Royals: 3 best seasons for Zack Greinke in Kansas City

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.

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.