Greinke did Royals proud

Carl Crawford was named MVP of the MLB All-Star game Tuesday basically for one homerun-robbing catch (I assume it was for that and not for going 1-3 at the plate with a single, no RBI and no runs scored). It was a great catch (though not as good as the catch Torii Hunter made on Barry Bonds in the All-Star game a few years ago), but here's an alternate pick for MVP: Zack Greinke.

Now it's fair to say that Crawford was in the game much longer than Greinke and it's hard to give the MVP to a pitcher who only threw one inning. But I dare you to find a player who was more dominant while he was in that game than Greinke. Of the 16 pitchers who threw, Greinke was the only one to strike out two batters. And despite striking out two batters (which obviously requires a minimum of six pitches), Greinke needed just 10 pitches to complete his 1-2-3 inning. Eight of the 10 pitches he threw were strikes and it seemed like all eight of them hit a different corner of the strike zone (apparently when Zack pitches the strike zone is an octagon. Or I'm not a geometry wiz).

At one point, after Zack struck out David Wright on a bending, mid-80s slider (that he set up gorgeously with several mid-90s fastballs), announcer Joe Buck said "That's just filthy." And that was the only way to describe it: ridiculous, nasty, tie-a-white-flag-to-your-bat-and-surrender-now pitching that left Wright, Raul Ibanez and Shane Victorino helpless. Those are supposedly three of the best hitters the NL has to offer and Greinke made them look like Little Leaguers.

As a Twins fan I'd like to say that Joe Mauer, who was catching for him, had something to do with it. But the way Greinke's stuff looked, I think Mauer could have called just about any pitch and it would have been unhittable.

“It’s better trying to catch him than trying to hit against him,” Mauer told the KC Star. “You know what he has, all four pitches working, and you just have to deal with it.”

This was a performance Royals fans could savor and be proud of. Greinke was not one of KC's token All-Stars like Mark Redman (2006) or Ken Harvey (2004). He earned his spot and once he got in the game he was as good or better than any of the other guys there. That should give the fan base a nice boost going into the second half of the season. At 11 games back, the division race is now a long-shot for the Royals — they'll have to reel off a pretty good winning streak pretty soon to get back in it. But regardless of where the team sits in the standing, the fans can still come out and watch baseball's best pitcher every five games, and that ain't bad.

Anyway, Greinke should have been the MVP, but that honor went to Crawford, who, ironically, took Zack out of the game when he pinch-hit for him. And Zack, in typical Zack fashion, was both gracious and humorous about it.

“I was like, ‘Crawford? Are you serious?’ ” Greinke told the Star. “But he got a base hit, so it’s acceptable. And he robbed a homer, so I guess that worked out all right. It could’ve been me. That pitch was probably right down the middle. I would’ve crushed it.”