Nobody knows Zack Greinke

I’ve written a lot recently about how no one can simply assume that Zack Greinke’s history with anxiety disorder makes him unsuitable for pitching in New York. Indeed, it could easily be the opposite -- he’s at his best when he’s successful and at his worst when facing adversity -- and thus the winning and the pressure of winning with the Yankees could actually be better for him than losing in Kansas City. Ask yourself: wouldn’t having Brett Gardner chasing down the flies you gave up to left field make you feel better than having Melky Cabrera do it next season?

The point is, we have no idea what makes Zack Greinke tick, and to the extent you read about someone who sounds absolutely certain that he couldn’t hack it in New York, you can be assured that they’re just guessing.

Joe Posnanski has been around and written more about Zack Greinke than just about anyone, and last night he posted a story that illustrates just how wild the guesses truly are. And no, Joe doesn’t think he knows anything more about what makes Greinke tick than anyone else. That’s the takeaway:

Chauncey Gardiner from the movie “Being There” was the simple gardner of a rich man who wandered into the world and found people eager to infuse their own hopes and ideas and thoughts into his childlike words. Greinke is not simple, and his words are not childlike, but here he is, America’s Most Wanted Pitcher, and everybody seems to know what he wants, where he’d succeed, where he’d fail. So you know Krylov in Russian, do you? Some may be right. Some certainly are wrong. But if there’s one thing I have learned about Zack Greinke that I feel confident in saying it is this: Nobody really knows.

I know I say this a lot about his stuff, but Joe’s story is an absolute must-read. Certainly a must-read for Yankees fans and anyone who is interested in where Greinke might be traded.