Well, if Zack Greinke keeps going like this, you can come here to Ball Star for your Greinke-for-Cy-Young propoganda.
The bummer of it is that we're most likely just screaming into an empty forest, because Greinke -- 12-8 -- has very little chance of winning the American League's top award for pitchers even though he's, you know, the American League's top pitcher.
This seems like a good time to update the stat of the year: the Royals are 12-14 when the best pitcher in baseball starts for them. That stat, along with him tying for seventh in wins, will likely doom his chances, which is a shame.
The Baseball Writers Association of America does the voting for these awards, and too many of my colleagues are operating with an antiquated idea of how important wins are for pitchers.
We are coming around as a group, with more and more guys each year seeing the light, but I'm afraid Zack's revelation season is coming a bit too early to catch the revolution -- even for a guy who leads the league in ERA by nearly a third of a run, and is on pace for the AL's best adjusted ERA since Johan Santana five years ago.
But this is a topic for another day.
What's important today is that if Zack was surrounded by even a merely below-average team, he would probably have three or four more wins and be the clear frontrunner for the Royals' first Cy Young Award since David Cone in 1994 and everything here -- above and below -- would be unnecessary.
But, obviously, that ain't the case. Zack will miss out on the prestige of being a Cy Young winner and, for our purposes today, the $100,000 bonus in his contract.
Zack's pitching on a $38 million contract and has the spending habits of a social worker, so it's not like he's starving.
But he's effectively getting screwed out of the Cy Young Award by teammates who are bad enough to be on pace -- still -- to lose 100 games, so it only makes sense that those teammates should make up for it.
With cash.
You can make a case that manager Trey Hillman and/or GM Dayton Moore are responsible for the whole check. At the very least, they at least owe Zack dinner.
But for our purposes here, we're focusing on players. Even Miguel Olivo is included here, even though he's caught all but two of Zack's starts, and his six of his 17 homers in those games. The phrase is guilt by association.
Anyway, just for fun, here's one man's idea of who owes how much of the check:
$25,000: Jose Guillen. Bullpen issues aside, the Royals' biggest problems are bad offense and worse defense, though there's a good argument to be made that the problems are bad defense and worse offense. There has been some attention given to Greinke getting the worst run support in the league, but there's actually a statistical argument that says his ERA would be significantly -- we're talking as much as a fifth of a run -- lower with just average defense behind him.
Either way, Guillen's been among the worst offenders on both offense and defense, plus he makes the most money so he can afford the biggest chunk of the check. His share may be even bigger, but Ball Star respects anybody who says, "When I suck I say I suck, and right now I suck."
$8,000 each:: Yuniesky Betancourt, Tony Pena Jr., and Luis Hernandez. What was that we were just saying about bad offense and defense? Royals shortstops are hitting .205/.232/.297, which adds up to an OPS 73 points less than baseball's second-worst-hitting shortstops, which, it's only right to point out, come from Seattle, where Betancourt accounts for the bulk of the at bats.
But, you know, Royals shortstops make up for the weak hitting with a -16.3 Ultimate Zone Rating, also by far the worst in baseball. Sometimes you wonder if the Royals would be better in some video game format where Zack could pitch AND play shortstop in the same game.
$6,000 each: Ron Mahay, Kyle Farnsworth and Juan Cruz. A supposed strength before the season, the Royals' bullpen has a 5.23 ERA, and the letdown has been led by three guys whose collective 5.61 ERA is costing $10.5 million this year. A big reason that Zack's pitched most every start with next to zero room for error.
$5,000: Alex Gordon. This one might be a bit unfair because of the hip injury. But the Royals were counting on a breakout season from Gordon to help the offense not stink, but instead, he's in Omaha.
$3,000 each: Mike Jacobs and Alberto Callaspo. Jacobs is starting to heat up, but as he says, it's a day late and dollar short. Callaspo has been either the second- or third-best hitter on the team, but his defense has surely cost as many runs as his hitting as produced.
$2,000 each: Jamey Wright, John Bale, Horacio Ramirez and Roman Colon. Their share of the bullpen blame just isn't as big as the three above.
$1,500 each: John Buck, Mitch Maier, and Willie Bloomquist. We're starting to get into the nickel-and-dime territory. These guys have been pretty much what you could've expected.
$1,2500 each: Gil Meche, Brian Bannister, Kyle Davies, Luke Hochevar. The other four members of the rotation don't have much to do with Greinke getting hosed, but they pay the $500 ante plus a slight penalty for using more than their share of the bullpen.
$750 each: Brayan Pena, Mark Teahen, and David DeJesus. These guys have each been pretty good, and if the Royals were contending, we'd be talking up their contributions. Instead, they get knocked the price of a nice suit.
$500 each: Miguel Olivo, Billy Butler, and Joakim Soria. This is just the ante in being part of the most disappointing Royals team in franchise history, even from guys who've mostly done their share or more. It's not fair, but you win as a team, you pay as a team, right?
First off, I agree with noname that we shouldn't give up hope yet. I actually believe that if he wins another 4 games over the next 5 1/2 weeks, he'll have a good shot (50/50 or better) of getting the award. I live on the east coast and I will tell you that he hasn't fallen off the radar yet. People like Peter Gammons, who has a lot of sway, rank him highly on their lists. BUT, he can't have another bad outing like he had a couple of weeks ago.
I'm not going to get into the "who owes Greinke more" argument. It is interesting that you opted to leave out the 2 guys that probably have as much to do with the support he gets as any player on the team (although it would have been a short article and takes the fun out of pointing out this group's utter incompetence). Dayton Moore & Trey Hillman (for obvious reasons). The fact is the players simply are playing as good as most of them can. But Moore & Hillman orchestrated this motley crew of cast-offs & rejects that play behind Greinke. This whole team, collectively should simply try as hard as they can for the rest of the season as if he's pitching a no-hitter and apologize to him if he doesn't get the award.
On another note, since we're on the subject of Greinke (and to a lesser extent Soria). I think it is time to consider that circumstances are edging toward a conclusion that will be another blow to the psyche of this fan base. Due to the catastrophic season coming to a close, it is widely believed, almost certain, that ownership will freeze or even lower payroll for next year and possibly 2011. Now we know that Zack's contract is up at the end of 2012. I hate to say this, but it is becoming apparent that with NOTHING on the horizon at the minors until (at best) 2013, the inability of acquiring anything of substance in free agency in the offseason, the current team most likely being the one that will take the field next year and that Greinke's next contract in 2013 will be GIANORMOUS, that Moore will have to consider trading Greinke. At next year's trade deadline, Greinke, assuming he's healthy and no significant downturn in performance, will be at the height of his value to the Royals from a trade standpoint. He would net multiple prospects and major league ready talent from a team desperate to make the playoffs. Soria is in a similar situation because his opportunities will be limited for the next few years because of the talent on this team, not to mention how Trey uses him. Since Dayton has indicated Trey will be returning, I see tensions rising if Hillman continues to use Soria the way he has this year.
Anyway, I seriously doubt that Greinke and Soria will be re-signed by this sorry ownership. I have doubts that after next year's awful season, Greinke or Soria will even consider re-signing onto a team owned by David Glass. With all these considerations, the only thing worse than not re-signing them is to let their contracts get so far along and then we net nothing for them. Another Carlos Beltran debacle would be a disaster for this franchise. Waiting until the final year of their contracts to orchestrate a trade while the whole league knows we aren't going to re-sign them would set this team back at least 3-5 years. On the otherhand, making a pro-active move in the coming season or in 2011 could speed up the process of rebuilding our minors.
I hate this idea as much as everyone else but when you have an owner that won't get what it takes to make the club successful now and won't re-sign these players, then this is clearly the only viable option left.
I really despise David Glass for putting us in this situation.