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Greinke's fastball was clocked in the 84-86 mph range in the first inning of Thursday's spring start, Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic reports.
He was down in the mid-80s in last week's simulated game as well, but his velocity was reportedly fairly normal in his first Cactus League outing. This is a unique situation, as Greinke is a rare ace who doesn't exert close to maximum effort when he throws his fastball, and he dealt with some velocity issues this time last year as well. Piecoro notes that Greinke had trouble cracking 90 mph early last spring, but according to Brooks Baseball, Greinke averaged 90.2 mph on 40 fourseam fastballs that were tracked through the first two weeks of spring training in 2017. If any pitcher deserves the benefit of the doubt in a situation like this, it's Greinke, but it's still alarming to see a pitcher who is being drafted as a low-end SP1 throwing in the mid-80s. It's obviously a situation to monitor going forward. This news will result in Greinke falling in drafts, for better or worse.
