of course means the Royals will go in the tank by losing 15 out of their next 18, with the Manager and GM getting fired and the city going up in flames).

By making the cover of SI Greinke has done a complete career 360. In 2002 Greinke was named Gatorade National Player of the Year and was selected in the first round of the 2002 draft. He went on to be named the Royals Minor League Pitcher of the Year and The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year in compiling a 15-4 record with a 1.96 ERA at two levels of Minor League ball. Everything looked promising for the young pitcher.

Then 2005 came along and Greinke struggled going 5-17 with a Carlos Silva-esque 5.80 ERA. The spring of 2006 was no better as Greinke left spring training for personal reasons. It turns out he was suffering from social anxiety disorder (kind of like what Casey has, which explains why he throws things at people when they talk to him). He eventually returned to the team and bounced between starting games and working out of the bullpen.

Last year Greinke again reminded the Royals organization as to why they drafted him in the first round as he rebounded from personal issues to have a solid season (13-10, 3.47 ERA). He ended 2008 with a string of 14 consecutive scoreless innings pitched. That streak of scoreless innings continued into this year when he pitched his first 24 innings without giving up a run (now get your calculators cause that equals.....38 straight?). The streak was snapped when he gave up an unearned run against the Tigers, a game in which he pitched a complete game, his second in a row.

So far this year I'd say Greinke has pitched pretty well. He is 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA, 36 strikeouts, 6 walks, 2 complete games and 1 shutout in 29 innings pitched.

This leads me to believe that maybe Casey knows something the rest of us don't? Here I thought he became a fan just because of their cool fountain and the fact that the city initials sound like his name.

By the way you can catch Zack and the rest of the Ragin' Royals in action tonight at 8:10 pm eastern time against the Toronto Blue Jays. Greinke will put his 4-0 record and spotless ERA on the line against Brian Tallet (1-0, 2.95 ERA) who is making his second start of the year.