Zack Greinke

Zack Greinke has made his decision. The Cy Young Award winner and coveted free agent has agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to CBS Sports' Jon Heyman: 

greinke, dodgers in agreement.

Technically, open season on MLB free agents does not begin until the sixth day after the World Series concludes.

But you could forgive most fans for feeling like free agent season really began Friday night, with Josh Hamilton being booed off the field in his last two at-bats as the Texas Rangers bowed quietly to the Baltimore Orioles in the one-game playoff between the two American League wild cards.

One doesn't tend to think of the rivalry between the Los Angeles Angels and the Los Angeles Dodgers as being one of the great rivalries in baseball. It's certainly not Red Sox-Yankees, nor does it come close to Dodgers-Giants.

Among interleague rivalries, Angels-Dodgers isn't even close to Mets-Yankees or Cubs-White Sox. It's a territorial rivalry, to be sure, but there's not a whole lot of bad blood between the two teams themselves. 

Instead, what exists between the Angels and Dodgers is more like indifference.

Since they acquired the pitcher in a blockbuster trade in December 2010, there has been much speculation that the Brewers have a good shot at keeping Zack Greinke long term.

It has been well-documented that Brewers manager Ron Roenicke is adamant about Zack Greinke making three rehab starts prior to being activated to the Major League roster.

If tonight's start was any indication, Greinke will be ready sooner rather than later. Greinke started tonight for the Milwaukee Brewers' Class-A affiliate, the Brevard County Manatees. He pitched three full innings without breaking a sweat.

It was recently announced that the Milwaukee Brewers acquired Yankees' pitcher Sergio Mitre in a deal that sent outfielder Chris Dickerson to New York in return.

At the moment, this seems like a win-win situation for both teams: New York announced that Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia will round out the rotation, and Bartolo Colon will move to the bullpen, most likely as a long reliever, a role which Mitre possessed last season.

The Milwaukee Brewers enter the 2011 season with high hopes and expectations of contending in the National League Central.

The Brewers have gone all in this year. They held onto first baseman Prince Fielder, who will be a free agent after the season, and made a splash with offseason acquisitions such as Zack Greinke, Shaun Marcum and Takashi Saito.

This is Part 2 of a two-part series in which I will analyze a current Cy Young Predictor formula.  I offer a replacement formula to account for the change in philosophy for the Cy Young voters with the growing influence of new-age statistics (sabermetrics) and use this new formula to project the Cy Young race in 2011 and beyond.

Injuries are a part of any sport, and baseball is no exception.

Injuries can change a team’s ideas and plans, alter division standings and cause managers infinite frustration.

The regular season has not started in baseball, but there have already been many significant injuries.  Not all injuries are the same.  Like anything else in this world, some are more important than others.

Most Milwaukee Brewers fans were thrilled with the offseason acquisition of former American League Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke. Following the trade for Toronto ace Shaun Marcum, the move helped address the Brewers' biggest weakness from 2010.

There were concerns regarding the trade. The Brewers sent two starters and two top prospects to the Royals in exchange for Greinke, leaving the farm system depleted and creating some depth problems on the big league club.