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Greinke Called Up
Kansas City prospect Zack Greinke is promoted from Omaha and
will make Major League debut at Oakland A's on Saturday.
Jonathan
Roybal
Minor League News
05.19.04 – The hot rod is ready to roll.
Kansas City Royals pitching phenom Zack Greinke has been called up, ending the debate as to whether he's ready for the bigs.
He will be making his Major League debut on Saturday May, 22, taking the hill against the Oakland A's ace Barry Zito, the AL 2002 Cy Young Award winner.
"It's official." Shaun McGinn, Director of Player Development for the Kansas City Royals told MLN this afternoon. "He's been consistent in his last three starts. He showed (at Omaha) that he could get major league hitters out."
Mike Jirschele, Omaha's manager, was caught by surprise by the announcement being made today.
"I didn't know that it was already released." said Jirschele.
Still, the skipper had nothing but praise for his prized pupil and felt the time was right for his promotion.
"He's held his own and he's done a good job in Triple-A," said Jirschele. "It's time to find out what he can do at the big league level."
"He's been throwing strikes with all of his pitches," agrees McGinn. "None of the Triple-A hitters really squared him up very well. He's shown good command while changing speeds at the same time, which is rare for pitchers to do."
Although Zack is on his way to the big leagues, don't expect Kansas City to take the kid gloves off just yet.
"They're still going to watch his innings and obviously watch his pitch count," states McGinn. "Just because he graduates to the big leagues, doesn't mean he's gained experience or age. He's still a young pitcher."
Of course, this is of little concern for the Greinke family today according to Zack's father, Don.
"We're pretty excited, just going crazy over here," Don Greinke tells MLN. "Words cannot express how proud I am. It's just an amazing accomplishment to do at age 20."
Even while he scrambles to make arrangements to be in Oakland for when Zack steps on the mound at Network Associates Coliseum, Don has been forced to pinch himself a few times today.
"I think were all still in shock and it hasn't sunk in yet. It probably won't until he makes that first pitch," the elder Greinke said.
Shaun McGinn feels that Zack will benefit from getting his feet wet in the majors at Oakland, rather than having to face the enormous media onslaught of making his first start in Kansas City.
"There may be a little bit of an advantage being on the road, because of the local press has hyped him up so much," said McGinn.
For the Zack Greinke fans in Omaha, the parting will be bittersweet. In fact, they did not even get to say goodbye to the prodigy and they probably never will.
Two days ago, Zack allowed one run on six hits, walked none and struck out seven in six innings to pick up the victory at Fresno.
Mike Jirschele for one believes that Monday was the final time Greinke will ever don an Omaha Royals uniform.
"No, I don't expect on seeing him back here at all," Jirschele said. "Definitely not."
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