Will Zack Greinke get into the Baseball Hall of Fame? Exploring Royals pitcher's case for Cooperstown

Zack Greinke has had an illustrious career. He's bounced around from team to team but has been an All-Star six times, a Cy Young winner, a two-time ERA leader, and even a two-time Silver Slugger at the pitcher position. He's been one of this generation's best pitchers.

Is he a Hall of Famer, though? Some of his counterparts like Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw are surefire Hall of Fame entrants one day. Is the same true for Greinke? His case is not as solid, but it does look as if he will be enshrined one day.

Just going off of the WAR stat, which attempts to attribute value to a player, Greinke appears poised for a Hall of Fame berth. He has 71.9 bWAR thus far, which ranks him 32nd all-time.

That number is higher than these Hall of Famers:

• Carl Hubbell
• Don Sutton
• Jim Palmer
• Red Faber
• Vic Willis
• Ted Lyons
• Stan Coveleski
• John Smoltz
• Roy Halladay
• Bob Feller
• Amos Rusie

The list goes on. Put simply, Greinke may not seem like a lock for the Hall, but it would be a complete shock to see him snubbed.

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Zack Greinke's Hall of Fame case

WAR, either fWAR or bWAR isn't the be-all end-all, though. It's an excellent stat, but there are others to consider. While ERA in a vacuum or in one season can be very misleading, it tends to even out over a career.

Zack Greinke is a likely Hall of Famer

That makes Greinke's career mark of 3.45 pretty solid. It's not spectacular, but it is good. He recently struck out his 1000th unique batter, which is something not many pitchers have ever done, too.