Zack Greinke

Kansas City Royals pitcher Zack Greinke is reportedly willing to waive his no-trade clause to pitch in New York, Yahoo Sports has reported.

The report comes as a bit of a shock considering Greinke’s past bouts with depression and social anxiety disorder, but while it would seem that the pressure and spotlight would exacerbate this condition, Greinke provides an interesting alternative for the Yankees to signing Cliff Lee.

Could this move really happen? Read on as we examine the possibility.

Never chase your money.

It's an age-old gambling adage, meaning don't keep betting when your only goal is to get back what you've already lost.

MLB trade rumors are picking up steam as the annual Winter Meetings are set to begin next week.

While free agent signings will most likely take precedent after salary arbitration is complete, teams that missed out on the offseason action will surely look to make a splash in the trade market.

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So Alex Anthopoulos has found a manager in John Farrell.

Now he has to continue upgrading his team through trades and free agency.

The first thing to note is that it is highly unlikely Anthopoulos signs a Type A free agent. This is because his first-round pick is not protected, and that is what he would have to give up to sign them.

So Manny Ramirez is out of the question.

The second thing is that Anthopoulos has stated he is willing to go after Type A free agents if the price is right. I understand this, but it is highly unlikely that will happen.

Some of these players are still All-Stars in their prime. Some of them left their better days behind them and are close to retirement. But the one thing that they have in common is that they are all on the trading block.

Here are 10 former All-Stars who could be wearing new uniforms by the start of next season.

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Zack Greinke certainly finds himself on the list of players who disappointed in 2010.  After posting a 2.16 ERA and 1.07 WHIP, while striking out 9.5 batters per nine innings in 2009, he was considered one of the elite pitchers in the game.  Unfortunately, his numbers ballooned in 2010:

10 Wins
220.0 Innings
4.17 ERA
1.25 WHIP
181 Strikeouts (7.4 K/9)
55 Walks (2.3 BB/9)
.314 BABIP

Sometimes when making an effort to rebuild a team, many general managers make the mistake of choosing the best player available on the market rather than addressing one particular area where the squad is weak.

Instead of paying millions for a superstar, then trying to find out how or where a certain player will mesh with the team, the good general managers will first break down the specific needs of the club and make a checklist, then when considering any new additions, they check to make sure that each prospective player meet the required criteria.

I want to preface this by saying that I heard from a friend who was at several of the Kansas City Royals instructional league games/practices/workouts last week. All the general talk amongst Royals people was Zack Greinke and if he will be traded this offseason.

Greinke has a contract which runs through 2012, when he will be all of 29 when he reaches free agency.

For several years now, it has been Major League Baseball tradition that cash-strapped teams shop one or more of their best players during the annual Winter Meetings. Lately, the biggest deals have been for elite pitchers: The Oakland Athletics traded Dan Haren to the Arizona Diamondbacks in December 2007--a deal that included current stars in pitcher Brett Anderson and outfielder Carlos Gonzalez--and the dominoes have fallen each winter since. 

It’s been awhile since the last article in this series. I’ve been busy lately, but I’m dead set on finishing it up, and I only have this and one more to go.

One thing that seemed to spark some confusion was the subject of the last article. I had a few people asking why I didn’t include certain players.

Well, throughout each of my articles, I’ve been trying to cover any player who might have a chance at the Hall of Fame by position; with pitchers, though, there were too many to compress into one article.