Escobar, Cain, Odirizzi and Jeffress for Greinke+

[ReasonablySober]

I actually feel sorry for Royals fans.

[braindazer]

Ater those pictures an extention is in order ASAP!!!!!!

[Turk Nowitzki]

Those quotes were amazing.

[Buck You]

Excited for this upcoming season, teams like the Crew don't get chances to win something bigger than 85 games and this is a chance. Hopefully it all works out.

[trwi7]

"I'd say the average person wouldn't eat a Chipotle burrito and still do his running, full speed, like me. That's why they call me special."

"Nice effort by the defense. They didn't get tired of running after balls to the wall. I was pretty impressed by that."

To Jeremy Affeldt after Affeldt gave up a homer on what he thought was a good pitch. "Really, I went back to the clubhouse and looked at the pitch on video. It was a really bad pitch. Right over the middle of the plate, and you got it up. I mean it was a bad pitch."

Affeldt: "Thanks, Zack."

Zack: "Right down the middle. I could have hit it out."

Affeldt: "Thanks, Zack."

Zack: "Yeah."

On making the Sports Illustrated cover: "There's a lot more interesting stuff going on right now. They should have something else on the cover. Playoff basketball or something else. So it's a mistake. They'll probably sell their least amount of magazines in a long time -- except when NASCAR was on the cover."

On hoping President Obama would cuss him out at the All-Star game: "Because none of the White Sox guys like me. So I was hoping that he'd recognize me and be like, 'You punk, I hate you.' But he didn't do that."

Restaurant customer:”Hey, you’re Zack Greinke, right?”
Greinke: looks at him for a second, points at a short, fat Hispanic man next to him, and says, “No. That’s Zack Greinke.”

“You don’t faze me, Gobble.” - From one of his mic’d up segment on RSTN, when he’s shagging fly balls in the outfield and Gobble runs past right as he’s about to catch one.

My favorites.

[humanrefutation]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5939738

MILWAUKEE -- Zack Greinke loves the attitude of the Milwaukee Brewers and their willingness to try to reach the postseason immediately.

"The main reason I wanted to get out, I mean, preferred to get out of Kansas City is I wanted to be on a team that was trying to win this year because as a pitcher you don't really know how long your career is going to be," Greinke said Monday, a day after he was acquired from the Royals in a six-player trade.

After winning the AL Cy Young Award with a 16-8 record and 2.16 ERA in 2009, the 27-year-old right-hander slumped to 10-14 with a 4.17 ERA last season.

"Just really wanted to be in a place where they were playing to win games right away," he said.

Since the end of the season, the Brewers also acquired Shaun Marcum to join a rotation that also includes holdover Yovani Gallardo. The new players join a core that includes All-Stars Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and Corey Hart to go along with Rickie Weeks and Casey McGehee, closer John Axford and setup man Zach Braddock.

"They've got some really good offense on the team and they seem to have like an attitude about them, and I kind of like that," said Greinke, who liked the swagger of former Brewers catcher Jason Kendall. "He was great for our team. I'm assuming that he got some of his attitude from being in this organization."

Fielder is eligible to become a free agent after the season. General manager Doug Melvin is content to keep the slugging first baseman for 2010. Fielder's agent, Scott Boras, encourages clients to become free agents to maximize value before signing.

"Realistically, we're done making major moves," Melvin said. "I envision this club with Prince being the No. 4 hitter and having a big year for us."

Melvin traded starting shortstop Alcides Escobar, center fielder Lorenzo Cain, top pitching prospect Jake Odorizzi and former first-rounder Jeremy Jeffress to the Royals for Greinke, shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and cash.

Melvin compared this trade to the one he pulled off to acquire CC Sabathia in 2008, except that Greinke has two remaining years under contract instead of a few months. Milwaukee needed a boost in its rotation after Sabathia and longtime ace Ben Sheets left as free agents after winning the NL wild card that season.

Greinke was asked if the Brewers could make a World Series run with the talent around him now.

"The division's still pretty tough," Greinke said. "It'll be tough just to get there, so if you're not first place, you've got to win the wild card. That's probably tough, too. I don't have much playoff experience, so I don't know how it all works."

Milwaukee's rotation appears to be one of the better in the NL after the Brewers gave up many of their top young players.

The Brewers have dealt their top position prospect (Brett Lawrie), top pitching prospect (Odorizzi) and two projected Opening Day starters (Escobar, Cain) to acquire Marcum and Greinke to go along with Gallardo, Randy Wolf and Chris Narveson. All five pitchers are under team control through 2012.

"We've got three Opening Day starters in our rotation right now with Marcum, Greinke and Gallardo," Melvin said. "You don't make these kind of trades without having good, quality young players. We're able to still put a team out there with every one of our starting players is under 30. Our top three starters are under 30. Our closer and setup guy are under 30. We're still a very young team. We still have a lot of young, talented players."

One of the biggest decisions new manager Ron Roenicke will have to make early is who will pitch the opener. Gallardo started Milwaukee's first game last season, while Marcum opened for the Toronto Blue Jays and Greinke for Kansas City.

"It's too early to say that," Roenicke said, laughing.

Greinke has two years left on the $38 million, four-year contract he signed with the Royals in January 2009, and he is due $13.5 million in each of the final two seasons. Greinke is 60-67 with a 3.82 ERA in six-plus seasons with the Royals. He sat out most of the 2006 season because of an anxiety disorder and considered quitting.

"Before I left baseball, and before I got on the medicine, just having to go through everything that definitely made me a stronger person," Greinke said. "After I got on the medicine, it made it a lot easier. But going through the stuff before definitely made me a lot stronger."

Greinke declined to comment on an MLB.com report that the Washington Nationals also struck an agreement to deal for him, but he used his no-trade clause to nix a trade. Milwaukee was on Greinke's no-trade list, too, even as Melvin continued working with Royals GM Dayton Moore to try to secure the right-hander.

"I'm glad I didn't give up on it," Melvin said. "I called Dayton last week and asked if there was any way we could start talking again. I knew it was going to be a costly trade. We gave up some very talented young players.

"If I was in Dayton's seat, I would have selected the players he did, too," he said. "The thing about is, we're getting a young pitcher who's 27 years old with a Cy Young Award and someone who is very energized to be in the postseason."


Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

[jimmybones]

Restaurant customer:”Hey, you’re Zack Greinke, right?”
Greinke: looks at him for a second, points at a short, fat Hispanic man next to him, and says, “No. That’s Zack Greinke.”

epic

[LUKE23]

With your wife being a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, does that mean you won’t be a Packer fan: “Actually, she doesn’t like the Cowboys. She did then but now she doesn’t for some reason. I’ve never been a Green Bay fan, though. Sorry about that. I like Aaron Rodgers for fantasy as a quarterback, but he got drafted too high in our league this year. I almost worked out a trade for him and Greg Jennings, but it fell through.”

LMAO

[A Diddy2231]

Well I'm sure he will be able to meet Rodgers and Jennings a whole lot easier now..aka at Miller Park probably

[crkone]

With your wife being a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, does that mean you won’t be a Packer fan: “Actually, she doesn’t like the Cowboys. She did then but now she doesn’t for some reason. I’ve never been a Green Bay fan, though. Sorry about that. I like Aaron Rodgers for fantasy as a quarterback, but he got drafted too high in our league this year. I almost worked out a trade for him and Greg Jennings, but it fell through.”

LMAO

So you know the difficulties involved with making trades: “Yeah. Well, the problem probably in baseball, too, is you always want to get something but you like what you have, and it’s hard to give up what you have. In fantasy football, too.”

Good stuff.

[JeffJeckal]

Since the end of the season, the Brewers also acquired Shaun Marcum to join a rotation that also includes holdover Yovani Gallardo. The new players join a core that includes All-Stars Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and Corey Hart to go along with Rickie Weeks and Casey McGehee, closer John Axford and setup man Zach Braddock.

[JayMKE]

hahaha I think I'm going to like this Greinke guy.

[UWM_Brew_Buck]

He genuinly sounds like he wants to be here. Here is a video of his interview : link

[wichmae]

I cannot be more excited right now. Im so ready for Brewer ball.

[trwi7]

I'd be more excited if we got rid of Betancourt (or didn't take him at all) and we got word that A. the Brewers were trading for another CF (likely Cameron) or B. that there would be a Dickerson/Gomez platoon instead of just saying Gomez would start.

[El Duderino]

I'd be more excited if we got rid of Betancourt (or didn't take him at all) and we got word that A. the Brewers were trading for another CF (likely Cameron) or B. that there would be a Dickerson/Gomez platoon instead of just saying Gomez would start.

I'm pretty confident that after Roenicke sees Gomez up close at the plate over any extended stretch, he'll start giving Dickerson at bats vs righthanders.

As for Betancourt, Counsell at his age may not be able to handle starting 90-100 games in a strict right/left platoon with Betancourt who does hit lefties better than righties, but i do hope that at least Counsell gets around 70 starts at shortstop. It's not ideal, but it beats seeing Betancourt playing 150 plus games.

[skones]

Greinke is pretty famous for some of his interviews........and that whole Cy Young thing.

[crkone]

Someone mentioned it on Brewfan, but his interviews with Uecker are going to be epic.

[Aaron It Out]

Cameron? Why in god's name would we get Mike Cameron? That dude was awful when he was here. His defense was pretty good but generally he sucked. I'd rather have Blowmez starting every day than see Cameron suck up 7.5 million from our payroll again.

[ReasonablySober]

Cameron? Why in god's name would we get Mike Cameron? That dude was awful when he was here. His defense was pretty good but generally he sucked. I'd rather have Blowmez starting every day than see Cameron suck up 7.5 million from our payroll again.

In his worst season here he was 6th in the NL in OPS while proving elite defense.