Zack Greinke to the Astros

[Eye Black]

Like so many of the stories surrounding him, this Greinke locker room speech story is great (via Andrew Joseph)...

 

[Pugger]

MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert tweets that Houston is paying about two-thirds of the roughly $75MM remaining on Greinke’s deal.

 

Certainly makes sense why the prospect return was so high.

 

So Astros get Greinke for roughly $12M/year for two more years after this year. I'm sure Brewers could afford that, but similar return is Turang/Grisham plus a couple better pitchers than the Brewers even have in the system right now (maybe Small and Kelly if they were trade-eligible).

 

Obviously I read that wrong, and Houston is paying closer to $25M/year. Man, that's a lot to give up for one aging pitcher, even one as good as Greinke.

 

How much did this trade do to empty Houston's farm? For their sake they better win it all this year.

[OldHeidelberg]

Diamondbacks are getting back Corbin Martin, J.B. Bukauskas, Seth Beer, and Josh Rojas.

 

That is certainly a "go for it" type return. Martin, Bukauskas and Beer are legit blue-chippers, and Rojas isn't too far behind.

 

I don't know anything about them but looking at the pipeline top 100 only Beer comes in at #100. They rank #4,#12, #13, and NR in the DBacks system now. I think I thought it would take Ray and Dubon in addition to about the same money coming back when we discussed Greinke a while back. That does look short now but not by as much as I thought from reading this thread yesterday.

[pacopete4]

I'm just surprised that the Dbacks didn't go all-in with their sell-off and trade Robbie Ray and a few other pieces. Might as well grab as many prospects as they can and "tank" to build again.

[Warning Track Power]

Am I out of line to think that since Houston is taking on that much of the money, over 50 mil, that they shouldn't have had to give up thaaaat much. When I saw the return I thought AZ would be chipping in much more. And when I first saw they got him without knowing the prospects I thought Houston has the money to eat the contract so likely won't have to pay the farm. Seems like they did both here, as someone else said it's an all in for the WS this year and next. Good for them and good luck, better them than Bos/NY/Cubs/LAD but also seems like a great deal for AZ.

Good God right? I had made the proposal of the Brewers acquiring Greinke, Ray and Bradley for a lesser prospect return if the Brewers offered to pay about what the Astros will be paying (roughly 2+ years, $55-$60m). I was thinking Ray, Dubon and Lutz would have gotten it done given the Brewers would've been taking on the contract.

 

I guess it shows how far off we all can be in terms of armchair GM-ing.

[Point Beer Is Best]

Like so many of the stories surrounding him, this Greinke locker room speech story is great (via Andrew Joseph)...

 

 

Man, I miss Greinke a lot. The scouting department even involved him in their draft evaluations (haven't gone back to look, but I wonder which pitchers were taken in those drafts and how they've developed).

 

While in KC, he also took a struggling hitter into the film room to watch footage of Greinke hitting a home run. "In case you forgot what that looks like."