So Zack Greinke did end up going to the NL Central, like I've been hoping to see for the last five to six years—it just happened to be with the Milwaukee Brewers, who traded Alcides Escobar and some nice prospects for Greinke and Yuniesky Betancourt, who is terrible.
↵It's an interesting move for a team that spent most of 2010 as an also-ran almost from the beginning. The Brewers' pitching staff fell apart last season, proving so terrible that long-ago Cardinals prospect Chris Narveson was an important piece in the rotation and serious free agent overpay Randy Wolf turned out to be crucial. Bad personnel combined with a porous defense to allow the third-worst ERA in the National League, ahead of only the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
↵Greinke, along with recent acquisition Shaun Marcum, fills in a lot of bad innings; he would upgrade few teams as much as he upgrades the Brewers. But those two acquisitions have done a serious number on their farm system; it looks like they want to put together one more run for the playoffs while they have Prince Fielder under control, where just a week or two ago it seemed like they'd probably be trading him midseason for a package a lot like the one they just gave up.
↵