Loser

An American League pitcher with a Cy Young pedigree is at it again. In 47 innings so far this year, he's largely baffled the opposition, yielding just 41 hits and eight walks, while fanning 36. He sports a gleaming 2.51 ERA despite a Triple-A bullpen and an energetic but flailing defense. He's thrown a complete game and six quality starts in seven tries.

An early Cy Young contender, wouldn't you say?

Contrast him with this guy: 30 games and seven starting assignments into the season he still hasn't managed to win a game. What good is this guy to his team?

I think you already know the punchline: it's the same pitcher. Zack Greinke has the dubious distinction of toiling for the Kansas City Royals, a Pittsburgh Pirates AL doppelganger. He's been brilliant, but his team remains -- after two decades of futility -- a collection of retreads and misfits. The offense has tallied 17 times in his seven starts, most of the runs coming long after he'd left the game and the relief corps had provided relief -- for opposing pitchers.

The game against the Blue Jays on April 21 is a good case in point. Grienke left the contest with a 3-2 lead after seven strong innings, fanning 8 and allowing just a walk and two hits to the league's fourth best (as of today) offense. It took two relievers to subdue Toronto in the eighth, relinquishing the lead in the process. KC won that game in the 10th -- the only Grienke start in which they prevailed. Certainly you can't argue that Greinke "failed to pitch to the score" or "wasn't clutch" or some other cliche nonsense.

Last year, there was some talk in the sports blather community that Greinke lacked the requisite number of wins to earn the Cy Young award. Fortunately, the Royals managed to claim a couple of W's behind him at season's end and the writers overwhelmingly voted for him. Still, it's inconceivable that they could anoint a below-.500 pitcher the best in the league even if he is by any relevant measure. That would require a rise to greatness -- on the writers' part -- that is six or seven steps beyond where they stand as a group right now.

Nonetheless, Greinke's early performance and record show how a great pitcher performing at the highest level can own a bad record. And there's just nothing about it that's his fault.

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