After an MRI revealed a hairline fracture in one of his ribs and a bruise in another, Brewers pitcher Zack Greinke is expected to miss the next two to four weeks and start the season on the disabled list.
Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports tweeted that Greinke will miss the first three starts of the season.
Greinke, who has made a couple of spring training appearances, suffered the injury a couple of weeks ago while playing basketball.
"I've been doing this for a couple of years now and people always said, 'You're going to get hurt.' It finally caught up to me, playing basketball," Greinke said, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. I was going up for a rebound and fell on the side. I was hoping it was just bruised. I had a lot of fun doing it but it wasn't worth it."
Greinke won the 2009 AL Cy Young award, but he finished with a record of 10-14, an ERA of 4.17 and 181 strikeouts last year. His ERA the All-Star break (4.72) was a full run higher than what it was before the break (3.71). Despite posting an ERA of 2.16 and striking out 242 batters in 2009, Greinke won only 16 games that year due to a lack of run support.
With the transition to the National League and to a team that should provide greater run support than he received in Kansas City, Greinke should bounce back in 2011 when he returns from injury.
According to Mock Draft Central, Greinke is currently the seventh pitcher and 46th player off the board in fantasy baseball drafts. If folks overreact to the injury news, however, it's possible that Greinke could become a bit of a bargain.
