So if you are a baseball fan planning for an upcoming draft as the season looms around the corner this weekend, one of the questions on your list should be whether or not Zack Greinke is worth drafting and sticking on your bench for the start of the season. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, Greinke walked out of Royals spring training a little while ago (good synopsis here) and the team will only say that he’s not on drugs, isn’t dealing with a family matter etc.

People speculate on many reasons why he left the team, and I’m certainly not in the know enough to give an educated opinion, but I can tell you one thing, this kid can pitch. Looking at his numbers isn’t fair. True he was 5-17 last season but he pitches on arguably the worst team in baseball. He has one of the nastiest curve balls I have seen in a long time and at one time Baseball Prospectus called him “the future of pitching”. So the question for those of us heading into a draft where you have a bench spot or two is whether you take the chance that he hasn’t gone nuts and wants to remain in baseball and draft him. He’s young at only 23 years old and spent limited time in the minors so if he’s gonna go for $1 in your draft I say why not take the chance. If the Royals step up and deal him it could only be to a team better than they are (I mean really who is worse). Ya you could end up with a guy who doesn’t play all season but you could also end up with a kid who is in a better situation and starts to pitch on a team that could actually score a few runs for him. Granted he will need to pitch in the minors for a month to get back in form but in my humble opinion he could be worth the risk.

So my question to all of you who spend some time reading this blog (and thanks to those who do, our numbers are way up as the baseball season approaches) is would you take the chance on Greinke?