Three Years After Considering Quitting, Greinke's a Cy Young Favorite

Originally written on September 22 Zack Greinke was ready to quit baseball. He was a 22-year-old phenom and hated the attention that came along with the pressure to succeed amidst high expectations. He’d had enough. The lanky righthander was drafted out of high school by the Kansas City Royals in 2002. He wasn’t supposed to be, though. Before the 2002 MLB Draft, Allan Baird, the Royals General Manager at the time, informed his scouting staff that he was leaning towards drafting a college pitcher in the opening round. Considering he had drafted two high school pitchers the previous two years—Mike Stodolka in 2000’s first round, who was out of baseball by the end of 2003, and Colt Griffin in 2001’s first round, whose career ended after a stint in Double-A in 2005—he had reason to stop the trend from continuing. But Baird hadn’t heard about Zack Greinke yet, a then-18-year-old righthander out of Florida. At first, he balked at the scout’s...