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Zack Greinke Ranked #10 on MLB Network's "Top 10 Starting Pitchers Right Now!"

Hopefully, this year he’ll live up to it.

By Jim McLennan
San Francisco Giants v Arizona Diamondbacks Photo by Darin Wallentine/Getty Images

Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zack Greinke was ranked 10th on MLB Network’s Top 10 Starting Pitchers Right Now! program yesterday. Greinke finished one spot behind the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard. Taking into account player performance over several seasons with an emphasis on 2016, a number of offensive and defensive metrics both advanced and traditional, and projected performance for the upcoming season, MLB Network’s Top 10 Right Now! series ranks the top players at each position heading into the 2017 season.

Here’s their full list of “Top 10 Starting Pitchers Right Now!”

  1. Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
  2. Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals
  3. Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants
  4. Jake Arrieta, Chicago Cubs
  5. Jon Lester, Chicago Cubs
  6. Corey Kluber, Cleveland Indians
  7. Chris Sale, Boston Red Sox
  8. Johnny Cueto, San Francisco Giants
  9. Noah Syndergaard, New York Mets
  10. Zack Greinke, Arizona Diamondbacks

Quite impressive what a lock the National League has - every one of the top five spots, and eight of the ten in total. Obviously, this list still includes a component from Greinke’s pre-2016 performances, which had him at #3 in the same list going into that season - no-one could claim he was one of the ten best pitchers in baseball last year. Hopefully, that’s a level which he’ll be able to approach again in 2017.

Now in its seventh season, MLB Network’s Top 10 Right Now! series is hosted by Brian Kenny with contributing analysis from MLB Network on-air personalities, Boston Red Sox senior advisor of baseball operations and renowned sabermetrician Bill James, President of SABR Vince Gennaro and MLB.com analyst Mike Petriello. The rankings continue on Sunday, with MLB’s top ten shortstops unveiled at 6:00 p.m. Arizona time, featuring analysis from MLB Network’s Bill Ripken, and the top ten first basemen an hour later, with analysis from MLB Network’s Sean Casey. I’ve a feeling we’ll be reporting something from the latter program next Monday...

Below, is the section of the program which discussed Greinke.

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