Zack Greinke: Awesome

Not only is he currently the best pitcher in the major leagues, but he's apparently also a "stat nerd" as well.

“I thought that could push him over the top, because his won-loss record was way better than mine,” Greinke said. “But I’m also a follower, since Brian Bannister’s on our team, of sabermetric stuff and going into details of stats about what you can control.”

Bannister, a right-handed starter, is known for his appreciation of modern pitching metrics, which emphasize the factors for which pitchers are essentially responsible: walks, strikeouts, home runs and hit batters. In Greinke, he found a like mind.

“He’s extremely bright, and he’s really picked up on using all the information out there to make his game better,” Bannister said by telephone. “He’s always had the talent. His confidence level, which is extremely high, combined with his knowledge of the numbers behind the game now, definitely makes him one of the best pitchers in the world.”

USING ALL THE INFORMATION HE HAS?! MAKING LOGICAL DECISIONS?!

IS THE WORLD ENDING?!

Bannister said Greinke has learned to adjust his pitching based on the advanced defensive statistics. Because of the size of the outfield at Kauffman Stadium and the strength of the Royals’ outfielders, relative to their infielders, it sometimes made more sense to induce fly balls.

“David DeJesus had our best zone rating,” Bannister said, referring to the Royals’ left fielder. “So a lot of times, Zack would pitch for a fly ball at our park instead of a ground ball, just because the zone rating was better in our outfield and it was a big park.”

To that end, Bannister introduced Greinke to FIP, or Fielding Independent Pitching, the statistic Greinke named Tuesday as his favorite. It is a formula that measures how well a pitcher performed, regardless of his fielders. According to fangraphs.com, Greinke had the best FIP in the majors.

“That’s pretty much how I pitch, to try to keep my FIP as low as possible,” Greinke said.

Not many pitchers think that way. But then, Greinke, 26, is not like other pitchers. Beyond the cold numbers is a compelling personal narrative.

Oddly enough, despite being an awesome pitcher, I would guess that a lot of Dodgers fans wouldn't want him on the squad.

Why? Well because despite speculation (even that word is being generous) that certain Dodgers pitchers are "mentally weak" or "don't care about winning", Greinke has already admitted as much in the past.

Greinke, a right-hander, reached the majors at age 20, in 2004, and made 57 starts in two seasons for the Royals. Then, at 22, he abruptly left baseball and received a diagnosis of depression and social anxiety disorder. He missed almost all of 2006.

Greinke rarely talks publicly about his ordeal. When asked Tuesday if he could be a positive example for people dealing with similar issues, he gave an unflinching response. Greinke said he was not interested in being a spokesman or a role model.

“So even if I am looked at that way, I still don’t do anything about it, because I’m real uncomfortable doing stuff like that,” he said.

The award will raise Greinke’s profile, which he does not want. When Oakland’s Andrew Bailey won the A.L. rookie of the year award Monday, he said he was happy to be asked for an autograph in a mall. Greinke has the opposite reaction to fame.

“I haven’t really gotten a whole lot of attention from people, which has been nice,” Greinke said. “I hope it doesn’t get that way, where everybody’s like, ‘Oh, hey, Zack, hi,’ and they talk to me a bunch.”

Being "mentally weak" seems to have worked out pretty good for him. Wish everybody on the Dodgers staff was "weak" like him.

Unfortunately though, he has also become addicted to an MMORPG.

Zack on whether he's thought about Cy Young since season ended: "Not really. I've been playing this World of Warcraft game."

He'll probably be out for the next year due to carpal tunnel surgery or something. :o