Unique Greinke brings D-backs instant credibility
PHOENIX -- In the midst of his fantastic scoreless streak last season, Zack Greinke was named starter for the National League in the All-Star Game. The day before, he showed up for a press conference.
"Zack, you want to say a few words?" he was asked.
"No," Greinke responded.
Such is the Greinke way. He tells it like he sees it and isn't afraid to offend, though that is never his intent. He is refreshingly honest. Ask him a good question and you'll get a well thought-out, reasoned response. As a lesser question and you'll get an equivalent answer.
"There probably isn't a lot to say," Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale said. "He's not going to make things up."
When Greinke first made it to the major leagues he was perceived as, to put it bluntly, weird. That was before he was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and before he won his first Cy Young award.
He now is known much more along the lines of a baseball savant.
"He probably knows how I am better than I know how I am, he's so smart," D-backs first baseman Paul Goldschmidt said.
The D-backs hope Greinke smartly latched himself to an on-the-rise winner when he shocked the baseball industry and signed a record $206.5 million contract this past offseason. He was brought on to help push the D-backs to the top.
D-BACKS DESCRIBE ZACK GREINKE
"He's a funny guy. He'll be an interesting guy to have in the clubhouse. he's got a pretty good opinion on a lot of things. He tells it like he sees it." -- A.J. Pollock
"He's just a guy who's not going to start the conversation, but if you go and ask him or start the conversation he'll talk back." -- Welington Castillo
"He knows pitching and everyone knows he knows pitching." -- Brad Ziegler
"If it's a good question, you're going to get many words. If it's not such a good question, he doesn't have a lot to say. There probably isn't a lot to say. He's not going to make things up." -- Chip Hale
"He's somebody you don't really have to communicate with too much to know what's going on. The guy means business for sure." -- Shelby Miller
"He probably knows how I am better than I know how I am, he's so smart." -- Paul Goldschmidt
That begins Monday night, when Greinke makes his first D-backs start in an opening day matchup with the Rockies. He will be the ninth different pitcher to take the mound on opening day for the D-backs. It is what many inside and outside the organization have looked forward to since Greinke, the team's first ace since Brandon Web, arrived.
"I think it's really important that every player understands that Zack is 1/25th of the club," D-backs Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa said. "(But) getting Zack not only deepens our rotation, but the type of intelligent pitcher he is, it was perfect for our young rotation. And then for the other 24/25ths, the chance to be a contender becomes more fair."
Greinke's new teammates know what he can do on the mound -- many saw it firsthand the past few seasons when the right-hander was with the rival Dodgers. And six weeks of spring training only cemented what they thought and what they'd heard.
"He knows pitching and everyone knows he knows pitching," Brad Ziegler said.
"He is masterful at his craft," Daniel Hudson said, "and it's fun to watch him go about his business and prepare himself to get on the mound."
As for Greinke himself, unsurprisingly, the pomp and circumstance of opening day don't register much. The only thing he likes about pitching on opening day is what it allows him to avoid.
"If you're not, you have to go get introduced (pregame) and all that nonsense," he said.
Does it make any more significant that it is his first start with a new team?
"No."
Will he sense the excitement from the sold-out crowd?
"No."
"He's somebody you don't really have to communicate with too much to know what's going on," fellow newcomer Shelby Miller said. "The guy means business for sure. He's here to work. He's excited about the team."
Though without the slightest inflection of titillation, Greinke recently showed that, yes, even he is excited about what his presence can do for a team that last year improved by 15 games from the previous season.
"I haven't seen a mistake in the field yet all the times I've watched," Greinke said, "and it seems we score at least five runs a game and the pitching staff's better than it was last year. So all the good things that were going on last year are still going on and then the parts that needed improvement have been improved."
