Major League Baseball will announce the winner of the 2015 National League Cy Young award live on MLB Network at 6 p.m. ET Wednesday evening. In advance of the announcement, we’ll make the case for each of the three candidates. Here’s the case for Zack Greinke, the free agent who pitched for the Dodgers in 2015. He is up against teammate Clayton Kershaw and Jake Arrieta of the Cubs.
In 2015, Zack Greinke of the Dodgers ranked fourth in the NL with 222 2/3 innings pitched and seventh in the NL with a K/BB ratio of 5.00. The real story — and the heart of Greinke’s value — is in his run prevention numbers. Greinke’s 2015 ERA was a remarkable 1.66, which is the lowest qualifying mark since Greg Maddux’s 1.63 in 1995. Greinke’s ERA+ of 225 is tied for the 14th-highest mark of all-time. As well, Grienke allowed just two unearned runs all season. That’s run prevention on a historic scale.
On other fronts, Greinke registered 30 quality starts in 32 starts overall, and he averaged 7.0 innings per start. In 30 of 32 starts, he limited the opposition to three runs or fewer, and in 21 of 32 starts he limited the opposition to one run or no runs. As well, Greinke at the plate put up an OBP of .232, and on the mound he allowed an OBP of … .231. When you’re putting up an OBP that’s higher than the OBP you’re allowing, you’re doing lots of things right.
To sum it all up, Greinke’s 2015 WAR of 9.9 not only led all NL pitchers but also tied Bryce Harper to lead all major-leaguers this past season. As well — and to bring it back to the race at hand — Greinke did all this despite facing a tougher ledger of opposing hitters, as measured by OPS, than Clayton Kershaw or Jake Arrieta.
Simply put, no pitcher was as valuable as Greinke in 2015.
Zack Greinke’s 2015 season was one of the greatest in recent history. (USATSI)
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