By Jon Weisman
In 1968, Bob Gibson famously had a 1.12 ERA that was baseball’s lowest in more than 50 years.
Right now, adjusted for park and era factors, Zack Greinke is better.
At right, you can see where Greinke stands among the greatest adjusted ERAs (ERA+) of all time, according to Baseball-Reference.com. (Click to enlarge the chart.)
The next-closest Dodger doesn’t come until Roger Craig (205 ERA+, 1959), in 46th place. Clayton Kershaw’s best single-season ERA+ was 194 last year, and Sandy Koufax’s was 190 in 1966 (77th).
Of course, Greinke has only thrown 123 1/3 innings so far this year. Gibson threw 304 2/3 in 1968, and adjusted ERA doesn’t factor in that level of durability.
Greinke has been boosted by a career-low .235 opponents’ batting average on balls in play, and in his 17 starts, he has allowed nine hits total with runners in scoring position (.203 on-base percentage, .224 slugging percentage).
Read more about Greinke’s unbelievable exploits in 2015 in Thursday night’s post.
