Greinke is a great talent, but pitching performance can be volatile and pitchers are almost by definition injury risks. I’ve always believed that you build with your everyday lineup first – they can impact the game every day, and everyday players performance is more predictable (except for ours this past year!). Pitching-wise, it’s nice to have a true ace and maybe a very good #2 guy, but after that, it becomes a matter of depth.

Intriguing suggest by Joe Sheehan – I like the fact he is thinking outside the box – but I would say no at this time.

Alex Gordon is going to be 26 next season, it’s looking more and more as though he’s reached his ceiling and it’s .260 40 DB 20 HR. That doesn’t fix 3B, not when Callaspo is .290 40 DB 10 HR. Alex Gordon would be a step sideways. I like the guy and think he’s a fantastic athlete and is strong as an ox, but that just doesn’t transfer to HR’s.

If anything I’d say Grienke and Moustakas for Conger, Richards, Chatwood and Callaspo.

Proven Cy Young winner vs. Promising, but unproven minor leaguer. Given this club’s history in developing hitters, I know which one I would choose.

Greinke is apparently a nice kid with a smoking hot girlfriend, but he already missed one season due to anxiety disorder, which can be treated with medication but not cured. All it takes is another episode and he’s a highly-paid resident of the extended DL while he works through his issues.

Put differently, Kazmir and Greinke were both first-rounders in the 2002 draft (along with Saunders). Kazmir started out like a house afire but we can see what has happened since. The point is that past performance doesn’t mean the player will keep that momentum going into the future. It is all too easy for the wheels to come off Greinke (again) and then the Angels will have traded away a player universally regarded as the best player in the minor leagues (at 21) for damaged goods.

Too much at risk to swap Trout for him.

…Trout could blow out his knee chasing the girls in Napoli’s posse.

Trout has tremendous potential. Greinke has proven performance at the Major League level. I’m not advocating trading Trout at all, but come on people – Trout has not even made it to AA-ball yet. Before anointing him the second-coming of Mickey Mantle (which has been done in other HH threads), let’s see the kid deliver the goods at the AA, AAA and ML levels first.