Here is a comment by a Rany poster.
Devon said...Oh, you'll love this. Back almost a week ago, I saw this coming and did some stat checking.
As of right now, Greinke has this stat line 30 days into the season:
6-0, 0.40 ERA, 54 K's in 45 IP.
Here's the only other times a Royal won 6 games in the first 30 days of a season....
Appier was 6-1, 1.92 ERA, and 58 K's in 56 1/3. Appier ended '95 at 15-10 over 31 total starts...so he was only 9-9 with a poor 4.66 ERA after his hot start.
Saberhagen started off 6-0, 1.59 ERA, in 1987's first month...but then goes 12-10 with a 3.80 ERA for the rest of the year.
Splittorff had a great start in 1973's first month...5-1, 2.72 ERA... but he also dives into a 4.33 ERA & 15-10 to finish out the year (20-11 & 3.98 combined). Not really good numbers in '73....only a 102 ERA+ for the season after such a great start.
There's nothing else to compare Greinke's start to, in Royals history. But if history holds any weight here, it says Greinke will become about a .500 pitcher and his ERA will balloon after about his 7th or 8th start.
I'm hopin' history has as much effect on Zack Greinke as the Tigers offense. (he's actually 9-4 with a 2.86 ERA lifetime against them, not to mention his embarrassing them back on Apr 24)
He could be the 1st Royal to win 25 games...and if he does that, there'll probably be a lot of talk about him heading for 30.
Either way, as of now, he's already 1/3 of the way to one of the
12 best Royals pitchers win totals in the 23 years since after the '85 World Series.
And here's a listing of the
10 winningest Royals pitchers from 1986 - 5/04/2009 (which is everyone with more than 39 wins in that span). Greinke's already 9th in that list, and he could end the season 5th on this list.
One more thought. He's the 5th winningest Royal pitcher through seasonal age 25....Saberhagan (92), Gubicza (69), Appier & Busby (59), Gordon (56), Greinke (40 and counting).