This is no surprise. Zack Greinke proved that he can swing the bat. Heck, at times, I thought he was a better option off the bench than who we had. In fact, he pinch-hit once this season against the Diamondbacks. He came up for Paco Rodriguez in the 10th inning in a 5-5 tie, and walked.
Per a Dodgers press release:
Louisville Slugger announced today that pitcher Zack Greinke won his first-career Silver Slugger Award during a special hour-long telecast on MLB Network.
Greinke, 30, led qualifying Major League pitchers with a .328 batting average, 19 hits, a .409 on-base percentage and two stolen bases (T-1st), while ranking among the leaders in runs scored (5, T-7th) and doubles (3, T-3rd). He batted .368 with runners on base (7-for-19) and hit .357 with runners in scoring position (5-for-14), while posting a .500 batting average (6-for-12 with a double) against left-handed pitchers.
Since 1974, Greinke's batting average was the second-highest by a Dodger pitcher, behind only Orel Hershiser's .356 mark in 1993, while his on-base percentage was the highest during that period.
With 19 hits in 2013, Greinke, who has spent only two and a half seasons of his 10-year big league career in the National League, more than doubled his career hit total (18 entering the season) to raise his career batting average to .226 along with eight doubles, three homers and eight RBI in 300 games.
Greinke also had a stellar season on the mound, going 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA in 28 starts in his first season with the Dodgers.Pic at the very top via the @Dodgers on twitter.
Greinke is the first Dodger to be honored with a Silver Slugger since outfielder Matt Kemp won in 2011 and the first Los Angeles pitcher to take home the award since Orel Hershiser in 1993. It's the fifth time a Dodger pitcher has been awarded a Silver Slugger since the creation of the award in 1980 and 23rd time overall that a Los Angeles player has won the award, led by Mike Piazza's five trophies.
BTW, AJ Ellis decided to send his congratulations this afternoon on twitter. It's a hoot!
Congrats on Silver Slugger to best pure hitter on @Dodgers Zack Grenkie. We will never hear the end of this one.
— AJ Ellis (@AJEllis17) November 7, 2013
Appreciate all those spell checking my tweets. I'm sure Zach Grenkie won't mind. #thatsajoketoo
— AJ Ellis (@AJEllis17) November 7, 2013
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