Zack Greinke Wins 2009 AL Cy Young Award

Well, he deserves it. It's great when the guy who deserves it gets the award.

over 2 years ago Jesse 28 comments 0 recs |

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Awesome.

Good to know the Royals’ season didn’t affect the voting.

by fischean on Nov 17, 2009 2:23 PM EST reply actions

'deserve'

It’s great when the guy who deserves it gets the award.

so, you'll be voting Jeter MVP too?

by montanatwinsfan on Nov 17, 2009 2:26 PM EST reply actions

oh no

the move from pink to gray has diluted the sarcasm font!

by montanatwinsfan on Nov 17, 2009 2:26 PM EST up reply actions

It does look like you're not giving your all in sarcasm.

Pity.

by fischean on Nov 17, 2009 2:35 PM EST up reply actions

Excellent

25 out of 28 first-place votes, too – I expected it to be a bit worse than this after seeing Greinke get just 16 of the 22 votes of ESPN.com’s “experts”.

"There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

by BeefMaster on Nov 17, 2009 2:30 PM EST reply actions

I would have voted for Joe Mauer

but that’s just me

by lookatthosetwins on Nov 17, 2009 3:56 PM EST reply actions

He could win one if he wanted too... :-)

He’d have to bat righthanded, though. Pitchers always have to bat the same as they throw so as not to expose their arm to incoming pitches. Joe might not be able to bat .360 that way. Might be stuck in the .310-.320 range.

:-)

by DavidRF on Nov 17, 2009 4:40 PM EST up reply actions

Joe might not be able to bat .360 that way. Might be stuck in the .310-.320 range.

I’m sorry, you are aware that you’re speaking of Baby Jesus, correct?

He can bat .400 any which way he chooses.

by fischean on Nov 17, 2009 4:53 PM EST up reply actions

I hear he doesn't have to actually swing the bat

to hit in the .310 – .320 range, he just does it b/c it’s not polite to show off…

by caluofmn on Nov 18, 2009 10:28 AM EST up reply actions

This is not true

Pitchers always have to bat the same as they throw so as not to expose their arm to incoming pitches.

Rick Sutcliffe batted lefthanded and threw righthanded. I know there was at least one other pitcher not terribly long ago who did the same thing, but I can’t think of who it was.

"There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

by BeefMaster on Nov 17, 2009 5:07 PM EST up reply actions

Thanks for the correction...

I remember Dwight Gooden lamented that the coaches wouldn’t let him hit opposite handed for that reason. Seemed like it wouldn’t be that big a deal, but sometimes these conventions stick. Like there hasn’t been a lefthanded-throwing catcher in over a hundred years…

by DavidRF on Nov 17, 2009 5:44 PM EST up reply actions

HR hitter

pitcher formerly of the Diamondbacks…correct?

"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any of us." - Kirby Puckett

by BCTwins on Nov 17, 2009 11:10 PM EST up reply actions

Nope

Sutcliffe was a pitcher in the 80s for a few teams, most notably the Cubs, which whom he won the ‘84 Cy Young (came over in a trade and went 16-1). He wasn’t much of a hitter that I recall, although I looked him up on Baseball-Reference and saw that he had 4 career homers. I watched a lot of Cubs games in the 80s, so that’s why I happened to remember him.

Are you maybe thinking of Micah Owings? He’s a former D-Back who hits a ton of homers, for a pitcher, but I checked, and he bats and throws righty.

"There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

by BeefMaster on Nov 18, 2009 9:06 AM EST up reply actions

Yeah... I was wrong big time on this one...

bb-ref’s play index is free this week. I did some searches of opposite-batting pitchers. Turns out it not that uncommon. Last year 24 pitchers were BR-TL and 23 pitchers were BL-TR. Probably just as high a percentage if not more than the rest of the players.

Notable opposite-batting pitchers in history:

Throws RH / Bats LH
Bob Lemon
Don Newcombe
Rick Sutcliffe
David Cone
Todd Stottlemyre
Tim Lincenum
Mike Mussina

Throws LH / Bats RH
Jerry Koosman
Tommy John
Dave McNally
Mike Hampton
Randy Johnson
Terry Mulholland

I guess that’s what I get for fuzzy memories of late-80s Mets game sportscaster comments. :-)

by DavidRF on Nov 18, 2009 9:43 AM EST up reply actions

Wow

Had no idea that there were that many – nice investigative work there.

Bat right/throw left seems like an odd combo, since lefthanded batting is so much more useful. Perhaps they were like my brother, who’s a lefty but can switch hit because he was taught to bat by righthanded people, and they’re just more comfortable batting righthanded for whatever reason.

"There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

by BeefMaster on Nov 18, 2009 12:03 PM EST up reply actions

Yeah, BR/TL is pretty rare...

Among non-pitchers, only 15 players have collected 1000 PA with that combination. Rickey Henderson is the most famous exception. David McCarty ranks 10th among non-pitchers with just 1647 PA.

by DavidRF on Nov 18, 2009 1:11 PM EST up reply actions

Rich Harden is listed as throws right bats left

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Nov 18, 2009 12:39 PM EST up reply actions

Yeah... there were more than I thought...

Here’s my full search:

BR/TL
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/DYSXp
BL/TR
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/GUXgc
Switch Hitters
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/gdTsy

Seemed to have missed a few my first round. I would have surely noted Koufax, Rixey and Hubbell. Must have messed up the search parameters.

Plus, many more switch-hitting pitchers than I expected:
Wynn, Roberts, Lyons, Faber, Pennock, Three Finger Brown, Cicotte, Lolich, Jim Perry, Vander Meer, Blue,… Joe Mays (!). Carlos Zambrano is the most notable current player.

by DavidRF on Nov 18, 2009 1:03 PM EST up reply actions

Maybe he'd throw left handed?

by lookatthosetwins on Nov 17, 2009 7:56 PM EST up reply actions

Damn, I thought Liriano would win for sure

all kidding aside, I think it’s great for him and the Royals organization.
It’s about time they had something positive come out of a season

From the only TRUE North division

by thewild_viking_twins on Nov 17, 2009 5:22 PM EST reply actions

Kudos.....

to the voters for recognizing great pitching, in spite of the team. Congrats to Zach!

Visit www.TwinsCards.com and check out "rosters" to see my collection!

by rosterman on Nov 17, 2009 6:15 PM EST reply actions

+1

Congrats to Zach and to Royals fans…

by caluofmn on Nov 18, 2009 10:29 AM EST up reply actions

Apparrently Greinke is also a fan of sabermetrics

It’s always interesting to me to find pitchers who are stat heads. According to this article, Greinke picked up advanced stats from Brian Bannister.

by what_would_gil_thorp_do on Nov 18, 2009 1:30 PM EST reply actions

Gardenhire a bridesmaid again

What is that, four 2nd place finishes?

by DJL44 on Nov 18, 2009 2:22 PM EST reply actions

Ah, yeah...

There were a couple good options this year, though. Gardy had tough competition, and I much as I like him (don’t judge me), Scoscia deserved it more.

by fischean on Nov 18, 2009 2:37 PM EST up reply actions

Nothing against Scoscia

But to go from 3rd to 1st in the couple of months of the season should count for something (Besides the warm fuzzy feeling I get wearing my “Twins 2009 Division Champions” cap).

"Is it normal to wake up in the morning in a sweat because you can't wait to beat another human's guts out?" -Joe Kapp

by less cowbell, more 'neau on Nov 18, 2009 2:46 PM EST up reply actions

I agree.

And apparently it does count for something: second place. :\

That run was awesome. It made being a Twins fan verrrry exciting in Sept/Oct, but you have to question how much of that was Gardy and how much of it was everyone just picking up the slack a bit. Scoscia had to work his team through the death of a teammate. I cannot even begin to imagine how hard that is for the team, the fans, or the manager. The fact that not only did they do it, but ended up making the ALCS is very impressive.

Don’t get me wrong, like I said before, I like Gardy a lot. I think he’s a good guy, and though he makes some mistakes, a good manager for this team. I say all of that even knowing Gardy’s love for LNP, too.

by fischean on Nov 18, 2009 2:54 PM EST up reply actions