Suggestion to Royals: Trade Greinke

One of my best friends lives in Kansas City. He's an aspiring sportswriter who bleeds Royal blue, so he might consider what I'm about to say as blasphemous. Yet what I have to say needs to be said: The Royals should trade Zack Greinke. Now, that's a hard idea to throw at somebody who calls Greinke the best pitcher in baseball, but the game's best pitcher can fetch a fistful of great prospects for the game's worst. And, let's face it, the Royals need talent. I sat at Progressive Field last Friday night and watched Greinke pitch against the Indians, and as he's done all season, he crafted a masterpiece. Greinke went seven innings and allowed one run, lowering his league-best ERA to 2.19. What did he get for his night's work? A no-decision. The Royals went on to beat the Indians, 2-1, in 12 innings. But that's not so unexpected since the Indians are playing out the season like a ballclub in a purple haze. They, too, wasted a fine pitching performance from a young arm, but they've already resigned themselves to playing for the future. Their future ain't tomorrow either. What their front office has done in disbanding a mediocre ballclub is give the Royals a blueprint of what they ought to be doing. Look at the Royals, and do you see a team loaded with talent? They have players with promise here and there, but they are a long way from holding real hopes of contending in the weak AL Central. I doubt they can expect to contend until 2012, if then. Not unless their front office takes a more unconventional route to a championship. The journey might take them to the depths of baseball, perhaps a 110-loss season. But it would be worth the disaster of a season if the organization can expect to win a division championship or two anytime in the next decade. And what does that have to do with Greinke? Everything. The Royals can finish dead last without him. He's a gem of a talent, the Hope diamond who finds himself in a hopeless situation. Greinke, 25, has enormous value to other organizations. Can you see him in Red Sox colors? Or as an Angel or Phillie or Brave? If people think Roy Halladay can bring a king's ransom for the Blue Jays, what can the Royals expect to get for Greinke, who's seven years younger and a lot cheaper than Halladay? It's hard on cash-strapped baseball teams like the Royals or Reds or Pirates to play in the financial stratosphere of the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, Mets and Cubs. It's hard for some of them to play in the same financial stratosphere as the Tigers, White Sox or even the Orioles. For teams without deep revenue streams will never be able to keep their marquee talent, which brings the discussion back to Greinke. The Royals can't afford a great pitcher on an awful ballclub. They are wasting an extraordinary talent who could bring someone else a World Series. He brings the Royals nothing except a chance to win every five games. What happens those other four games? Gil Meche is a dependable starter, someone who's more likely to win than lose a game. Outside of Meche and Greinke, everybody else from Luke Hochevar to Kyle Davies is a work in progress, and by the time they're reliable big leaguers, Greinke (and Meche) will be elsewhere. In Greinke's case, he should go elsewhere this offseason. At season's end, the Royals should post a for-sale ad on Ebay. The online auction should draw plenty of interest from teams with big bankrolls and a stacked farm system, and I doubt the Royals would come away disappointed in the bounty of talent Greinke will bring. To keep him around is pointless, even as the organization talks about proving to fans it wants to win now. Reality, though, trumps high-minded dreams. For only the most myopic fan -- and my friend falls into this category -- can see these Royals winning much of anything, aside from the No. 1 overall pick in the June draft. But whoever that No. 1 or No. 2 overall pick is, he won't be able to help until down the road, and down the road, Greinke should be wearing a different team's uniform, playing someplace where his right arm will bring flashy victories instead of heartbreaking losses or no-decisions. That's what he's done this season, and see where the Royals are: in the AL Central basement behind a team that's just as lousy as they are. The Royals will finish there again next season -- with or without Zack Greinke. If they trade Greinke, maybe 2011 or '12 can bring the franchise back into contention for something other than a No. 1 overall pick.

(Photo of Zack Greinke by Rock Chalk Jayhawk Cartographer)

Bronx zoo doesn't faze CC

OK, so I was wrong.

I didn’t believe CC Sabathia could hold up under the tabloid scrutiny and the fickleness of native New Yorkers. I thought laid-back Sabathia, cloistered during his career as an Indian, would wilt under the demands of playing in pinstripes and in leading the Yankees to a pennant.

The Yankees aren’t there yet, but if any American League team looks as if it has a division title locked up, the team is the Yankees. They can pat Sabathia, a pricy free-agent signing, on the back for his generous contribution.

Talk all you want about Roy Halladay, Zach Grienke, Felix Hernandez, Justin Verlander, Josh Beckett as frontrunners for the Cy Young Award, but ask me who I would vote for in the Cy Young derby, I would say Sabathia.

In his last outing, he matched left-hander Mark Buehrle in a duel of staff aces. Neither got the win; neither took the loss. But Sabathia did what Buehrle did: kept his club in the ballgame.

The Yankees went on to beat the White Sox in extra inning, though this isn’t my point.  What is the point is that Sabathia, with one Cy Young already to look at, has grown into a pitcher capable of greatness.

He always had the tools, even as he toiled for teams in Cleveland that didn’t have the deep lineup the free-spending Yankees do. But a pitcher can’t worry about what might happen beyond his control.

I got that message from Cliff Lee, a former Indians left-hander who also has a Cy Young as his bona fides. Lee often talked about taking the mound each start and keeping his team in the ballgame. Do that, and you’ll make a lot of people happy, he said -- media, fans and yourself.

Sabathia has succeeded in that. He’s got 15 wins  -- he goes for No. 16 tonight -- with a month left in the season. He’s staring at a 20-win season and another trip to the postseason. He has been there on a few occasions, but he’s never pitched to his greatness in any of those other opportunities.

He should this time.

I can’t see Sabathia unraveling under the postseason pressure. His experience with the Indians and Brewers should ensure the pressure of it won’t fluster him. No reason to think it will, because the way he’s handled the bright lights of Broadway, a place that can undo the strongest of men, should prove Sabathia is ready for prime time.

To Yankees fans and the New York tabloids, no time is as prime as the postseason.

 

Why did no contender pick up 'Doc'?

For all the talk you hear about teams wanting to win a title, I found it curious that no contender ponied up the talent needed to acquire Roy Halladay, as good a pitcher as any in baseball. For if any pitcher could have ensured a team a long run into the postseason, Halladay would be the one.

Before the July 31 trade deadline, I thought for sure the Phillies would swing a deal. They balked, calling the price tag for Doc Halladay too steep. So they chased and landed Cliff Lee, the reigning AL Cy Young winner. Lee has been a splendid pickup at a bargain price, and he has been a difference-maker.

Lee is no Halladay, though.

The window for picking up a player who can play in the postseason shut Monday night, but no team landed Halladay, who would have shored up any team’s playoff prospects despite his unimpressive performance in August. You always hear about the dangers of not mortgaging your short term for the long term, but the short term is what fills ballparks. No one cares about how deep a franchise is in Minor League talent, because that talent might never reach the bigs.

So when you’re close to making the postseason like the Red Sox, the Rangers, the Angels, the Rockies, the Brewers and the Astros are, adding a piece like Halladay could have been the difference between showering in champagne or watching October baseball on ESPN.

Halladay, who would have had to first clear waivers, was too dependable an ace for a team not to let the Blue Jays comb through its farm system and pluck its finest talent.

I have never favored foregoing now for tomorrow, which is why the Indians teams in the 1990s never won a World Series. Legitimate runs at a World Series don’t come around every season – unless you’re the Yankees and have a bankroll as fat as Warren Buffett’s. The timeframe for winning a title is always narrow for teams like the Rockies and Astros and Rangers.

I know the Blue Jays were demanding a king’s ransom in exchange, but isn’t that ransom worth shelling out when someone like Doc Halladay, a No. 1 starter who toiled for a team with zero postseason aspirations this season and next, can lead the way to baseball’s promised land?

A championship carries a high price, and fans of teams that fall short of winning this season should remember their team didn’t pay that price to make it happen.