Zack to Where We Started From

 I have no idea why it's a law that Zack Greinke can't be in a mega-rotation anymore. The 2010s Dodgers went so well for him. Then, right when his D-Backs rotation starts bulking up, he gets traded, and right when the prospect of a Greinke-Verlander-Cole-Miley rotation becomes sustainable, Miley goes to Cincy, Cole goes to NY, Verlander gets injured, and the 2020 Astros rotation becomes 'Greinke and Lance McCullers train a team of youngsters'. Can't Zack Greinke have nice things too?

Look, I'm still firm in my belief that Zack Greinke is a Hall of Famer. It's obvious to me. For an entire 10-year period, he was one of the best pitchers in baseball, and still is. From 2008 to now, he has a 3.11 ERA, 2341 strikeouts, a 187-88 record, a 1.117 WHIP and a 60.4 WAR. If sportswriters just eradicate the first few anxious years of his stat line, they can find a definite HOF case, and some of the best pitching numbers of his era. I will not stand down from this. I didn't stand down from Mussina.

But...Greinke is, to his credit, performing admirably without Verlander or Cole. He's got 3 wins, a 2.91 ERA, 44 Ks and the highest WAR on the team. 36 and still outdoing a bunch of 30 and 20 year olds. He's also mentoring people like Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Brandon Bielak and Jose Urquidy, and keeping the rotation together on his strength pretty much alone. Javier and Valdez are picking up the pace and learning from Greinke, but this is still Greinke's rotation, and I imagine he's gonna be part of some great playoff starts.

And yet...otherwise, this is a fairly pedestrian Astros team with some mild playoff chances. Altuve's injured, Bregman's just come back, Brantley and Bregman are kind of okay, and Kyle Tucker is doing a lot of the offensive heavy lifting right now. This is not an 'anyone can succeed' sort of lineup like the 2017 one, or even the 2019 one. This is very much a 'dust has settled, diminishing returns' Astros team. They're still good, they're still gonna make the playoffs, but I don't see them completely dominating as they have in the past.

Ah well. At least Greinke's still acing it.

Coming Tonight: After a slow start, he's finally playing like the guy the Padres wanted when they signed  him last year.