Royals: 3 best seasons for Zack Greinke in Kansas City

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The Kansas City Royals drafted and developed Zack Greinke and he should end up in the Hall of Fame after his career is over.

A few friends from high school whom my relationships go back thirty years had a discussion during Game 7 of the World Series via text about whether Zack Greinke is Hall of Fame material. I decided to take a trip down memory land to review his best years with the Kansas City Royals.

Way back in 2002, the Royals took Greinke as the sixth pick overall out of Apopka High School in Apopka, Florida. There he was named a Gatorade National High School Player of the Year where he excelled not only on the mound but also at the plate. Striking out 296 over 186 innings and a 1.13 ERA along with smacking 31 home runs and batting .465, he put together a spectacular prep career.

His first full year in the minor was in 2003 whereas a 19-year-old he went 15-4 with a 1.93 ERA and a WHIP of 0.943 between Advanced A and AA ball. A quick start in 2004 at the AAA level led to his promotion to the Kansas City Royals roster at just 20 years old.

He would go on to spend seven total years with the Royals, another two with the Milwaukee Brewers, half a season with the Los Angeles Angels, then three across the city with Dodgers, followed by four playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks and just closed out the second half of the 2019 season with the Houston Astros.

While he has had many great years with other teams, let’s take a closer look at his three best years with the Kansas City Royals.

Despite not being legally able to buy himself an alcoholic beverage, Greinke put up an impressive rookie year in 2004 for the Kansas City Royals.

After just six starts in Omaha, the Kansas City Royals called up Zack to the major league roster and he was not intimidated by big-league hitters. He started 24 games and posted an 8-11 record but that did not truly reflect how well he did.

Greinke’s first start came at the Oakland A’s where he only allowed two runs in five innings and did not factor in the decision. His next start against the Minnesota Twins in KC was impressive with seven frames tossed and only one run charged to him.

He played long enough ago that his first win came on June 8th at Kauffman Stadium versus the Montreal Expos (and now current World Series champions, the Washington Nationals). Throwing shutout ball over seven innings and striking out five, he only gave up three singles while issuing no free passes.

Overall, his ERA+ was 120, he produced a WAR of 3.8 and only walked 26 batters in 145 innings while striking out 100. It was such an impressive performance he finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting and went on to have much more career success than Bobby Crosby, Shingo Takatsu and Daniel Cabrera.

Side note: Two other Royals finished in the top 10 in ROY voting in 2004; David DeJesus and John Buck.

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While this was a very good start to his career, Greinke would need a few more years to get the form down that would turn him into a strikeout pitcher.

After battling anxiety and taking a respite from the Kansas City Royals for much of 2006, Greinke had a nice rebound in 2007 and even more success came in 2008.

The Kansas City Royals slowly brought Greinke back into the big league fold in 2007 after he was diagnosed with social anxiety order. It was very classy how the organization handled it and he split ’07 between the bullpen and rotation and posted numbers closer to his rookie year.

2008 broke ground as he recorded his first winning season, 13-10, a career-low in ERA of 3.47 and come closer to being a dominant force on the mound with 183 strikeouts (good for fifth in the league) in 202 1/3 innings pitched. He played the entire year as a starter and had a stellar 5.3 WAR.

He started the year on fire, posting a 4-1 record and 1.80 ERA during the first seven starts. A rough stretch through mid-summer saw his record fall to 7-7 and a 4.06 ERA but he battled back to finish 6-3 and drop his ERA by over half a point at season’s end. The pinnacle game was an 11 strikeout performance against the A’s on July 28th that fueled the turnaround.

This would be, unfortunately, the best season the Kansas City Royals had while Greinke was a member of the organization going 75-87.

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The 2008 year set the stage for the greatest season Greinke had with the Kansas City Royals and one of the best in franchise history.

Despite receiving a paltry 3.78 runs of support in games he started, Greinke pulled off a 16-8 record and became the third Cy Young recipient in Kansas City Royals history.

On fire right out of the chute, Greinke posted a 6-0 record, 0.40 ERA and 54 strikeouts in his first six games including three complete games. As the season went along, he only allowed four earned runs or more in five of his 33 starts.

He led the majors in ERA (2.16), ERA+ (205), FIP (2.33) and the American League in WHIP (1.07) and HR/9 (0.4). This was the first year his number of strikeouts would top innings pitched as he sat down 242 hitters in 229 1/3 innings pitched.

Six complete games and three shutouts helped alleviate the fact the Royals could not muster much offense on their way to a 65-97 record. With just a little bit more run support it is easily feasible for him to have won more than 20 games as they only scored two runs per game in his losses.

For a being on a last-place team, he ran away with the Cy Young vote beating Felix Hernandez by 54 points.

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Since being traded, Greinke has gone on to have a fantastic career. While playing for several other teams he has 205 wins, a .625 winning percentage, 2622 strikeouts, and a 66.7 WAR. This has all the makings of a Hall of Fame career and it all began with the Kansas City Royals.

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The Kansas City Royals drafted and developed Zack Greinke and he should end up in the Hall of Fame after his career is over.

Despite not being legally able to buy himself an alcoholic beverage, Greinke put up an impressive rookie year in 2004 for the Kansas City Royals.

After battling anxiety and taking a respite from the Kansas City Royals for much of 2006, Greinke had a nice rebound in 2007 and even more success came in 2008.

Despite receiving a paltry 3.78 runs of support in games he started, Greinke pulled off a 16-8 record and became the third Cy Young recipient in Kansas City Royals history.

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