The Only Bad Part About The Universal DH Is Now Zack Greinke Won't Make It To The 10 Hr/10 Stolen Base Club
You've really got to feel for Zack Greinke after the news of the universal DH came down yesterday. All he ever wanted to do in his career was join the very prestigious club that all pitchers want to join. Not 3,000 strikeouts. Not 300 wins. We're talking something much more rare. The pitchers 10 home run/10 stolen base club. There was only one thing about pitchers hitting that got me giddy and it wasn't that big boy Bartolo's homer, it was Zack Greinke's march towards the 10/10 club. And while we're on the subject of pitchers hitting, it's insane this was still a thing in the lords year of 2022, this should have been outlawed decades ago. People who love pitchers hitting love to talk about the "strategy" and the "double switch", screw that it's boring. You know what isn't boring? Zack Greinke.
He spoke about it last season in Spring Training and expressed his desire to make it into the very rare club. Greinke may be a bit of an oddball, we know that, but at least he sets lofty goals for himself. He's one of the best characters in baseball, that's why when he spoke about this it peaked my interest. He doesn't show emotion about anything, he doesn't care about much, except joining the 10/10 club. Heading into the 2021 season he was sitting on 9 career homers and 9 career stolen bases. We knew there was a big possibility that we would have the universal DH in 2022 so he knew his time was running out. He didn't have that many chances left and couldn't waste any opportunities.
Barring any blowout at-bats by Greinke or any garbage time pinch running appearances it looks like he'll never get to check that box. He'll be stuck on 9/9 forever. While you won't find a bigger fan of the universal DH than me, I really would have enjoyed seeing Greinke reach this goal of his. It's all he ever wanted, but he'll never get to capture that moment and that sucks for him. Hopefully when his career is all wrapped up he doesn't look at that 9/9 and wonder "what if?". I hope he doesn't dwell on that 1 caught stealing appearance in 2019. So while I am over the moon happy about the universal DH coming and us never having to watch a pitcher pretend to want to hit again, it does pain me that we won't see Greinke get to 10/10.