Just a few days ago, I read a book about a pitcher’s journey in the majors. That player will soon become a Hall of Famer when he is first eligible. In the book, Zack Greinke, who was a teammate of that pitcher, was mentioned. Well, it seems that Greinke hasn’t officially announced his retirement. However, the last time he pitched in the majors was in 2023.
It’s highly possible that we probably won’t see Greinke pitch in the majors again. Nonetheless, it’s hard to forget his great career. After reading a few lines in that book, I was just wondering about Greinke’s career. And, how great was he? To solve my doubts, I decided to check on the great Fangraphs website.
Greinke pitched in the majors from 2004 to 2023. To make things easier, let’s look back at these 20 years.
Zack Greinke earned 225 wins in his career. In particular, he got 19 wins in 2015 when he played for the Dodgers. Verlander made his MLB debut in 2005 and he’s still playing. From 2005 to 2023, he had 257 wins. Max Scherzer is still pitching as well. He made his MLB debut in 2008. From 2008 to 2023, Scherzer had 214 wins. Kershaw made his MLB debut in 2008 as well. From 2008 to 2023, he got 210 wins. CC Sabathia earned 208 wins from 2004 to 2019. Adam Wainwright pitched in the majors from 2005 to 2023 and he got 200 wins. Jon Lester pitched in the majors from 2006 to 2021 and he had 200 wins as well.
Meanwhile, Zack Greinke tossed 3389.1 innings in his career. Verlander threw 3325.1 innings from 2005 to 2023. Sabathia threw 3000+ innings in his career and from 2004 to 2019, he tossed 2989.1 innings. Max Scherzer threw 2834.2 innings from 2008 to 2023. Jon Lester tossed 2740 innings in his career.
In addition, let’s look at quality starts. Justin Verlander had 341 quality starts from 2005 to 2023. In Greinke’s career, he had 318 quality starts. Moreover, from 2008 to 2023, Kershaw had 294 quality starts and Scherzer had 288 quality starts. Cole Hamels pitched in the majors from 2006 to 2020 and he had 268 quality starts in his career.
Finally, let’s look at the number of strikeouts. Zack Greinke is not known as a traditional strikeout pitcher. However, he did throw a lot of strikeouts in his career. In 20 seasons, he struck out 2979 batters. He was so close to joining the 3000-strikeout club. From 2008 to 2023, Scherzer threw more than 3000 strikeouts. Verlander threw 3000+ strikeouts from 2005 to 2023.
Greinke wasn’t off to a great start in his career in the majors. Nonetheless, gradually, he reinvented himself. He became an All-Star and even won the AL Cy Young award. There are certainly more stats to show how great his career was. Nevertheless, looking back at those 20 seasons, we have seen Greinke’s name is on the top of several categories. As CC Sabathia, who’s also on the top of the leaderboard, already made a speech in Cooperstown, perhaps, soon, we will see Greinke become a Hall of Famer.
No comments:
Post a Comment