In the midst of the most dominant season of his 12-year career, Zack Greinke has been considered the frontrunner for the NL CY Young Award for the majority of the season, but he assures he doesn't pay much attention to the buzz.
"I've seen a bunch of articles being written about it, but I never click on it because it seems like it's a little too early," Greinke said after putting together another gem of eight scoreless innings with eight strikeouts in the Los Angeles Dodgers' 4-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday.
While there's always a possibility that Greinke could collapse in his last few starts, the 31-year-old righty dominates MLB in a handful of major stat categories, including ERA (1.61), win-loss percentage (.850), WHIP (0.847), and wins above replacement amongst all pitchers (8.5).
Although the figures speak to Greinke's dominance, he will be the first one to admit that baseball is a game of fortune as much as it is skill.
"Maybe pitching a little better this year and a little luckier," he said of his terrific season.
Greinke already has one Cy Young Award under his belt, which he won in the AL with the Kansas City Royals in 2009.
As impressive as winning the top pitcher's award in the American League is, nabbing the award from teammate Clayton Kershaw, who has been granted the hardware in three out of the last four seasons, would be an even more monumental feat.
In the final stages of the season, Kershaw has made his case to add another Cy Young to his trophy case, as he leads MLB in strikeouts with 259 and doesn't trail very far behind Greinke with a 2.15 ERA.
(h/t Los Angeles Times)
