The Astros announced that Zack Greinke will be the Opening Day starter. It’s not a surprise and it will be his fifth opening day start. What is interesting is that Greinke wanted to get 10 home runs and 10 stolen bases as he told the media in early March. Besides winning a Cy Young award in 2009, Zack Greinke also likes to hit and run.
MLB implemented the universal DH rule in 2020, however, MLB won’t use the universal DH in 2021 and pitchers are going to hit in the National League games this season. It’s usually not so exciting to see pitchers hit, but some pitchers such as Zack Greinke could provide some excitement when they are hitting.
Greinke already has 9 home runs in his career, among active pitchers, who has the most home runs?
Madison Bumgarner has 19 home runs so far in his career. It’s not a surprise to see him on the leaderboard. Bumgarner had 4 homers in 2014 and he blasted 5 homers in 2015. In the 2017 season, Bumgarner became the first pitcher to hit two home runs on opening day.
Adam Wainwright will still be a Cardinal in the 2021 season and it’s going to be his 17th season in St. Louis. In his long career so far, Wainwright has 10 homers and there are 3 seasons that he blasted 2 homers.
Zack Greinke has 9 home runs so far in his career. In particular, he was hitting .280/.308/.580 and blasted 3 home runs in 2019.
Meanwhile, Jake Arrieta, Noah Syndergaard and Mike Leake each have 6 homers. Nonetheless, Shohei Ohtani and Michael Lorenzen are not in the list because they are two-way players.
Among active pitchers, Adam Wainwright already has 136 hits in his career and he’s in the top of the leaderboard. In the 2007 season, he had 18 hits and he batted .290/.323/.387 in 74 plate appearances.
Zack Greinke has 117 hits so far. In 2013, it was Greinke’s season with the Dodgers and he had 19 hits. Greinke had 72 plate appearances in 2013 and he batted .328/.409/.379 in 2013. An OBP of .409 was pretty good, how good was it? In the 2013 season, Andrew McCutchen had an OBP of .404, 5th in the majors.
Cole Hamels is a four-time All-Star and the 2008 World Series MVP. In his career so far, Hamels has 116 hits, particularly he had 17 hits in the 2008 season. Cole Hamels is still a free agent.
Madison Bumgarner has 105 hits so far and in the 2015 season, he had 19 hits and his batting average was .247. Clayton Kershaw also has 105 hits in his career, and 16 hits were hit in the 2011 season.
Because there is no universal DH rule in 2021, pitchers are going to hit in National League ballparks. Zack Greinke will still have opportunities to hit when the Astros play in National League ballparks, thus, it’s possible to see him hit his 10th career home run. Madison Bumgarner’s first season with the Diamondbacks wasn’t a successful one, but he’s looking to bounce back and hit his 20th home run in 2021. In less than 2 weeks, the new MLB season will start and we are going to see pitchers swing.
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