Khalil Greene: Not quite ready for spring training
By Editorial Staff
Last month the Rangers went out and signed Khalil Greene to a 1 year $750 thousand dollar deal to be the Rangers infield utility player. Greene came up with the San Diego Padres and was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in December 2008. He then became a free agent this off season and signed with the Rangers.
During the 2009 season Greene was fist placed onto the disabled list with Social Anxiety Disorder. Late last decade more and more players have been placed onto the D.L. with anxiety disorder. Before Dontrelle Willis was traded to the Tigers he was a consistent ace caliber pitcher, year in, year out. Once he arrived at the Tigers he began to falter and was no where near affective as before. Eventually he was placed onto the D.L. with anxiety disorder.
The 2009 American League Cy Young winner Zach Greinke has had his own struggles with anxiety disorder before his Cy Young season. At the beginning of the 2006 spring training, Greinke left spring training and eventually missed the entire season before returning in 2007. He then began to struggle in the rotation and was moved to the bullpen. At the beginning of 2008 season he returned to the rotation. He posted the lowest Earned Run Average (ERA) of 3.47 of any Royals full-time starter over the course of an entire season.
Coming out of Spring Training in 2009 Greene broke camp with the Cardinals as a utility infielder. In mid-April he was placed on the disabled list for the Anxiety disorder. He later returned to Cardinals before placed on the disabled list for the same reason. He did finish the season and that is what helped him to receive the contract the Ranger offered him. Once Greene regains his mental wellness, if he is still a Ranger he should be able to be productive off the bench. The Rangers could possible start the season with him on the disabled list or he they could void his contract, although they said that will support him. You can understand the Rangers need to void his contract, so they can pursue another option, since their budget is already limited due to the current ownership situation.
Already early in camp there are injuries to Derek Holland and Doug Mathis. During agility exercises Holland sprained his right knee. Mathis somehow cut his finger with his thumb will throwing a fastball. So they shut him down until it heals. Interestingly, if he where to continue to pitch the pressure of pitching on the finger would make it worse. Both players are considered day to day and they should be ready to go by opening day.
In Baseball news, a couple of interesting things coming out of Dodger camp. Manny Ramirez has declared the 2010 season as his final in a Dodgers uniform. Personally, Manny sometimes says too much and has made situations worse for himself, such as his departure from Boston. Joe Torre will somehow take the attention away from Manny and make him focus on the current season. Eric Gagne reported to camp today, and admitted to the media that he did indeed use Human Growth Hormone after he was mentioned in the Mitchell Report.