Greisinger was the sixth pick in the first round in the 1996 draft, taken by the Tigers out of the University of Virginia. That’s been the high point of his career to date.
The Tigers, being the Tigers, called Greisinger up after he’d had less than a year and a half of professional experience and stuck him in the rotation. He pitched badly, and then wrecked his elbow, requiring Tommy John surgery. It didn’t go well, apparently, and he missed most of 1999 and all of 2000 and 2001. He was pretty terrible in 2002, but showed a little promise in 2003, after which he wound up with the Twins. He didn’t pitch well for them and headed to the Natspos, who traded him to the Braves late in spring training.
He got off to a good start in Richmond, struggled for awhile, but has righted himself of late. He’s up, basically, because the other remaining starters at Richmond have stunk up the joint. His peripherals don’t look so hot — decent control, mediocre strikeout numbers, okay home run rate. He might be capable of being league-average, which has a certain amount of value and is better than at least three pitchers on the current staff. There’s a good chance that if he’s adequate he’ll stick when/if the real starters come back.
I didn’t realize that Greisinger had such a history with the Tigers. 6-9 for Detroit in 98 is like 9-6 for most other teams. Of course his ERA was over 5 – still 2.5 points less than Klobb and over 3 points better than Colon. My guess is if he does reasonably well, they’ll send Colon down when Hampton is off the DL. I’d be interested to see if James is sent to AAA to take Greisinger’s spot.
If Davies keeps pitching well I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ramirez and someone else traded for a decent outfielder – not until Thomson gets off the DL though. If they can stay in first with an awful bullpen, weak hitting, and 2 of 5 starting pitchers on the DL, I like their chances later in the year. Their hitting can’t stay this bad – can it?
A good reminder that first round college pitchers can get hurt and flame out just like high schoolers.
Ahh, Seth. Go get ’em, fellow Wahoo.