Diamondbacks righty Zack Greinke again showed less-than-ideal velocity in his latest spring outing, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic writes. The veteran hurler did push over 90 at times, but fell back to the 86 to 88 mph range later in his start. Still, pitching coach Mike Butcher said Greinke is “right where he needs to be at this point,” suggesting that the heat could still build over camp. As Piecoro explains, there’s plenty more to Greinke’s game than velocity, though clearly more is generally better. Last year, Greinke averaged 91.3 mph with his four-seamer and 90.7 with his two-seam fastball, both of which were career lows, but only by a half of a mile per hour or so.
Here’s more from the NL West:
- The Rockies are giving a real look at young righty Antonio Senzatela in their suddenly wide-open rotation battle, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding writes. Though he only managed seven starts at Double-A last year, owing to a conservative course of care for shoulder soreness, Senzatela has impressed this spring. With Colorado seeking to fill two jobs, the 22-year-old could be in the running. While it seems likely he’ll have rather strict innings limits for the upcoming season, Senzatela could conceivably be of greater utility early on. Manager Bud Black praised his repeatable mechanics and  ability to spot multiple pitches in the zone, which led to some “funny swings” in his most recent outing.
- Meanwhile, the Rockies have continued to decline to consider large raises for their pre-arb players, with Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reporting that the organization renewed several important youngsters. Shortstop Trevor Story, outfielder David Dahl, catcher Tom Murphy, and righties Chad Bettis and Jon Gray were all renewed after failing to agree with the team’s proposed numbers. Story and Gray each got marginal raises over the minimum, earning $540K apiece; it’s not clear what the remaining players will get. Colorado has long drawn the ire of agents for its approach to setting pre-arb salaries, though it’s entirely within the rules to handle things this way.
- It’s a similar situation with the Dodgers, though young stars Corey Seager and Joc Pederson will earn somewhat more than their peers in Colorado. As Heyman reports, both players were renewed after highly productive seasons, with Seager receiving $575K and Pederson checking in at $555K. Though the latter was nearly as productive offensively as the former, and is one service class ahead, the club likely saw fit to recognize Seager’s NL Rookie of the Year nod and third-place finish in the MVP voting. Meanwhile, exciting young southpaw Julio Urias was also renewed, per J.P. Hoornstra of the Orange County Register. He’ll receive $540K during whatever portion of the season he ends up playing in the majors.
Greinke will wind up being one of the worst free agent signings in history.
No offense buddy, but Jason Heyward might pass him for the worst.
Bat speed for a hitter is much more important than Pitch velocity for a pitcher.
Either way it’s still only been 1 year for both of them. Maybe they’ll turn it around
He looks absolutely helpless in the box, like Bernie Mac in Mr. 3000.
Haha
Yeah good point! If Heyward doesn’t turn it around then he’ll be number two or three of the worst contracts in history. I imagine it’ll be easier for the Cubs to absorb that kind of money loss then it will be for the Diamondbacks if they both turned out to be flops
Totally forgot about Heyward.
Because of the length, money, and expectations relative to the market, he certainly could be. But Greinke is still incredibly talented (if not a bit of a space cadet).
Let’s not write off major signings like Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mo Vaughn, Mike Hampton, and Josh Hamilton. Those guys provided nearly nothing (or less) and were signed for comparatively similar amounts, relative to the markets of the time.
“space cadet?” Greinke is possibly the most thoughtful, intense and intelligent people playing the game right now. He’s the exact opposite of a “space cadet,” frankly.
Interesting how the players fans don’t agree with get those labels who speak isn’t it? Bill lee was another, who was probably more of a space cadet, tho was and still is capable of some type of thoughtful dialect on certain topics if anyone has ever listened to him lately.
Ellsbury has produced 8 rWar since signing with the Yankees, over which time they have paid him $64m. Going by the $8m/WAR metric I always see people through out there, he has been paid exactly what he has been worth. He has been fine.
Now granted, he is aging and can be expected to be worse over the next four years than he has been over the past three, but it is severely premature to lump him in with the worst of all time. He will have to tank severely for him to enter that conversation.
8/war is relative to current prices. It would be lower when he signed.
Well what was the thing back then, 7? Anyway, the later seasons should match up with the later pricing. Like say if revenue and team salary suddenly jumped up tenfold this year and they Yankees started carrying a $2B payroll and the “market value” or whatever became $80/WAR, then Ellsbury giving you 2 WAR at $21m over the next 4 years would be a huge steal. So if the price keeps for a WAR keeps inflating, which it will I assume with revenue and payroll increasing, long term deals that seemed very inflated will seem less so. See NBA contracts from a couple of years ago for an exaggerated version of this.
We are all aging. I just aged while typing this. I think we should just say “old”
Carl Crawford
Barry Zito
More recently, Matt Cain.
Awful part of the trade to Dodgers! What a waste! Was so talented!
Nick Swisher.
Mike Hampton is one of the worst pitching contracts ever.
Don’t forget about Pelfrey
Pelfrey was just two seasons.
Two seasons of overpaid trainwreckage
Two years at what, 16 million? It wasn’t a good contract because Pelfrey has never been good but contracts like the Pujols or Hampton ones are far more egregious. The Cuban guys – Castillo, arrebuerenna (I know I spelled that wrong), Kennedy, oliveras, Tomas have all ended up as pretty bad contracts too.
I get your point, I was being sarcastic to a certain extent. There are obviously different levels of bad deals. Pelfrey is just comical because like you said he was never good. At least Pujols, Grienke, and some others were good/deserving at one point.
Looks like it might be the same unresolved shoulder issue/injury that shut Greinke down last September. I don’t have high expectations for the Dbacks, but if Greinke has a shoulder problem and is ineffective or is lost…the Dbacks will be competing for a top draft pick again. A shoulder issue w/ $157M left could devastate that franchise for years to come. And ->Mike Butcher…how does he still have a coaching job?
Hardly think so. Even with the commitment to Grienke, the D’Backs still have one of lowest payrolls in MLB.
Maybe not “devastated”, but almost certainly a major hindrance to putting a competitive product on the field. The money committed to Greinke can’t now be used to attract cornerstone pieces to the roster or give enough roster flexibility to add depth or take on a questionable contract to secure younger talent or lock up increasingly expensive arb players.
Instead of being a solid team in the NL West capable of competing for the WC spot, they now are perpetually on the fringe between “do we add 60m in payroll and go for it” and thorough rebuild, which means losing Goldschmidt and Pollock.
Worst situation to be in.
That conclusion relies on an assumption that the D’Backs revenue can sustain nothing more than one of the smallest payrolls in MLB (#27 last I checked). Now they might not want to spend more than that if they can avoid it (the rest being gravy for ownership), but if they want to compete they almost certainly can afford to raise their payroll to somewhere closer to the middle of the pack. That’s about $50M annually north of where they are now. Enough to do a lot.
That would be true if they were already a solid team and thought a key piece or two would make a difference. But they have significant holes to fill and paying $34 million a year for $12 million worth of Greinke will affect how competitive they can be. If nothing else it greatly shortens the competitive window because to be competitive they will have to push payroll beyond their comfort level. They’ll try that for a year or two but will eventually have a fire sale and a rebuild..
And that kind of money will probably be the difference between keeping a player like Goldschmidt and making him the franchise player and trading him in his walk year.
That contract will shape how they compete until it runs out.
Their comfort level is to pay as little as possible. That is how profits are maximized. So the comfort level of any given team doesn’t really interest me.
What Grienke is “worth” doesn’t matter much in the end. The worst case scenario for the D’backs is he can pitch, but not well enough to earn a spot in the rotation. If he’s hurt, they stick him on the DL and collect on the insurance policy they no doubt have on his contract. The driving force is the competitive window begins to close for them in a few years anyway, as it does for most teams that lose their core players to free agency, or have them age out, and don’t have much of a farm.
The bottom line is the D’backs are not a poor team. They can afford to spend at least half again more than what they are now over the next few years at least. I won’t be weeping any tears in my $12 beers if they have to spend more than they would have liked to fit more pieces together.
Then again, Grienke could well regain his form and make this debate academic.
Thoughts and prayers.