Zach Greinke is the lone bright spot on a dismal team. Despite a 2.51 ERA so far this season, it took Zach Greinke until today to register his first win. Over the past 48 games Greinke has started, his ERA has been 2.12, yet the team is 22-26. Greinke is easily in the top 5 pitchers of the American League (and by default, all of Major League Baseball), but was 0-4 coming in to today's contest against Cleveland.
Greinke signed a 4-year deal last year for a relative pittance given his Cy Young, elite pitcher status. He is an easy 20-game winner every year with 20 other MLB teams.
But Greinke plays for a horrible owner who runs a pathetic organization with a struggling GM and relatively hamstrung manager. Kansas City is a career killing franchise. Players who come here and stay bomb immediately or fizzle out eventually, there's no other option. The Royals have let player after player leave in their prime only to see them produce when they leave for other teams- Damon, Dye, Beltran, Ibanez, etc. If Greinke stays with the Royals past next year (he's under contract through 2012), he'll fizzle too. It's inevitable. Playing for the Royals is a pit stop or your last stop. Eventually losing game after game while more than upholding your end of the bargain will get psychologically old and demoralizing. He'll either fizzle or beg to be released.
Sam Mellinger wrote a somber piece in today's KC Star that captures the tragedy of Greinke's entrapment in KC. One statement that summed it up for me-
The Royals have turned the game’s best pitcher — a 26-year-old phenom on a club-friendly contract — into a symbol of their own special brand of fail. How many franchises could do that?
Please Dayton Moore, do the right thing for this young man's career and legacy- trade him to a team that is serious.
I'd love to see him in pinstripes...wouldn't you?
Update: The Royals fired manager Trey Hillman late today, which means little for Greinke's predicament.
4 comments:
Wow! There's a baseball team in KC???
Pinstripes would do the young lad some good.
I bet you saw Jack Harry blasting Glass! He called him a "cheap Walmart" something? But anyway as Harry does in his own magical way, he blasted Glass and told him to get out of the Baseball business. It’s funny, I could care less about sports, but Cheri and I never miss sports with Jack Harry! He tells it like it is, no spin, no sugar coating, anyone and everyone is fair game.
Truly sad stuff. Boy would look good in an Atlanta Braves uniform.
Post a Comment