Greinke in Game 1
The quiet righthander and fantasy football freak looks to bounce back against the Yankees in Game 1
A man with a penchant for fantasy football trades gets another chance to validate the deadline deal that brought him here.
Zack Greinke is a trade shark. He silently stalks the Astros clubhouse, affixed to an iPhone while formulating his next move.
“He’s having a down year now,” Will Harris said, “so he’s trying to mix things up.”
The fantasy football team Greinke drafted seven weeks ago will not win. Wholesale changes are necessary on a week-to-week basis. The trades he requests within the Astros’ league are almost innumerable.
“Most I’ve ever seen,” reliever Brad Peacock said. “He loves trading. He just loves it.”
Peacock relies on an Astros clubhouse attendant for most of his team’s personnel decisions. Greinke recently offered them a quarterback and backup flex player for Oakland Raiders tight end Darren Waller. Team Peacock declined.
“We just couldn’t get it done,” Peacock said. “Can’t get rid of one of our best players.”
Last week, Harris had Texans wide receiver Will Fuller on the block. The reliever extended an offer. Greinke declined. Fuller caught three touchdowns against the Atlanta Falcons that weekend.
“He’s kicking himself for that one,” Harris said. “The one trade he didn’t take.”
Outfielder Jake Marisnick acknowledges some of Greinke’s proposals are “questionable.” Such is life after authoring a belowaverage draft.
“He offers fair deals,” said Alex Bregman, Greinke’s most frequent trade partner. “He’s smart. He knows the game. He’s definitely into it a lot. We both are.”
Two months into his Astros tenure, Greinke’s most apt label is fantasy football freak. The Show Stros league has aided his Astros transition, one that by all accounts has been seamless.
“I think it didn’t take him long,” Bregman said. “He’s a great dude.”
Greinke talks fishing with Peacock and has golfed with Harris. Occasionally, he’s joined the clubhouse card game, cracking a smile or a celebratory fist pump when he wins a hand.
“We’re pretty welcoming in here when people come in, letting them be themselves,” Marisnick said. “He can join the card games or do whatever or he can keep to
himself. We’re not going to judge him either way. He’s been pretty open.”
Words are still few. Conversations, at least in the public eye, are brief. Two-minute long news conferences preceding each of his first two postseason starts served little purpose other than fulfilling a league obligation. Clubhouse banter and relationships are more relaxed.
Greinke, who has revealed his struggles with social anxiety disorder, uttered 68 words in response to six questions on Friday, one day
before he opposes the Yankees in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.
“What you see is what you get,” George Springer said. “He’s a great teammate, one. He wants to win. It’s all right if he’s quiet, it’s really not a big deal to us. He’s into the game, so that’s pretty much all that matters.”
Manager A.J. Hinch has often extolled the virtues of the clubhouse “culture” Greinke entered in July, one that accepts everyone and maintains one stated goal.
“The best thing that helps the
culture is winning,” Hinch said last week. “That’s what’s happened here over the last five years. But the consistency of guys being able to get their work in, have some space to themselves whenever they need it.
“But when we go on the field at 7:00, every single guy knows what’s expected of him.
Expectations enveloping Greinke are enormous. General manager Jeff Luhnow gave away a small fortune of farm talent to acquire the 35-year-old ace at the trade deadline. Hope existed he could follow Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole to form the most terrifying starting pitching trio in recent memory.
In 10 regular-season starts with the Astros, Greinke had a 3.02 ERA, fantastic for most teams but only adequate when following Verlander and Cole. He is the stylistic opposite of both rotation-mates, opting for finesse instead of fire. Location and mixing of his four pitches are paramount.
Questions remain about Greinke’s checkered postseason past. An awful outing against the Rays in Game 3 of the American League Division Series inflated his ERA to 4.58 in 12 starts. Feel for his changeup was wretched. Tampa Bay struck three home runs against him in 3⅔ innings.
An 11-day layoff between starts offered a convenient excuse, but neither Greinke nor Hinch used it. Greinke relies so heavily on pinpoint control that one mistake mars what could be an otherwise sterling outing. Three mistakes against the Rays doomed him.
“Zack does a really good job of disrupting timing, his delivery, his movement on his pitches, the slow breaking ball, the surprise fastball, all that is the art of pitching, it’s how he does it,” Hinch said. “I’m not walking on eggshells the days he pitches because he throws 88 to 90 miles an hour.”
Neither will the Yankees. Greinke opposed them twice as a Diamondback. Both starts were superb, but neither offers much of barometer now. Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu missed both of Greinke’s starts. Aaron Judge, Edwin Encarnacion and Gio Urshela were absent in his April 30 start.
He struck out seven and spun 7⅔ spectacular innings at Chase Field that day. At Yankee Stadium on July 31 Greinke gave Arizona five innings of two-run ball.
“He’s been awesome,” Marisnick said. “The more you get to know him, he’s an awesome guy. He likes to keep to himself a little bit. He’s quiet, but everyone has their own thing in here. Some guys are loud, some guys are quiet. He tends to stay to his own thing and chimes in when he wants to, but he fits in great. We love him here.”