WOW

Last night a reporter asked Tigers manager Jim Leyland what impressed him most about Greinke. Leyland rattled off a bunch of things: Greinke’s “put-away slider,” (as in “puts away hitters”), his curveball which he can throw for strikes anytime, his fastball which he can adjust like a digital thermometer (sometimes throwing 91 mph, sometimes throwing 97), his mesmerizing change-up, his coolness on the mound and his put-away slider (Leyland said it twice).

“Kid’s got a lot of equipment,” Leyland said, summing up.

To me, he seems a lot like Juan Marichal, who would combat batters with a flurry of different motions and angles and pitches — hitting Marcihal was like trying to hit a geometry lesson.

Marichal is particularly relevant here because in 1966, he began the season 9-0 with a 0.59 ERA in his first 10 starts. And you probably have to go all the way back to that year to find a pitcher who has been as dominant as Greinke through 10 starts. Greinke is now 8-1 with a 0.84 ERA. Tuesday night, he threw his fifth complete game — that’s as many as any team in baseball, and it’s more than the Royals have had the last two seasons combined. You want to talk insane? The guy throws a 9 inning complete game giving up 1 run and his Major League-leading ERA actually went up to 0.84 from .82! With an 8-1 record, he now joins Toronto's Roy Halladay with the most wins.

Numbers: Zack Greinke has now gone 103 innings since allowing his last homer. No other pitcher in either league, prior to Tuesday, had worked more than 30 innings without allowing a homer.

Numbers: Zack Greinke has now gone 14 consecutive starts without giving up a home run. That’s a Royals record.

Numbers: Zack Greinke has now started a season with 10 consecutive starts of giving up two runs or less. That, too, is a Royals record, and it’s two shy of the big league record.

Numbers: Zack Greinke now has struck out 81, walked 12, and allowed a total of 67 base runners in 75 innings pitched.

I saw Marichal in 1966, but I was much younger then and I don’t think I appreciated what he was able to do. Now that I’ve seen literally thousands of baseball games, I can honestly say, this is amazing. And when you take this kid’s personal history, it’s even more amazing and you can’t help pulling for him. The only think I can say is WOW.

I read on the web where guys are recommending that you trade him now because his value will never be higher. If you need him to pitch to a lower ERA than .084 and a lower WHIP of .088 in order for you to keep him, you are nuts. If you have him there is a great chance that you didn’t pay a whole lot for him because who expected this?

If you don’t have him and someone is silly enough to give him up, I can’t think of another player that I wouldn’t trade him for. - Paul Leume

Paul Leume is a MLB columnist from Montreal, Canada. Paul, a one-time beat writer covering the Montreal Expos for the Montreal Gazette is a proud grandfather of 3 girls and now spends his time offering his thoughts and prospective on Major League Baseball on a variety of blogs and websites throughout Al Gore’s internet.