Greinke traded to Milwaukee; Latest -- more on how it came about

[chadomac]

reillymcshane]Jim Breen from Bernie's Crew did a podcast on Baseball Prospectus talking about breaking the Greinke trade. It's pretty cool as he talks about what happened.

 

Kevin Goldstein and another guy also talk about the ramifications of the deal.

 

http://www.baseballprospe...icle.php?articleid=12626

I don't think we're as weak up the middle defensively as one of the guys said. Gomez is not mediocre, he is fantastic at defense. I also have a lot of faith in Lucroy putting in a solid year - defensively AND maybe even offensively. Lucroy was touted as a great hitter and a weak defender when he came up and I think he was a better defender than expected and a lesser hitter than expected... probably because he was so focused on getting the defense up to par.

[MNBrew]

I heard today that Rickie Weeks are Zack are neighbors.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/112198079.html

In this interview he just says they both live in Orlando and see each other a few times an offseason. Doubt they are neighbors.

I read a Greinke quote where he said they lived about five minutes from each other. He also mentioned he occasionally sees Prince, who also lives in Orlando.

Greinke went to HS in Apopka (as did Warren Sapp). Weeks went to Lake Brantley HS in Altamonte Springs (as did Jason Varitek & golfer Chris DeMarco). The two towns are adjacent and we'd drive right by Lake Brantley HS on the way to our church in Apopka for over 10 years. Thus, the "5 minutes" Greinke says jives in my book.

 

So at minimum, if Greinke & Weeks (or at least their parents) still live in the same places, that's essentially how they're neighbors. Apopka's NW of Orlando. Altamonte Springs is a little more due north.

 

Lake Brantley was about 5 minutes from our house. About 5 miles in the other direction was Lyman HS, where I thought Felipe Lopez went. But per baseball-reference.com, Lopez also went to Lake Brantley.

 

One other note: former Brewer farmhand SS Wes Weger lived just down the street from us. Seems my younger brother knew him from HS -- I didn't, though, because we didn't move back to FL 'til I was in college.

[monty57]

The realities of our system are awfully depressing if we can't resign our current big leaguers or if injuries strike. Also, I disagree about us having a 1 or 2 year window. To me this implies we are going to fall off the map after 2012 and back into a 90 loss team. I don't see that happening even in the worst case scenario. Not with Attanasio as the owner.

I don't think we're doomed to be that bad after a couple of years. I think what people mean is that, for the next two years the Brewers may have the best concentration of talent that they ever have. The team may never have this much pure talent again. That's two years to be a potential 90-win team and the two years in which this team will most likely ever win a world series. After that, some rebuilding will have to happen. I don't think we'd suddenly go back to being as bad as the Brewers of the early 2000's, but it's likely we're looking at a few years of 80 or so losses.

Agreed, but I think everyone's purely speculating until we see what magic Melvin can drum up with player extensions (Weeks, Marcum, Greinke) and until we see how well Gamel (or a FA pickup) can replace Fielder's production at 1B in 2012.

 

[strawbossisevil]

Brewer Fever]strawboss, you forgot the A's best pitcher..Brett Anderson

Looks like I did. He is projected to an ERA in the mid 3s next season. Even with his addition, that doesn't change the fact that the Brewers have a better top of the rotation IMO. I would compare the A's to the Cincinnati Reds, they are deep, but they do not have an equivalent to Greinke.

[TCSM]

Does anyone think the Brewers are going to have a sit down press conference with Greinke?

[bjkrautk]

Does anyone think the Brewers are going to have a sit down press conference with Greinke?

Press conference? Probably not.

Will Greinke be one of the centerpieces of Brewers On-Deck (1/30/2011, a week or two before single game tickets go on sale)? Absolutely.

 

[MNBrew]

Does anyone think the Brewers are going to have a sit down press conference with Greinke?

There's no need to do that. It would be 100% redundant after the "meet the media" stand-up session they just had in the clubhouse.

[bylo tesi me]

Does anyone think the Brewers are going to have a sit down press conference with Greinke?

There's no need to do that. It would be 100% redundant after the "meet the media" stand-up session they just had in the clubhouse.

 

Pure speculation on my part, but I think the reason for the unusual way the press greeting was handled was to make Greinke more comfortable. I don't want to harp on his troubles, but as someone familiar with social anxiety disorder, I know sitting on stage in front of an audience with lights and cameras can be a little intimidating and uncomfortable.

 

[GAME05]

that's a good point. i'd imagine as the Brewers organization handles things with Greinke going forward, we won't want to thrust him into situations that could be overly uncomfortable, but at the same time, not want to treat him like he's an eggshell.

 

i hope he really ends up liking Milwaukee and finds that it's the best place for him. certainly not a ton of cities to play in where you can work for an owner who truly wants to win, yet find yourself in quiet suburbia within 30 minutes from the ballpark.

[brewerfan82]

I was listening to some talk radio today comparing the excitement level among fans between the Sabathia trade a couple years ago and the Greinke trade (which was completely unfair considering the Sabathia trade was made during a midseason pennant run and this one was made during the offseason when nothing but Packer talk is going on, but that's another debate). But it seems like people are favoring that Sabathia was more of a bonafide ace upon his arrival to Milwaukee than Greinke is (mostly due to Greinke's ERA last year). Anyways, it made me wonder how their stats actually compared pre-Brewers and thought this was actually pretty interesting (previous 3 years followed by full career before Brewers):

 

		GS	CG	W	L	SHO	IP	H	BB	ERA	K/9	BB/9	HR/9	K/BB	WHIP
Sabathia	2005-07	93	11	46	28	3	630.33	605	143	3.47	7.70	2.00	0.80	3.79	1.19
Sabathia	2005-08*	96	14	46	32	5	657.00	630	146	3.41	8.20	2.00	0.82	4.09	1.18
Greinke	2008-10	98	10	39	32	3	651.67	616	162	3.25	8.40	2.20	0.69	3.74	1.19
Sabathia	2001-07	219	16	100	63	5	1406.67	1318	464	3.83	7.30	3.00	0.84	2.46	1.27
Sabathia	2001-08**	237	19	106	71	7	1529.00	1435	498	3.83	7.40	2.90	0.85	2.54	1.26
Greinke	2004-10	169	12	60	67	3	1108.00	1121	280	3.82	7.60	2.30	0.91	3.33	1.26
* July 2, 2005 to July 2, 2008
** Beginning of career to July 2, 2008

Pretty similar! Especially considering they were both in their age 27 season when joining the Brewers. In fact, I'd give Greinke the edge on those numbers. With that said, obviously Greinke hasn't been quite as consistant, but going into his age 27 season, I think we can be pretty optimistic about our new ace for the next couple years.

[GAME05]

i remember reading that Greinke had pretty much given up his slider at some point last year because he didn't want to tax his arm for a terrible team when he was also about to be traded. maybe if Milwaukee became a 90-loss team he might do that again, but that won't be next year. his relatively high numbers from last year don't bother me one bit. Greinke strikes me as a pitcher, who if he decided he was going to strike out the side, he'd strike out the side.

[thebruce44]

i remember reading that Greinke had pretty much given up his slider at some point last year because he didn't want to tax his arm for a terrible team when he was also about to be traded. maybe if Milwaukee became a 90-loss team he might do that again, but that won't be next year. his relatively high numbers from last year don't bother me one bit. Greinke strikes me as a pitcher, who if he decided he was going to strike out the side, he'd strike out the side.

His PitchFX numbers were all over the place last year. He was definetly working on stuff as opposed to trying to get a low ERA.

 

And Greinke doesn't just strike me as a pitcher who might decide to strike out the side then do it. He strikes me as a pitcher who might decide to strike out the side using only 50 mph curveballs, then do it.

[TooLiveBrew]

TH with a nice blog post on Gallardo's reaction.

Yovani Gallardo was on a holiday vacation with his family in Cozumel, Mexico when he received a text message from his brother back in Fort Worth, Texas.

 

The Brewers have traded for Zack Greinke.

 

“I couldn’t believe it at first,” said Gallardo. “I had to look at it twice.”

[danzig6767]

TH with a nice blog post on Gallardo's reaction.

Yovani Gallardo was on a holiday vacation with his family in Cozumel, Mexico when he received a text message from his brother back in Fort Worth, Texas.

 

The Brewers have traded for Zack Greinke.

 

“I couldn’t believe it at first,” said Gallardo. “I had to look at it twice.”

I have nothing to back up this opinion besides a gut feeling, but i really feel like Gallardo is going to be better this coming season than his last two seasons which were pretty good in themselves. Less walks from Yovani leading to him going deeper into games and an ERA in the 3.00-3.25 range. If so, with health among our rotation, Gallardo could hit the 200 innings mark, Greinke should be over 200, Wolf has thrown 200 plus innings in back to back years, and Marcum threw 195 innings last year.

 

Compared to our rotation last season which consistently forced Macha to ask the bullpen to cover around 4 innings or more, this should leave our bullpen much fresher through the season.

[thebruce44]

TH with a nice blog post on Gallardo's reaction.

Yovani Gallardo was on a holiday vacation with his family in Cozumel, Mexico when he received a text message from his brother back in Fort Worth, Texas.

 

The Brewers have traded for Zack Greinke.

 

“I couldn’t believe it at first,” said Gallardo. “I had to look at it twice.”

I have nothing to back up this opinion besides a gut feeling, but i really feel like Gallardo is going to be better this coming season than his last two seasons which were pretty good in themselves. Less walks from Yovani leading to him going deeper into games and an ERA in the 3.00-3.25 range. If so, with health among our rotation, Gallardo could hit the 200 innings mark, Greinke should be over 200, Wolf has thrown 200 plus innings in back to back years, and Marcum threw 195 innings last year.

There is a lot to back it up, like Yo's 3.02 FIP last season. The problem is that the defense has probably gotten worse, but I do agree that having some pressure off him will help. For what its worth, I expect his wins to increase as well since the BP should be more rested as you said. He also wont have those starts where he needs to pitch 6+ innings no matter what because the guy before him came out in the 3rd inning. The importance of that cannot be overstated.

[The Truth]

Been watching a little of Greinke lately, what little video I have of him (such as All-Star game apperances etc). He has just flithy nasty stuff. An 86 mph curveball. A 96 mph heater that rises up at the last split second. When he is on his pitches are just electric. He strikes me as the type who could throw 101 mph but eases up enough to get extra movement at 95-96 mph. Just an incredible talent. His appearance in the 2009 All-Star game was amazing

[Invader3K]

Heyman says the Brewers aren't looking at an extension with Greinke right now.

 

I really don't get this one. You would think Melvin would at least explore this, unless Greinke is adamant about hitting free agency in a couple years.

[monty57]

Invader, McCalvy has an article up on milwaukeebrewers.com with a quote from Melvin that his first comment to Greinke was something to the effect of "I feel like we just got another CC Sabathia, but instead of a few months, we have him for two years or even longer."

 

Melvin is definitely at least looking into a Greinke extension. It might not bear fruit, but it is being explored.

[Invader3K]

I suppose it's possible that they are delaying getting into any serious contract talks until closer to spring training. Perhaps right now they're simply focusing on Weeks and others right now.

[GoudaBrew]

Plus he's "been a Brewer for....2-3 weeks". I put that in quotes because he hasn't done any team activities yet. I'd let him get accustomed to his teammates and coaches, let him pitch for a month or two in Milwaukee then see where he is on an extension. It's a major life decision. Best not to rush these things.

[jerichoholicninja]

I would hope both sides wait till next offseason to seriously discuss this. Zack could blow out his shoulder at any time and he would still be inexpensive under his current contract. I really don't think he could possibly improve his value any more that what it is so might as well wait till next year.

[thebruce44]

I would hope both sides wait till next offseason to seriously discuss this. Zack could blow out his shoulder at any time and he would still be inexpensive under his current contract. I really don't think he could possibly improve his value any more that what it is so might as well wait till next year.

He could tremendously improve his value by moving a year closer to free agency.

[Menace II Sobriety]

Value is a relative term in this conversation, as Greinke was quoted after his first extension that he already had all of the money he would ever need or want to spend. This is one guy who from what I have read wants to be in a situation he is comfortable in. Money is not the only factor, he just turned down the long extension from the Nationals because he didn't think they were a winner. Give him a couple of months in the NL and in Milwaukee and this is the kind of guy that could be locked up.

[GAME05]

Greinke doesn't know the city or the fans yet, either, so i could definitely see Melvin giving him some time to (hopefully) come to love it. right now we're just another team. it seems to me that the selling point about Milwaukee definitely isn't what it looks like on paper, but that for family-inclined players, it turns out to break the stereotypes and be a great place to live.

[ramssuperbowl99]

Zack is the kind of guy who is going to want to play here for a year and see how he likes it. Melvin can't just throw him a bunch of money and make him sign on the dotted line.

The best thing we can do to keep Zack around is support him as fans and extend everyone possible. The longer we keep Shaun Marcum, Rickie Weeks, and Prince Fielder around the longer Zack will want to stay. DM's pitch to him would be that through 2015 the Brewers would have Braun, Gallardo and any of those 3 to build around.