For the second time this season, Khalil Greene is heading back to the disabled list. Each time his year was sidelined by Soxial Anxiety Disorder, an illness close to 14% of the world suffers at one point in their lifetime according to Wikipedia.
Greene, 29, who played his entire career with the Padres, joined the St. Louis Cardinals in 2009. He currently has five home runs and is batting just .200 on the season, a far cry from his 2007 campaign in which he hit 27 home runs and drove in nearly 100 runners.
Khalil is due to receive $6.5 million for the 2009 season. Clearly the Cardinals are not getting their money’s worth and with them being just one game out of first in the Central Division, it might be time to cut their losses and find a replacement.
Am I wrong to feel this way? I’m not saying St. Louis or baseball in general abandon Greene but something should be done. I know if he were on my team I’d want the Marlins to send him down for the rest of the year in order to bring up someone with their head screwed on straight.
What would you do if Khalil was on your team?
Khalil Greene was making huge strides, increasing his walk rate and overall plate discipline. Unfortunately it wasn’t paying dividends, so the Cards did exactly what you said.
Uggghh. I’m a huge Padres fan, and watching the 2008 season with Greene was a nightmare. I felt for the guy, but his problems reallys started last year. The guy was just in this funk he couldn’t shake.
I was so glad when they traded him. He needs a Dontrelle stint in single A ball to get his mind wrapped around the game of baseball again with no pressure.
I know what it’s like, so I can sympathize with him. That said, he is paid to play, just as any of us are paid to go to work – anxiety or not. I know it can be crippling (I really do), but you have to power through it. Send him down until he’s fixed himself… 15 days on the DL won’t make a difference. It’s a short reprieve. He needs to heal this on his own and it will take a lot of time.
Of course, he could be making it all up… Maybe he just hates the game now. It happens. Some people play baseball and loathe it. They play because that’s what they know and what they are good at.
if i were GM id want someone whos head was in the game. if you really like the guy send him to AAA until his health is better.
but in my pretend team, theres only 3 types of players- ones that are doing really well, about to do really well, or are try ridiculously hard and give everyone else a boost.
greene is 29 and it looks like his mental problems make take more than 1 year and thats not even getting into his game yet. id say pass!
Social anxieties are very tricky to “heal”. 15 days is not enough, (it takes nearly 2 months for the pills to start working well) he is going to need months of therapy to get through this. He may never be able to come back. He should talk to Zach Grieke though, since he went through the same thing.
I wrote something about this the other day. If Greene’s really suffering from something, he should take more than 15 days off. If he doesn’t, I don’t feel for him at all. Chemgod is right.
Send him down, get him in counseling, and medication
Didn’t Zack Greinke suffer from the same disorder?
I never expected him to put up any gaudy numbers like he had in college in pro-ball but there has been a significant drop off having never posted a wOBA above .340 in his career.
Also, his UZR (ultimate zone rating) defensive metric has been getting worse every year since 2006 when he was last a serviceable defensive shortstop.