It was almost a year ago – December 11, 2012 to be exact.

The Stadium Club at Dodger Stadium was packed with media from across the country for a nationally televised press conference announcing that the Dodgers had just signed former AL Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke to a record setting 6-year/$147 million contract – a record that would stand for less than a month when it was topped by Felix Hernandez of the Mariners and Justin Verlander of the Tigers.

Zack Greinke at his December 11, 2012 introductory press conference.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

A couple days prior to the press conference I had heard an MLB Network Radio interview with Angels manager Mike Scioscia (Greinke’s previous manager) who said “Zack Greinke loves to hit.”

I recall thinking that this was a rather odd statement from Scioscia because the Angles had acquired Greinke at the July 31 2012 trade deadline after interleague play had already concluded, which meant that Greinke did not have even one at-bat with the Angels. I later learned that Scioscia had heard this about Greinke from his (Scioscia’s) former bench coach Ron Roenicke, who was now the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers – the team from which the Angles had acquired Greinke.

Curious about Scioscia’s statement, I asked Greinke during the press conference if he did, in fact, love to hit.

“I use to,” answered Greinke. “I went to Milwaukee and loved to hit there, but when you focus on hitting it takes away from your ability to pitch, so as time went on, I had to give that up. When the time comes for me to go up to the plate I feel good but I don’t really think about it like I used to. It would be nice if I could (hit) but it takes away from my pitching so I’m not going to do that.”

I remember thinking at the time that this was a rather ambiguous answer. Although Greinke had answered the question quite intelligently, he gave no indication that he was going to spend any time focusing on his hitting. What he did do, however, is give an answer that the guys who had just handed him $147 million wanted to hear – that he had been signed to pitch, not hit.

Well lo and behold, Mike Scioscia (and Ron Roenicke) were absolutely correct – Zack Greinke indeed loves to hit.

In 58 at-bats during the regular season, Greinke collected 19 hits (including 3 doubles) for a .328 batting average, an incredible .409 on-base percentage, a .379 slugging percentage for an impressive .788 OPS. Greinke also had 4 RBIs, stole 2 bases, drew 7 walks and laid down 6 successful sacrifice bunts and he went 15-4 with a Cy Young-caliber ERA of 2.63 – fourth best in the National League.

Opposing pitchers who consider Zack Greinke as an automatic out are in for a very rude awakening. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Greinke was also hit by a pitch thrown by (then) Diamondbacks hot-head Ian Kennedy on June 11 that led to an epic brawl – an event that many believe was the turning point of the Dodgers 2013 season.

Click on photo to view video.
(Photo credit – Stephen Dunn)

The point to all of this, of course, is that it was a no-brainer for MLB coaches and managers to select Greinke for the 2013 Silver Slugger Award for pitchers – being that he beat his nearest competitor by more than 100 points in batting average.

Zack Greinke still loves to hit.