Zach Greinke fan club gathers here

[Archie F. Swin]

This is kid has swagger. He stand calmly on the mound, unshakable, staring hitters down. And, if they get out of line....he throws it at their fuggin' chin! His pitches are sick, at times sicker than his brain. I fear that if someone charges the mound, he'll beat 'em lifeless with the home plate umpire's mask.

The Zack Greinke fan club gathers here...


Go 'head Zack

[jidar]

Originally Posted by kc rush

You are all racists according to Tony.

Kansas City's Latest Great White Hope

LINK

Local white people celebrating their similarly-skin-colored heroes have once again mistaken a slightly better than mediocre performance for The Second Coming.

It's like this town forgot that Jared Allen just jumped ship for tens of millions of dollars and never thought about Kansas City again.

Let me be the first to note that Royals Pitcher Zack Greinke is nothing but a lot of hype at this point. This early in the season there is no telling who is going to be a factor down the line and the locals are silly to take bored sports newsies at their word.

Reggie Jackson was called Mr. October for a reason . . . It's because he played when it mattered and didn't burn out before the All-Star break.

I'm not afraid to note that all of this Greinke hype is yet again tacit racism on the part of Kansas City sports fans. Looking for a white face to cheer for is an ugly local tradition that big media loves to feed into and once again playing to this town's worst instincts proves profitable.

Let's get is straight . . . In terms of MLB, Greinke is a non-factor so far and IF HE DOES prove to have some talent in the long term that only means that he'll leave Kansas City in a hurry. So overly enthusiastic white people wanting the baseball star to have sex with their family should probably calm down . . . Because the only thing people from Kansas City can count on is disappointment.

What a ****ing douchebag

[jidar]

Grienke could kill a clown by throwing tennisballs at him.

[KChiefs1]

Saturday, May 9 Angel Stadium of Anaheim | 8:05 PM CT

Zack Greinke, RHP (6-0, 0.40) Royals (15-11) @ Joe Saunders, LHP (4-1, 3.29) Angels (11-13)

Scouting Report: Royals: How long can this go on? Greinke's second shutout came at the expense of the White Sox last Monday night at Kansas City. That made him unbeaten and virtually unscored upon in six starts and left him as the Majors' best in ERA and strikeouts (54). Catcher Miguel Olivo said Greinke was almost perfect, hitting his glove at will as he stopped the Sox on six hits, mostly flares and infield grounders. Greinke struck out 10 and didn't walk a batter -- he's issued just eight walks all season. So what's his history against the Angels? Not too good -- just 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA in four games. But he did beat them the only time he faced them last year. This will be his first career start at Angel Stadium. Angels: Saunders won his third straight decision in his last start against Oakland on Monday night. He has allowed two or fewer earned runs in his four wins while giving up nine runs combined in his loss and no-decision. He threw 110 pitches against the A's, his highest pitch count by 17 on the season. He's facing the Royals for just the second time in his career. He beat them on Sept. 19, 2006 in Kansas City, giving up a run on seven hits over seven innings. He recorded eight strikeouts in that game.

[Coach]

Coming into the Chicago game his ERA+ was 941.


It is now 1173.

[jidar]

Greinke wins Risk without taking Australia first. He's the ****ing man.

[Archie F. Swin]

Zack Greinke stares down his cat before he pours the Meow Mix

[Archie F. Swin]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Greinke

from now on....I'm calling him Donald

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by Coach

Coming into the Chicago game his ERA+ was 941.


It is now 1173.

What is ERA+?

[irishjayhawk]

Some quote goodness:

“There’s a lot more interesting stuff going on right now They should have something else on the cover. Playoff basketball or something else. So it’s a mistake. They’ll probably sell their least amount of magazines in a long time - except when NASCAR was on the cover.”

"They just said rebuilding because the team was bad."

"Soria, you runnin' today? You're goin' down then. I'm gonna so much faster than you, you're going to be eating my dust."

"I was going to race Soria but he backed down. He said he's too tight today. He's not ready for a real challenge."

"I just saved your life Soria"

"That's not a typical Brad Pitt movie. He's just a guy."

"I did the standard walk around a lake. I should have done it at home, told her some sweet stuff and have the cat...we have this cat and her name is Wilson and if you yell her name, like 'WILSON!!!!' she'll come running in to save the day. I should have had the ring on her and yelled for her. That was Emily's Dad's idea but I didn't do it."

About Olivo: "He's probably the best catcher in the world"

"There definitely will be flying cars, but whether there'll be flying cars for most people to use, it'll probably take a long time to straighten everything out, all the rules and hassles. It'll take a while to figure out how to keep people from crashing into each other."

"Nice effort by the defense. They didn't get tired of running after balls to the wall. I was pretty impressed by that."

"She, like, has a special mouth . . . so that her breath is usually pretty good, but she complains about mine a lot."

"My first step was to try to get mentally right, and I don't know if I'll ever be mentally right, but I'll try and I'll get as close as I can."

“Everybody was mad at me for only throwing fastballs and change-ups. So I threw some first-pitch strikes with curveballs. It’s an easy way to get a strike. It’s not like it’s a real hard pitch to throw. You just throw it for a strike."

"Anything after that would be too late for me, anyway. I was looking at colleges for me to go to, schools in vacation places like Hawaii, just to get away from everyone I knew, so I could start over. I also thought about mowing lawns for a living because I like to be outdoors. "

"Yeah, I brought my Wii home anyway. We're 0-4 with it...after we win today it's back in here. Ross Gload, he's so ticked right now."

"The last thing in the world I expected was Billy to play that kind of defense. For the first month of the season, he's definitely been an above-average first baseman. That's hard for me to say because I never thought anyone would say that but him and his family."

"The biggest difference was probably the fans; they were great today. And the White Sox were probably the second-biggest reason. It was really a lot of fun."

''I'm kind of scared to throw to him. For some reason, he's probably the one I'm scaredest of. I have like nightmares about him."

"I was about 20 times smarter before this season started than I am now."

When asked how he got dumber: "Probably (from) listening to about a million different ways on how to get people out. So now I know everything that's possible to get people out, so maybe I am smarter," he said. "But before I didn't even know anything so it was easier, I guess, because you didn't even have to think about it."

"I just wanted to make this clear: I can't live without baseball...It's to the point where it caused problems with my girlfriend because she knows baseball is more important than her. I say, 'Hey, I'm sorry. I love the game that much. You're not even close to being No. 1 -- that's how much I love baseball. I couldn't live without it."

"If I hit a guy, I want him to be hurt, at least feel it.”

"He's my kind of guy. He's a Wal-Mart guy. I'm not a real big-time guy, spending a bunch of money on nonsense stuff. Me and him have a lot in common."

"Seriously, that was the best pitch I've ever made that got hit over the fence. That was probably the only pitch today that I did exactly what I wanted to do. When I bunted and bunted it foul, I was like, 'How did you hit that?" That pitch was everything I wanted to do. It just shows you how good of a hitter he is."

“Kansas City is actually a great town for me, it’s pretty small, but it’s big, too. There’s plenty of stuff to do. I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone say something mean to my face. They may not like me, but I never see that side of them. It’s a family town. I like that. That’s what I don’t like about some other cities.”

[teedubya]

“Kansas City is actually a great town for me, it’s pretty small, but it’s big, too. There’s plenty of stuff to do. I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone say something mean to my face. They may not like me, but I never see that side of them. It’s a family town. I like that. That’s what I don’t like about some other cities.”

This is why he signed long term... and may sign long term after this contract is out. Im stoked that he loves KC so much...

great quotes IrishJayHawk

[KChiefs1]

Today's Zackmania stories:

Greinke, Royals are having fun again

By John Ryan
San Jose Mercury News
05/07/2009 06:44:00 PM PDT


They're trying something in Kansas City that's just crazy enough to work.

The Royals have a winning team and a budding superstar who has been around long enough that fans actually know and care about him. You watching this, A's?

Zack Greinke's blazing start is more than just a head-turner. It's shaping up as a once-in-a-generation event, the likes of which may not have been seen in baseball since Fernandomania in 1981. It would be a runaway for uplifting baseball story of the year if not for the Yankees' many embarrassments regarding their new stadium.


For Greinke's start Monday night against the White Sox, which came after he was Sports Illustrated's cover boy, the Royals drew 21,843 fans. That doesn't sound like much, but included more than 6,500 walk-up tickets.


Before that game, Royals first baseman Billy Butler told teammates, "I'm guaranteeing a shutout tonight. What do you think?" Final score: Royals 3, White Sox 0.


The blog of Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski has been working overtime. The best nugget: Dating to last season, Greinke has won nine consecutive starts, with an ERA of 0.69. Since 1954, 50 pitchers have won nine consecutive starts. Only one, Bob Gibson in 1968, had a lower ERA than Greinke.


And to top it all off, Greinke is an aw-shucks guy with the compelling backdrop of having walked away from the game three years ago, suffering from depression and social anxiety disorder.

In his column for the Star, Posnanski encapsulates the frenzy through the White Sox manager:

"Is he married?" Ozzie Guillen asked after the game.

When told that Greinke was engaged, Guillen showed his disappointment and said he wished Greinke would marry his daughter. And then, Guillen remembered.

He doesn't have a daughter.



Posted: Thursday May 7, 2009 7:56 PM

Greinke's start fueling Royals' resurgence

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -A carnival of excitement has descended on Kauffman Stadium this season thanks to an unassuming pitcher who once said his head and arm don't always agree on what to throw. The Royals are winning, Kauffman Stadium is hopping and the nation is taking notice - all because of Zack Greinke. The quirky right-hander with the nearly unhittable stuff has created a stir in Cowtown that's drawing comparisons to Fernandomania in Los Angeles during the 1980s. Zack-mania, Zack-tacular, Gettin' Greinke Wit It - whatever you want to call it - has helped make baseball fun in Kansas City for the first time since George Brett chased .400 and put too much pine tar on his bat. "I'm not trying to jinx him, but what he's doing is historic in nature,'' Royals right-hander Brian Bannister said. "The level he's pitching at, it kind of makes you want to sit back and grab some popcorn because it's impressive what he's doing.'' Royals fans have been waiting a long time for this. Ronald-Reagan-was-still-president long. That's one winning season the past 14 years, no playoff appearances since beating cross-Missouri rival St. Louis in the 1985 World Series. Losing wasn't just expected, it became accepted, transforming the franchise's image from being small-town scrappers to win-padding fodder for baseball's elite teams. That's changed this year. The Royals had a winning record in April (12-10) for the first time since 2003 and were atop the division after the season's first month for just the second time in their 40-year history. May has done nothing to stop them; Kansas City went six games above .500 for the first time since Sept. 2006 after beating Seattle on Wednesday and entered the weekend still leading the AL Central. Now, baseball fans and the national media are paying attention to the Royals for something other than their ineptitude. Locals and the sports radio gang are actually talking about the Royals, not the Chiefs' sixth-round draft pick. OK, maybe they still are, but at least the Royals are now barging in on the conversation. Kauffman Stadium, tricked out after a $250 million renovation, is juiced again - and not because of the carousel and putt-putt course in the outfield. The Royals averaged more than 19,000 fans at the new K the season's first month and sold 11,000 same-day tickets, including more than 6,500 walk-ups for Greinke's last start, Monday against the White Sox. "We're spreading a little joy right now,'' Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "People are excited about it. It's very nice, makes it nice to come to work.'' The motor powering this gear of glee is Greinke. The 25-year-old with the check-his-ID dimples and a nasty array of pitches has made dominating look easy. He leads the majors with six wins, two shutouts, three complete games and 54 strikeouts. His 0.40 ERA is nearly a run lower than anyone else in baseball and he hasn't allowed a run in 15 road innings. Greinke is the third pitcher to win his first six starts with an ERA under 0.50, joining Walter Johnson in 1913 and Fernando Valenzuela in 1981. So what if he has a vampire-like aversion to the spotlight and his sentences occasionally trail off to somewhere deep in his mind. "He's the best in the league right now,'' Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said after Greinke shut out the White Sox with a six-hitter on Monday. That Greinke's run is being compared to Fernandomania is perhaps a bit unfair. When Valenzuela burst onto the LA scene with the Dodgers in 1981, winning his first eight starts, the beefy lefty from Mexico played along, always smiling, his limited English becoming part of the allure. With his eye-to-the-sky delivery, wicked screwball and a happy-go-lucky attitude, Valenzuela became an icon, had Hispanic fans swarming Dodgers Stadium, fans everywhere scrambling to buy his rookie card. For Greinke's start to reach Fernandomania proportions, he'd have to at least show a passing interest in the limelight. Yeah, right. The guy hates attention. Would rather pitch in a closet than with even 10 people watching. Still gets uncomfortable talking about himself after five seasons in the majors. Zack-mania? Not if he has anything to do with it. "There won't be,'' said Greinke, who's next scheduled start is Saturday against the Angels. "I guarantee it.'' It might be something he can't control.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ct.adv09.0906/

[KcMizzou]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

Before that game, Royals first baseman Billy Butler told teammates, "I'm guaranteeing a shutout tonight. What do you think?" Final score: Royals 3, White Sox 0.

They left out that Butler added that it was because he'd been playing awesome defense. (tongue firmly in cheek)

This is so much fun...

[KChiefs1]

MLB Network is going to show next Thursday's game vs Orioles. Is Zack pitching that night?

MLB NETWORK THURSDAY NIGHT BASEBALL SCHEDULE
April 9 - 7:00 p.m. Brewers @ Giants - Matt Vasgersian & Joe Magrane
April 16 - 1:00 p.m. Indians @ Yankees - Bob Costas, Harold Reynolds & Jim Kaat
April 16 - 8:00 p.m. Blue Jays @ Twins - Victor Rojas & Dan Plesac
April 23 - 8:00 p.m. Dodgers @ Astros - Matt Vasgersian & Joe Magrane
April 30 - 7:00 p.m. Red Sox @ Rays - Victor Rojas & Joe Magrane
May 7 - 7:00 p.m. Phillies @ Mets - Bob Costas & Al Leiter
May 14 - 8:00 p.m. Orioles @ Royals - TBD
May 21 - 8:00 p.m. Cubs @ Cardinals - TBD

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

What is ERA+?

It is a stat that tries to account for the parks you pitch in, and rebases to 100, so that a 100 ERA+ is an "average" pitcher.

Here's the AL ERA+ standings:

1. Greinke (KCR) 1168
2. Bedard (SEA) 195
3. Braden (OAK) 177
4. Richmond (TOR) 175
5. Wakefield (BOS) 174
6. Millwood (TEX) 173
7. Galarraga (DET) 158
8. Jackson (DET) 158
9. Washburn (SEA) 156
10. Weaver (LAA) 155

He's obviously going to fall off the mountain when he gives up a few more runs, but its still a fun stat to look at right now.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

MLB Network is going to show next Thursday's game vs Orioles. Is Zack pitching that night?

MLB NETWORK THURSDAY NIGHT BASEBALL SCHEDULE
April 9 - 7:00 p.m. Brewers @ Giants - Matt Vasgersian & Joe Magrane
April 16 - 1:00 p.m. Indians @ Yankees - Bob Costas, Harold Reynolds & Jim Kaat
April 16 - 8:00 p.m. Blue Jays @ Twins - Victor Rojas & Dan Plesac
April 23 - 8:00 p.m. Dodgers @ Astros - Matt Vasgersian & Joe Magrane
April 30 - 7:00 p.m. Red Sox @ Rays - Victor Rojas & Joe Magrane
May 7 - 7:00 p.m. Phillies @ Mets - Bob Costas & Al Leiter
May 14 - 8:00 p.m. Orioles @ Royals - TBD
May 21 - 8:00 p.m. Cubs @ Cardinals - TBD

Gibbons said they haven't decided this morning on the radio. Could be the 15th with the day off coming. Haven't heard anything else since.