From yesterday's chat at Baseball Prospectus:
jjapha01 (Washington DC): Taking into account Zach Greinke's 1-7 record this year, and the fact that he plays for the Royals, how does his outlook shape up for the next few seasons?Such is the State of the Royals as seen by outsiders. Honestly, I agree with most of the points, and am only slightly less pessimisitic about the overall thrust of the claim. As Royals Review has harped on for months, Greinke does have a low K-rate, and, as usual, the Royals now have him up with big club for no real reason, other than he's better than the alternatives. The problem, as with Howell, is that we're using Major League Service time to essentially waste everyones time while he struggles. Ohh well, for most of last year Greinke looked positively awesome and ready, so maybe its just a bad stretch right now.Joe Sheehan: As the guy who never drank the Kool-Aid on Greinke--you can't have a low strikeout rate AND be an extreme flyball pitcher--let me say that the Royals are part of the problem here. They've rushed him, but they're such a bad organization that they're not going to reverse that decision and let him work on his stuff at Triple-A.
I think Greinke will eventually be a good major-league pitcher, but he has a lot of work to do to get there. He's not the next Greg Maddux, and that he's with the Royals makes it a possibility that he never approaches his potential.