by Amaury Pi Gonzalez
photo credit: sportsmockery.com of Arizona D-Backs pitcher Zack Grienke
LOS ANGELES–Earlier this week I wrote about right hander Zack Greinke about his possible signing with the Dodgers or the Giants, or that by the end of this week he would stay in the National League West and my sources were correct, He is staying in the NL West, as a matter of fact for the next 6 years, not with the Dodgers or the Giants, but with the Arizona Diamondbacks and for a total of $206.5 million dollars.
The Diamondbacks team president Tony LaRussa and general manager Dave Stewart team, with this move (in my opinion) just made the 2016 Arizona team a serious contender. The contract is the largest per year in Major League Baseball history at $34.4 million per year. Although Chicago Cubs Jake Arrieta won the NL CY Young, with Greinke finishing right behind him, it is hard to find a more dominating season than that of Zack Greinke in 2015, 19-3 with an incredible 1.66 earned run average.
The National League West, won by the Los Angeles Dodgers for the third straight season, is not necessarily the strongest of divisions. Only two teams here finished with over 500 records, Los Angeles(92-70)and San Francisco(84-78). The Arizona team finished in third place with a 79-83 record, just 5 games behind the Giants and 13 behind the Dodgers. It doesn’t take much in this division for a team like Arizona to make a move, and they just did today. No, I am not picking the Diamondbacks as the team to beat in the West, but right now, with the team they have they are a contender and Greinke is their #1 starter without a doubt. No longer will he have to live in the shadow of the great Clayton Kershaw.
By subtraction, the Dodgers are the biggest losers here, because they had the best “one-two”starting pitchers in the game,with Kershaw and Greinke, so now they are going to focus on other arms available;e like Johny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Giovany Gallardo, James Shields and others; and so are the Giants, since they will not have the dream “one-two”pitching combo of Bumgarner and Greinke. The top two starters have been taken off the block, David Price, now with Boston and Zack Greinke with the Diamondbacks, if the deal is finalized the D-Backs are now joining the party in 2016. More deals eventually will be done as the Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tennessee starting next Monday the 7th of December.
Many General Managers are keeping their powder dry and their check books open, until next week when we are bound to see lots of fireworks when it comes to free agents. Next Monday is December the 7th(Pearl Harbor Day), and many teams hope their deals will not be “a day that will live in infamy”.
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