Has the Whole World Gone Crazy?!?!?

Summoning Walter Sobchak, I’ve been asking myself this question repeatedly since Buster Olney “broke the news” about the Royals listening to offers for Zack Greinke.  Worse yet, the Royals own website corroborates the shenanigans with its own entry of this “landmark” story.

Good grief gang, I leave town for a couple of months and the whole world goes crazy!  Down is up, up is down!  How on earth could Olney’s “breaking news” cause such mass hysteria in Royal-Land?  Thanks goodness KoK’s own Michael Engel is here to inject some reasonable dialogue into what has quickly turned a non-story into complete and utter silliness.  His entry on this very subject is a dynamite read and is certainly  worth your time.

But when I read things like, “I heard from a confidante today “I will be shocked if Zack signs an extension..,in fact I will tell you to take that out of the conversation because he will be traded. Maybe not this winter but he will be traded.”, I have to shake my head in complete and utter disbelief.  Zack is under contract for the next TWO YEARS!  Heck, I’d be shocked too if the guy signed an extension!  Take it out of the conversation?  When did an extension even enter the conversation?  He’s under contract for the next two years folks, take it easy.  Zack will be traded?  Bravo Nostradamus, bravo.  You know more than all of us.  Zack is a year removed from winning the AL’s Cy Young and it seems that ever since he actually had the audacity in August to speak his mind about the future, people cannot wait to be rid of him.  Insanity.

I know it’s looking like it’s going to be a slow offseason, but this kind of talk is bordering on the absurd.  As Michael Engel already pointed out, we hold all the cards here, and while Dayton Moore likes to keep his cards pretty close to his chest, it doesn’t take a Harvard think tank to know what the entire reasonable baseball world knows:  Unless we’re completely blown away by an offer, Greinke isn’t going anywhere for a good little while.  So everyone, please, settle down.

Unfortunately this is often not a reasonable baseball world.  Giants fan thinks a Zito for Greinke trade is fair.  Yankee fan thinks a Joba for Greinke trade is fair.  Twins fan thinks a Delmon for Greinke trade is fair(cough, cough, seriously Twins fans, you have got to be completely out of your freaking collective minds if you think Greinke is going to be traded within our division for anything less than half of your top prospects, a couple potential all-stars from your parent club, some cash, a few dozen Land Rovers, some property in Barbados, a lock of Billy Dee Williams’s hair and a can of French cut magic beans).  The Giants, the Yankees, the Twins, the Cubs, the Rays… this is just the tip of the iceberg.  I’ve seen blog entries covering just about every team speculating on what it would take to get Greinke and in nearly every case, common sense has taken a backseat to complete and utter insanity.  I almost expect this sort of irrational thought from those not part of Royal Fandom, but when I read this kind of nonsense from within the Royals blogosphere and “legitimate” media, it’s enough to cause my blood to boil and my skin to crawl.  Again, everyone, please, settle down.

Now if Dayton pulls the trigger on a massive deal in a couple of weeks involving Greinke and the New York Yankees, I’ll eat my words, but until then, I’m going to “mark it zero” and enjoy the rest of what has been thus far, a terrific MLB Playoffs.