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L.A. Dodgers’ Zack Greinke To Pitch In Minor League Game On Wednesday

By Thomas O'Neill

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L.A. Dodgers starting pitcher Zack Greinke will be throwing in a minor league game on Wednesday instead of throwing on Thursday in the freeway series, due to what ESPN is calling a “horrible outing” on Friday night.

Greinke, the Dodgers premier starting pitcher, struggled on Friday as he “reached his pitch count of 76 without getting out of the fourth inning” according to Ken Gurnick with MLB.com.

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Was it his nerves? Maybe he wasn’t warm enough. This I can’t say, but Manager Don Mattingly was quoted by MLB.com saying, “We feel he’s not quite built up…He’ll have one extra day before he starts [April 7 against San Diego].” This way, Greinke should be at the top of his game by the time the 2015 season officially starts. Clayton Kershaw will also be throwing on Wednesday as he has been recovering from the line-drive he took off the face.

We pitchers have outings like this during the preseason, but the purpose of Spring Training is to ready the players for the season, which is now only one week away. Because Greinke is a veteran player, we know that he will shake this outing off and come back strong on Wednesday and even stronger on the 7th.

See, one thing that shows a disciplined ball player is the ability to face hardship and push through it, not only on the field but in the clubhouse, the weight-room, the trainers room, and even outside the baseball program. A disciplined player will not only work out the mistakes they made in the game, but have the ability to take those mistakes and use them to better their game and learn from those mistakes.

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    • One classic example of a ball player pushing through hardship was when pitcher Nolan Ryan was facing power hitter Bo Jackson, specifically when Jackson smashed a line-drive that hit Ryan in the face and as blood squirted out of his lip, he picked the ball up and threw it to first to get the out. This classic image of his bloody jersey and bleeding lip as he continued to pitch stands as a symbol of perseverance.

    Some see Greinke’s trip to the minors as a negative thing, but in fact this will be good for him to ready his arm for his 2015 debut on the 7th.

    What do you think? Will going back down to the minors be beneficial for Greinke? Many players are embarrassed and upset when they are sent down, but all in all, it is the best thing that management could do for their players who are struggling.

    Something that is hard for players to do is to take care of their arm and sometimes that means getting sent down to recover and come back strong. In fact, it was very wise for the Dodgers management to save Greinke’s arm, because they need to put their best players on the field in order to be successful in their games.

    Bottom Line: Greinke means business

    Greinke has had a solid past five years as a pitcher holding an average ERA of 3.36 and almost 400 strikeouts with only 243 walks. These stats are very impressive and we hope that he will better these stats this year and add another great year to his career. For some pitchers like Greinke, having a bad outing help to make him come back stronger in his next outing, so I am anticipating and predicting a strong turnout for him on Wednesday.

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