The Top Five Reasons I Will Not Miss Zack Greinke

    In 2009 25-year-old Kansas City Royals pitcher Zack Greinke is quoted during Spring Training saying, “I don’t want to play anywhere else. However much I make is already more than I’ll ever spend or want to spend. So that really doesn’t matter to me.”  Greinke would go on to win the American League Cy Young Award for a Royals team that finished 65-97. Good enough for 4th place in the Central. Greinke was in his first year of a 4 yr/$38 million dollar contract that would keep him in Kansas City through the 2012 season. Thirty-eight million dollars, over four years, for a Cy Young Award winning pitcher is a very good deal. Especially considering he wins said Cy Young in the first year of said contract and you are able to enjoy him for another three years. Good to be a Royals fan. Team may not win a lot, but, we do have Zack Greinke. Right? 

    Then 2010 rolls around and Zack doesn't seem the same. He battles all year to a 10-14 record with a 4.17 ERA (up 2.01 from 2009). He seems disinterested and continually comments in the media that he's, "Just tinkering with his mechanics. Delivery. Just seeing what he can come up with out there." Ok. The team limps to the finish line two games better, at 67-95, than last year but finishes in last place. Team may not win a lot, but, we do have Zack Greinke. Right? Wrong. 

    During his 2010 campaign Greinke was quoted by the Kansas City Star as saying, “The biggest problem is I have two more years on my contract. Are those guys supposed to make it up by the beginning of next year? … So the problem (with the Royals’ prospects) is that it’s not like as soon as they get here that it’s going to be instant (success). Maybe by 2014. There’s no reason for me to get real excited about it, because the chance of more than one of them making a major impact by the time my contract is up is pretty slim.” That was a mid-season quote. Then came the season (Royals career) ending quote, “It’s not real exciting to have to go through it again … for me, it’s the third complete re-start/rebuilding phase…. I like Kansas City. It’s a town that fits me pretty well. But I don’t know ... at least put a team together that has a fighting chance (to win).” Uh-oh! Houston we have a problem. 

    After that kinda year and after those kinda quotes, especially from a guy who doesn't really say a whole lot, I was not the least bit surprised that the Royals traded their Cy Young Award winning pitcher.  With two years remaining on his bargain of a contract.  To the Brewers in a six-player deal.  If the Royals would've kept Greinke I would half expect him to go out to the mound either pantless or gloveless at some point in 2011.  Or both.  Fuck it.  

   So here are my top five reasons I'm not gonna miss the services of one Mr. Donald Zachary Greinke.  

1. Alcides Escobar

Position: Shortstop 
Bats: Right, Throws: Right 
Height: 6' 1", Weight: 180 lb.
Projected 2011: Starter

Smooth all-around athlete.  Escobar was considered the best-fielding infielder in the Brewers' organization and was previously one of the top prospects in the organization. In 2009, he was considered by some to be the top short stop prospect in baseball, and one of the top prospects overall.  He will now be the Royals everyday short stop and an All-Star sometime soon. 

2. Lorenzo Cain

Position: Centerfielder 
Bats: Right, Throws: Right 
Height: 6' 2", Weight: 200 lb.
Projected 2011: Mid-Season Starter
Awesome athlete.  Cain was drafted by the Brewers in the 17th round of the 2004 amateur draft out of Tallahassee Community College.  Before his trade to the Royals he was considered the Brewers' No.2 Overall prospect.  He will become my favorite player when he takes Melky Cabrera's job.  Melky Cabrera sucks.

3. Jeremy Jeffress

Position: Pitcher 
Bats: Right, Throws: Right 
Height: 6' 0", Weight: 195 lb.
Projected 2011: Sept Call Up
On August 30, 2007, Jeffress was suspended for fifty games after testing positive for drug abuse.  This was not his first positive test; he was given a warning for his first offense. In June 2009, he tested positive a third time and was suspended for 100 games. One more positive test will result in a lifetime ban for Jeffress.  That means I already love this guy!  His back is against the wall and throws major heat.  Awesome!

4. Jake Odorizzi

Position: Pitcher
Bats: Right, Throws: Right 
Height: 6' 2", Weight: 175 lb.
Projected 2011: Dominate AA
Jake Odorizzi is a stud.  Considered one the best pitchers in the Midwest League last year.  Throws in the 90's and can hit 94-95 when he reaches in the tank.  Will be the Royals No.2 Starter in a couple of years.

5. Yuniesky Betancourt

Position: Former Roayl 

Projected 2011: Committing Errors for the Brew Crew

Last, but not least, the best reason I won't miss Greinke.

Mario Kart...The Way It Should Be

Brian's Best Three of the Week (2/13/11-2/18/11)

1. Sports
MLB Spring Training
There might be snow on the ground here in Kansas, but in far away places like Florida and Arizona, where the sun washes over your eyes like Visine, MLB pitchers and catchers are reporting for Spring Training.  After a refreshing World Series, between the Giants and Rangers ended three-and-a-half months ago, I'm ready for some baseball.  The promise of a new year and the hope that I can catch some Royals games with my father is the reason baseball is my favorite sport that starts with a "b" and ends with a "ball".  My father and I have one sports team that we favor in common, the Royals, the gonna-be-dreadful-Kansas City Royals.  Spring Training will now bond us after the winter's hibernation and give us so much more to talk about, debate about and care together about.  Yes, Spring Training is the best.  Because right now the Royals are in a first place tie in the division with Minnesota, Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland.  A hundred losses look about as far away as the Cactus League sun.  

2. Food
Chipotle Fajita Burrito
 I'm on a diet, no wait take that back, I'm in the middle of a "lifestyle" change.  I have developed a bit of an eating disorder over the last, say, two plus decades and need to change my intake habits pronto.  I need to lose weight.  I need to lower my blood pressure.  I need to become more physically fit.  I need to be able to see my penis while standing...ok that last one isn't necessary, but, it would be cool.  So I need to do all these things and make all these choices that run against the current of the culture I've created for myself.  My problem is that there's this dude named Steve Ellis and in 1993 he opened the very first Chipotle in Denver, Colorado and created the greatest fast food (that doesn't taste fast) restaurant in the world.  I think he borrowed like a thousand bucks from his pops to get it started.  The only money I borrowed from my folks to get anything started was for a 1987 Honda Civic.  Now, there's nobody holding a gun to my head and making me eat the 890 calorie (yikes!) steak fajita burrito, but if my doctor asks, I'm saying you carjacked me on a daily basis and forced me to inhale the four ponds of perfection or die.  You got my back right?

3. Technology (really old technology)
RIM Blackberry 7290 PDA
This phone was released in 2004.  I did not purchase my 7290 until 2009, used, on ebay.  It is now 2011 and in smart phone years that means the 7290 is a dinosaur.  It has no camera.  It is unable to receive or send a MMS message.  The screen looks like Fisher Price's "My First Cell Phone" and the only thing that makes it a touch screen is if you touch it to clean it.  Browsing the internet on this beast is like dial up.  Only slower.  The battery life is (seems like) half of what current phones have.  I can barely hear people due to signal strength and I think people have a hard time hearing me.  Oh, and it's huge, like Speak & Spell huge.  The plus side is that due to the lack of extra's, the phone is pretty light weight.  Score!  I have owned eight, yes eight, different Blackberry models and I just recently went back to this fantastic mobile device because I don't know anyone else that would be caught dead using this thing.  That's what makes it cool to me.  In 2004 this thing was like $500.00 and bad ass!  Now the 7290 is drinking Geritol, going to bed at six o'clock in the evening and complaining about the government.  While all these Android phones are partying, pulling all nighters and raw dogging randoms.  Well screw you new, more convenient and state-of-the-art smart phones!  Give me my 7290.  But, be sure I've got my charger, because after two phone calls it will need a nap.

The Return of the Awesomeness

I haven't posted a blog since July 2009? Wow. What a monumental slack job. For those of you who care (dad), I've decided that the world should experience the awesomeness that is Perpetually Recovering from the Night Before again. I'm sure in my absence I haven't improved as a writer and I'm pretty sure that I'm even less creative than when I first started this blog. 

As a matter of fact, does anyone even know why I started the blog? First it was just going to be a hub to post (Polaroid) pictures that my daughter Bella and I would take periodically while we were out. Then Polaroid decided to stop making their instant film. I can't tell you how upset I was at this. Polaroids are, to me, the most beautiful way to capture anything on film. Fuji quickly developed a camera that makes instant (credit card sized) pictures, but I cant' bring myself to go that rout. So the blog evolved into a bunch of my thoughts, my favorites, my lists and so on.

Since I've been gone my wife and I have celebrated six years of marriage and had our third (my fifth!) child, Otis Reese Petty. My oldest son Tyler started high school, his younger brother Adrian started middle school and Bella started kindergarten. Our 22 month old Garrison has decided recently, and without asking his mother or me, that the "terrible twos" needed to start a couple of months early. He has proceeded to use his substantial bulk to throw impressive tantrums and do pretty much whatever he wants. Good times. 

Also, I changed jobs after several years of direct store delivery route sales, and became a private label food broker for the world's largest corporate brand brokerage company. Fancy. Don't worry. I still continue to model men's plus size swim wear on the side ladies.

So I'm gonna try this again. I won't be reinventing the wheel and I don't even know if I'm gonna wanna do this long term, but, I'm gonna give it a go and see what happens. I wanna thank my father for caring about this blog so much and my old friend Tony who has started a blog of his own and got my juices flowing again. Thanks guys.