Zack Greinke

Forget “As the World Turns.” This is much more important. Much more dramatic.

As we continue to work our way through spring training 2011, we continue to have some interesting player updates that deserve our attention as fantasy baseball aficionados. You can call this “As the Spring Turns.” Or not.

Andrew Bailey, OAK.

It was no secret that Zack Greinke wanted out of Kansas City. Speculation arose of where he'd be traded to, if traded at all.

Would it be the New York Yankees?

Would it be the Philadelphia Phillies?

Or would he just be forced to stay put in Kansas City?

In the end he ended up in Milwaukee and is now a Brewer.

The Kansas City Royals went 67-95 last season. Greinke went 10-14 and at 4.17, he had his third highest ERA in his seven years in the big leagues.

Greinke was outstanding 2008 and 2009 season, winning the AL Cy Young in 2009. 

Spring Training is in full force now, and we now have some insight into the teams of the MLB.

This piece is second in a series of seven, each predicting the records of teams in each division and then predicting the entire postseason (the schedule for which can be found on the last slide).

Injuries continue to dominate the news, but today it is far from all bad.  We have multiple pieces of good news concerning injuries tonight as well as some bad as one of the top pitchers in baseball suffers a tough injury. There is also news of the AL Rookie of the Year and what his role will be this season, along with news and notes from today's games from Arizona and Florida on some players that you surely have questions about heading into your drafts.

Click here to enter the 2011 Fantasy Baseball Team Name Contest



Here’s an updated and expanded look at the 2011 Starting Pitcher rankings.

1.  Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies:  Led the Majors in wins (21), ranked third in WHIP (1.04), fourth in ERA (2.44), and tied for fifth in strikeouts (219). He’s the complete package.

Spring training is under way, and we can now take a much more in-depth look at what the regular season holds in store.

Last season, we were fortunate enough to watch dominating pitching take over the landscape of Major League Baseball; and this season looks to be the same.

With ample amounts of solid arms in last year's playoffs, run production (believe it or not) was few and far between for some ball clubs.

However, for a vast majority of teams without such talent on the mound, last season was a forgettable one.

This is a 2 part series in which I will analyze a current Cy Young Predictor formula, 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.

In our newest debate we compare 2009 stud Zack Greinke (ranked 7 in our 2011 Fantasy Baseball Kit) vs the Los Angeles strikeout machine Clayton Kershaw (ranked 12).

The case for drafting Greinke

No one gives you more insight into the game of baseball than Zack Greinke—probably even without him knowing it.

He tells you about going through emotional problems, his attitude before and after the problems, his Cy Young experience, his beef with the Royals, his trade demands and being a Brewer. If there is any pro ball player that does what Greinke does, let me know and I'll make a slideshow on that player.

There is a Facebook fan group that has all of his quotes, and he didn't waste any time in Milwaukee continuing his great quote streak.

Spring Training reminds us why we love the game of baseball.

Like a beautiful plant, it sprouts in the spring, blooms in the summer and is put to rest in the fall.

The beginning of camp always brings the promise that this is the year that we can go all the way. Milwaukee Brewers fans have added hope this spring after years of frustration. GM Doug Melvin rebuilt the starting rotation with two major offseason acquisitions.

He first traded one of the Brewers top prospects, Brent Lawrie, to the Blue Jays for Shawn Marcum.