Don't get too excited, Yankee fans. He's headed to Milwaukee, at least for now.
16 replies on “Greinke Traded”
It will be interesting to see what his numbers are in the NL. He was about league average last year. Did they figure him out from his lights out 2009 season?
When I saw this on MLBTR this morning I nearly FLIPPED! I have to be honest, my biggest fear was that he’d go to the Rangers. Without Greinke the Rangers are pretty much on the same level as the Yankees, barring any drastic changes. I think the thing that separated them last season was their secondary pitching. After Lee they are solid, but now those secondary pitchers become their primary pitchers and honestly unless Feliz comes back to the rotation there is no real #1 in that group. (Maybe Holland some day, but not now)
As far as him coming to the Yankees, I never wanted it nor did I think it’d happen. He was an awful fit (personality and make up wise) for the Yankees.
The Brewers have trade a huge chunk of their future for 2 pitchers in Marcum and Greinke. Cain, Lawrie, Jeffress (suspended, but at one time threw 100) and their starting SS who was their #1 prospect going into last season. 2011 should be their best shot to contend (unless something crazy happens) as Fielder and Weeks (off top of my head) are both FA’s after the season. That’s a good team for 2011, solid rotation for sure with Gallardo, Greinke and Marcum. Plus Braun, Fielder, Weeks, McGahee, Gomez…that’s a solid NL team.
Man, I would have loved for the Yanks to get him, but I think there are reports saying that Greinke’s family didn’t want him to come to New York. So now the Brewers are another team with a better starting rotation than the Yanks, at least on paper. This has been an interesting offseason.
As someone who has a family member with social anxiety I’m happy for him and for the Yankees. Sure he’s certainly talented enough, but I’d worry about him in New York. I think the Brewers are a good fit for him.
Just food for thought:
Now that the Royals have traded 2 of their top 4 most expensive players (Betancourt and Greinke) I wonder if they’d be open to moving Soria? He’s a FA* after the 2011 season and he is due to make $4M this season. The club has options for 2012-14, but more than doubles by 2014. All along I have read that the Royals wanted players (in return for Greinke) that had no service time so that they could contend 2012, 2013, etc…I wonder if the Yankees could pry him away? What if they offered to take Gil Meche off their hands? He’s due to make $12M this season. He’s a definite risk, but he might be the only way to get Soria. Just thinking out loud.
What type of prospect package would you be willing to offer for Soria?
“…Don’t get too excited, Yankee fans…”
count me among the yf’s that don’t consider this a great loss…like john, i too have a family member that suffers from the disorder, and i would be concerned about him in the ny pressure-cooker…not from a pitching perspective, but from the human side…anybody who understands the symptoms, [webmd has a good description] would recognize that ny is a bad fit…i give him great credit for being able to pitch on any stage frankly, and i wish him well…
This article from Joe Posnanski is really excellent. He knows Greinke well, and it isn’t clear that NYC would have been the wrong fit. We just won’t know, though, and certainly I believe that Greinke needs to play where his mind is settled, this is an issue of mental health and of supreme importance. http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/12/16/being-there-with-greinke/
I saw that article a couple of days ago and thought about posting it. I thought his overall point was especially important, although I’d disagree with the idea that Posnanski “knows” Greinke well. I mean, I’m nitpicking a sentence by you, SF, but one of Posnanski’s points is that he doesn’t know Greinke, that he’s a particularly difficult person to read, even from up close, and that can be said for most people. And drawing conclusions about what is the best possible working and living environment for him or any other person, especially on the basis of a label of mental illness, is exceedingly difficult.
maybe sf…we won’t know…at least not for now…maybe he can separate his life on the mound from his life off the mound, which the article suggests, but i wouldn’t want to see him have to deal with the off the mound bullspit that comes from playing in a place like ny, where sometimes it seems like you’re not even allowed a hiccup…
Fair enough, Nick. I should have said that Posnanski has followed Greinke, he was the KC beat writer prior to SI, I think, and has been “near” him. But your point is correct.
Posnanski is great, as an aside.
This doesn’t disappoint me at all. And it sucks much more for the Texas Rangers than for the NYY. My understanding all along was that Greinke had NY on his no-trade list and that the yankee FO had determined they were’t going to make a push for him. Both sides having indicated they had no interest in the other, I never considered Greinke a possibility – even a remote one. He is moving to a similaryl-sized (small) stage…
The Royals pulled in quite a haul for Greinke. If the trade stands as it has been detailed.
Alcides Escobar was their #1 prospect in 2010. He had an unimpressive first season but still has a great glove and tremendous speed. Lorenzo Cain should be a solid regular, has great speed, upside could mean 40 SB’s. Jake Odorizzi was the Brewers #5 prospect, RHP tops out at 94. He’s a #4-#5 type, with big upside as he struck out over 10 K/9 last year. Jeffress was their #3 prospect, throws absolute gas tops out at 100.
This means for Marcum and Greinke the Brewers have traded 3 of their top 5 prospects, as well as their starting 24 year old SS.
It’s my opinion and I am surely not going out on the limb here, but the Royals are poised for some really good seasons if these prospects can pan out. They seem to be built very similarly to the way the Rays were. Their top 7 propsects (not counting the Greinke trade) are all 9’s (Elite Player – a ranking given to them by Baseball HQ)and scheduled to be up 2012 or sooner.
Nick, the Royals seem to be set at C (Wil Myers) 1B (Billy Butler and Eric Hosmer) 2B (Christian Colon) 3B (Moustakas) SS (Alcides Escobar) and SP (Montgomery, etc…)
The one weak spot they seem to have is in the OF. They only have one OF’r in their top 15 prospects list. The traded for Cain, they already have Melky, Alex Gordon, Frenchy and assorted other 4th OF’r types (Gregor Blanco, etc…)
The Yankees have Slade Heathcott, Ramon Flores, Kelvin DeLeon all OF’s and all listed on their top 15 prospect list. All of them are high 8’s/low 9’s and should be ready by no later than 2013.
The best thing about Soria other than being so darn good, is that he’s young enough (26)to step in for Mo when he retires and he’s under team control through 2014 with club options in ’12, 13 and ’14. Taking on either Kendall or Meche would certainly make this more appealing to the Royals as they (Kendall and Meche) are the last of their high priced veteran players.
Their highest paid players prior to any moves are: Greinke, Meche (owed $12M for 2011), Betancourt, Soria and Kendall. Leaving them with Frenchy as their highest paid player at $2.5M for just 2011. If you just traded your best player for future talent and your surely not going to compete in 2011 why not continue the youth movement and trade your final ML commodity.
This seems to make a lot of sense, at least to me. The only thing that makes more sense is possibly waiting until the deadline.
> Don’t get too excited
Three things more exciting than this Yankees off-season: any three things other than this Yankees off-season.
Good move for the Yanks to NOT get Greinke. This kid is a ticking time bomb, and will never have another 2009ish season.
16 replies on “Greinke Traded”
It will be interesting to see what his numbers are in the NL. He was about league average last year. Did they figure him out from his lights out 2009 season?
When I saw this on MLBTR this morning I nearly FLIPPED! I have to be honest, my biggest fear was that he’d go to the Rangers. Without Greinke the Rangers are pretty much on the same level as the Yankees, barring any drastic changes. I think the thing that separated them last season was their secondary pitching. After Lee they are solid, but now those secondary pitchers become their primary pitchers and honestly unless Feliz comes back to the rotation there is no real #1 in that group. (Maybe Holland some day, but not now)
As far as him coming to the Yankees, I never wanted it nor did I think it’d happen. He was an awful fit (personality and make up wise) for the Yankees.
The Brewers have trade a huge chunk of their future for 2 pitchers in Marcum and Greinke. Cain, Lawrie, Jeffress (suspended, but at one time threw 100) and their starting SS who was their #1 prospect going into last season. 2011 should be their best shot to contend (unless something crazy happens) as Fielder and Weeks (off top of my head) are both FA’s after the season. That’s a good team for 2011, solid rotation for sure with Gallardo, Greinke and Marcum. Plus Braun, Fielder, Weeks, McGahee, Gomez…that’s a solid NL team.
Man, I would have loved for the Yanks to get him, but I think there are reports saying that Greinke’s family didn’t want him to come to New York. So now the Brewers are another team with a better starting rotation than the Yanks, at least on paper. This has been an interesting offseason.
As someone who has a family member with social anxiety I’m happy for him and for the Yankees. Sure he’s certainly talented enough, but I’d worry about him in New York. I think the Brewers are a good fit for him.
Just food for thought:
Now that the Royals have traded 2 of their top 4 most expensive players (Betancourt and Greinke) I wonder if they’d be open to moving Soria? He’s a FA* after the 2011 season and he is due to make $4M this season. The club has options for 2012-14, but more than doubles by 2014. All along I have read that the Royals wanted players (in return for Greinke) that had no service time so that they could contend 2012, 2013, etc…I wonder if the Yankees could pry him away? What if they offered to take Gil Meche off their hands? He’s due to make $12M this season. He’s a definite risk, but he might be the only way to get Soria. Just thinking out loud.
What type of prospect package would you be willing to offer for Soria?
“…Don’t get too excited, Yankee fans…”
count me among the yf’s that don’t consider this a great loss…like john, i too have a family member that suffers from the disorder, and i would be concerned about him in the ny pressure-cooker…not from a pitching perspective, but from the human side…anybody who understands the symptoms, [webmd has a good description] would recognize that ny is a bad fit…i give him great credit for being able to pitch on any stage frankly, and i wish him well…
This article from Joe Posnanski is really excellent. He knows Greinke well, and it isn’t clear that NYC would have been the wrong fit. We just won’t know, though, and certainly I believe that Greinke needs to play where his mind is settled, this is an issue of mental health and of supreme importance.
http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/12/16/being-there-with-greinke/
I saw that article a couple of days ago and thought about posting it. I thought his overall point was especially important, although I’d disagree with the idea that Posnanski “knows” Greinke well. I mean, I’m nitpicking a sentence by you, SF, but one of Posnanski’s points is that he doesn’t know Greinke, that he’s a particularly difficult person to read, even from up close, and that can be said for most people. And drawing conclusions about what is the best possible working and living environment for him or any other person, especially on the basis of a label of mental illness, is exceedingly difficult.
maybe sf…we won’t know…at least not for now…maybe he can separate his life on the mound from his life off the mound, which the article suggests, but i wouldn’t want to see him have to deal with the off the mound bullspit that comes from playing in a place like ny, where sometimes it seems like you’re not even allowed a hiccup…
Fair enough, Nick. I should have said that Posnanski has followed Greinke, he was the KC beat writer prior to SI, I think, and has been “near” him. But your point is correct.
Posnanski is great, as an aside.
This doesn’t disappoint me at all. And it sucks much more for the Texas Rangers than for the NYY. My understanding all along was that Greinke had NY on his no-trade list and that the yankee FO had determined they were’t going to make a push for him. Both sides having indicated they had no interest in the other, I never considered Greinke a possibility – even a remote one. He is moving to a similaryl-sized (small) stage…
The Royals pulled in quite a haul for Greinke. If the trade stands as it has been detailed.
Alcides Escobar was their #1 prospect in 2010. He had an unimpressive first season but still has a great glove and tremendous speed. Lorenzo Cain should be a solid regular, has great speed, upside could mean 40 SB’s. Jake Odorizzi was the Brewers #5 prospect, RHP tops out at 94. He’s a #4-#5 type, with big upside as he struck out over 10 K/9 last year. Jeffress was their #3 prospect, throws absolute gas tops out at 100.
This means for Marcum and Greinke the Brewers have traded 3 of their top 5 prospects, as well as their starting 24 year old SS.
It’s my opinion and I am surely not going out on the limb here, but the Royals are poised for some really good seasons if these prospects can pan out. They seem to be built very similarly to the way the Rays were. Their top 7 propsects (not counting the Greinke trade) are all 9’s (Elite Player – a ranking given to them by Baseball HQ)and scheduled to be up 2012 or sooner.
Nick, the Royals seem to be set at C (Wil Myers) 1B (Billy Butler and Eric Hosmer) 2B (Christian Colon) 3B (Moustakas) SS (Alcides Escobar) and SP (Montgomery, etc…)
The one weak spot they seem to have is in the OF. They only have one OF’r in their top 15 prospects list. The traded for Cain, they already have Melky, Alex Gordon, Frenchy and assorted other 4th OF’r types (Gregor Blanco, etc…)
The Yankees have Slade Heathcott, Ramon Flores, Kelvin DeLeon all OF’s and all listed on their top 15 prospect list. All of them are high 8’s/low 9’s and should be ready by no later than 2013.
The best thing about Soria other than being so darn good, is that he’s young enough (26)to step in for Mo when he retires and he’s under team control through 2014 with club options in ’12, 13 and ’14. Taking on either Kendall or Meche would certainly make this more appealing to the Royals as they (Kendall and Meche) are the last of their high priced veteran players.
Their highest paid players prior to any moves are: Greinke, Meche (owed $12M for 2011), Betancourt, Soria and Kendall. Leaving them with Frenchy as their highest paid player at $2.5M for just 2011. If you just traded your best player for future talent and your surely not going to compete in 2011 why not continue the youth movement and trade your final ML commodity.
This seems to make a lot of sense, at least to me. The only thing that makes more sense is possibly waiting until the deadline.
> Don’t get too excited
Three things more exciting than this Yankees off-season: any three things other than this Yankees off-season.
Good move for the Yanks to NOT get Greinke. This kid is a ticking time bomb, and will never have another 2009ish season.