Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
It is now secret that the Los Angeles Dodgers have two of the best pitchers in all of fantasy baseball. They rotation is led by two-time National League Cy Young Award winner, Clayton Kershaw, who is widely considered the best pitcher in fantasy. The super southpaw is backed up by the 2009 American League Cy Young Award Winner, Zack Greinke, who posted an equally impressive 2.63 ERA last year with a 15-4 record.
However, as I look through the stats form 2013 and watch some film on Greinke, there are some things that are concerning.
For starters, Greinke has missed significant time due to injury in two of the past three seasons. He has already missed time this spring with a calf injury and the veteran isn’t even close to being in game shape. He has a long way to go until he is strong enough to throw a full game and the right-hander is in jeopardy of missing his first start of the season.
Greinke will also be turning 31 years old in the middle of the season, which throws up even more red flags. Most aging starters start to loose a little something after 30 and Greinke has seen a drastic decrease in velocity ever since his 2009 CY Young season.
His fastball averaged 93.7 MPH in that historic season, but the velocity on his heater has dropped each year since. Greinke’s heater averaged just 91.7 MPH last year, and at times, it was very hittable. If his fastball is even slower this season, it could be a serious problem.
Greinke is still a top-20 hurler, but there are several things to consider before grabbing him as a second fantasy pitcher. He isn’t the elite option he was once and the veteran will come with some serious injury concern this season, so make sure to be careful before reaching for Greinke this season.
Adam McGill is the Senior Fantasy Sports Writer at Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @adammcgill83, like him on Facebook, or add him to you networks on Google here or here.
