Who is Zack Greinke?! The Story of the Pitcher Taking the MLB By Storm

Kansas City Royals pitcher Zack Greinke just suffered his first loss last night in a classic pitchers’ duel against Joe Saunders of the Los Angeles Angels.  Unfortunately for Zack, he went the maximum 8 innings a road team could be on defense in a loss, only allowing 1 run, 4 hits, no walks, and striking out 5.  These types of outings happen, where a pitcher will throw a gem and lose.  But why is all of this noteworthy?  Greinke’s ERA rose!

You may be thinking “how can that be possible, he only gave up one run!”.  It’s simple,  Zack has been absolutely lights out this year.  He didn’t allow a run at all until April 24^th in his fourth start, a complete game win against the Detroit Tigers, and that run wasn’t even earned!  April 29^th (his fifth start) against the Blue Jays was when he finally allowed his first earned run… and then he followed up that start with a complete game shutout against the Blue Jays!  Zack’s stats on the season look like this:  6-1 record, 0.51 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, 53 IP, 59 K’s, and opponents are hitting .182 against him.  Talk about nasty.

Greinke is only 25 years old, so many people may think he is new to the majors, but that isn’t the case at all.  When Greinke was 20 years old he made his debut for the Royals.  Yes, 20!  He was a stud pitcher from the start really, being named Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2002.  In his 2004 rookie campaign he made 24 starts and actually went 8-11 with a 3.97 ERA.  However, he suffered a major sophomore slump in ‘05, going 5-17 with a 5.80 ERA.

There is more to the Zack Greinke story than just starting in the major leagues very young, which is what most people know.  In February 2006 at Royals spring training, he left for personal reasons.  Later on it was discovered that he had been suffering from depression and social anxiety disorder.  He finally returned to the Royals two months later, but dealing with what he was dealing with, he clearly was in no shape to play baseball, as he only pitched 6 innings that year.  He came back in 2007 and was placed in the bullpen, and made the occasional spot start.  In 2008 he earned a rotation spot again and jumped at the opportunity going 13-10 with a 3.47 ERA.

It really is unbelievable how much of a 180 degree turn Zack’s life has taken.  Here’s someone who was thrown into the fire as a 20 year old, someone who couldn’t even have a beer after his first win, who then had to battle the demons of depression and social anxiety disorder, and turned out extremely successful.  He went from being the best prepster in the nation, to taking off from baseball to fight a disorder that affects so many people in the world, to becoming the league’s most dominant pitcher right now.  The word “dominant” doesn’t even do his season so far justice.  “God-like” is probably the best way to put it.

Hopefully Zack can continue his performance.  It’s hard to imagine anyone keeping up those stats for an entire season, so to expect him to do that is ridiculous to say the least.  With that being said, Zack’s talent is unbelievable and his potential is through the roof.  Hopefully the young Kansas City team can figure out the whole package and start winning games consistently and return to the George Brett days of the 1980’s.  But the real story here is about Greinke’s story from being on top, falling to the bottom, and getting back on top.

Can Greinke keep up his consistency for the whole season? Can the Royals make the playoffs with him as the anchor? Have your say below!