Opinion

It was no secret that Zack Greinke wanted out of Kansas City. Speculation arose of where he'd be traded to, if traded at all.

Would it be the New York Yankees?

Would it be the Philadelphia Phillies?

Or would he just be forced to stay put in Kansas City?

In the end he ended up in Milwaukee and is now a Brewer.

The Kansas City Royals went 67-95 last season. Greinke went 10-14 and at 4.17, he had his third highest ERA in his seven years in the big leagues.

Greinke was outstanding 2008 and 2009 season, winning the AL Cy Young in 2009. 

Many fans of America’s pastime believe that “money buys championships.”

Whether or not you're a subscriber to the theory, the amount of cash thrown around in the offseason has sparked considerable debate.

Last fall, the San Francisco Giants captured the World Series title with top-tier pitching, not an abundance of multimillion-dollar outfield players. Some might say, “Pitching trumps hitting, each and every time.”

With Spring Training in full swing and only three weeks until the season begins, this offseason can now be put to rest, and what an offseason it was.

Some moves were expected, such as Derek Jeter staying with the Yankees. Others seem to come out of nowhere, such as Cliff Lee signing with the Phillies. A few even left us scratching our heads, such as Jayson Werth signing with the Washington Nationals.

The buzz in New York this morning is that Johan Santana's season is in jeopardy for the Mets. Steve Popper and Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record penned the story which appeared on the NorthJersey.com website.

The article includes extraordinary quotes from an unnamed Mets source, surrounded by stock information readily available about the plan to get Santana back on the mound by mid-summer.

In 2008, the Baltimore Orioles banked on the University of San Diego's stand out pitcher Brian Matusz becoming the future ace of their starting rotation and in 2011 there's a very good chance that future is now.

Baltimore would select Matusz with their first round pick of the 2008 Major League Baseball draft. This lead to extensive and exhausting contract negotiations that would ultimately end with Matusz and his agent finally agreeing to terms with the O's on the last possible day for MLB teams to sign their drafted rookies.

New York Mets star hurler Johan Santana is the anchor of the staff, a leader in the clubhouse, and represents the largest annual salary on the payroll.

They depended on him to set the tone and at times carry the team on his back down the stretch. The organization already knew he would miss most, if not all, of the first half of the 2011 MLB season, but uncertainties have now transformed directly into widespread fears.

When camp broke, St. Louis Cardinals prospect Matt Carpenter seemed destined to start the 2011 season as the third baseman for Triple-A Memphis.

With less than three weeks before the New York Mets' Opening Day, the battle for second base rages on, and it appears that the two leading candidates emerging are the much maligned Luis Castillo and the resilient, but still learning, Daniel Murphy.

I'll start with Murphy.

Asked for the millionth time about his decision to take less money and fewer years to pitch in Philadelphia instead of New York, Lee said that the age of the Yankees players was a factor.

"They're getting old," Lee said.

The Phillies played two games on Saturday in split squad action.  Kyle Kendrick started against the Rays in Clearwater and Vance Worley took the mound against the Pirates in Bradenton.