Over the past week Dodgers ace Zack Greinke has been getting grilled in the national and international media for saying something about the Dodgers upcoming 2014 season opener in Australia that nearly every Dodger player and coach has been thinking but has been reluctant to come right out and say:

“I would say there is absolutely zero excitement for it,” Greinke said when asked about the upcoming series in Australia. “There just isn’t any excitement to it. I can’t think of one reason to be excited for it.”

Zack Greinke has always been known to be extremely honest when dealing with the media.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Greinke was quick to add that the real reason for these games abroad is for promotional and public relations purposes for the teams and for Major League Baseball.

“It’s a baseball thing. It’s an ownership thing, spreading stuff around,” Greinke said. “That’s what it’s for and it’s for the greater good of baseball.”

It’s kind of interesting that Greinke’s “… it’s for the greater good of baseball” comment didn’t make the headlines; but then, that isn’t nearly sensational enough for some media writers.

While Greinke’s comment have created a firestorm in the nation and international media, especially in Australia, the bottom line is that he is absolutely right – regardless of whose feelings it may have hurt.

Anyone who has spent even five minutes around Zack Greinke knows that he is incredibly smart and even more so brutally honest. He is also one of the best guys in the Dodgers clubhouse to interview because of this. Anyone who has spent even five minutes around Zack Greinke also knows that his comments were absolutely positively not a knock on Australia or its great people, it was merely a comment made from a pure baseball standpoint about the hardships that the upcoming trip will cause both teams – especially for their starting rotations.

It has been well documented that the 2014 season opener at the famed Sydney Cricket Ground has created a scheduling nightmare for both teams. Not only did it force the Dodgers and Diamondbacks to begin their spring training camps early, they must end them early as well. Whereas the Dodgers played 36 spring training games in Arizona in 2013, they will play only 19 spring training games there this season.

Making matters even worse, the Dodgers have five days off between their last Cactus League game in Arizona on March 16 and the 2014 season opener on March 22 (they play an exhibition game against an Australian national team on March 20). They then play the two games against the Dbacks on March 22 and 23, fly back to L.A., play the three annual Freeway Series exhibition games against the Angels on March 27, 28 and 29, and then return to regular season action on March 31 against the Padres in San Diego. That’s a total of seven days between regular season games – and this isn’t even taking the two 15+ hour flights to and from Australia into consideration.

In it’s simplest form, this schedule is insane and will have both teams scrambling to recover from it, which could take several weeks. This is what Zack Greinke meant when he said that “…there is absolutely zero excitement for it.” This is not a leisurely vacation to one of the world’s most popular travel destinations, this is a pure butt-kicker.

The Australia series also has its inconveniences for Dodger fans as well. Although both games will be televised on the Dodgers new SportsNetLA channel with Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully at the mic, the first game will be at 1:00 AM (PT) on Saturday, March 22.

As difficult as the Australia series (and the subsequent Freeway Series) will be for the Dodgers, there is one bright side to it – the Dodgers will not need a fifth starter until April 19, almost a full month into the regular season. Although that fifth starter role is still up for grabs, there is every indication that it will go to Josh Beckett. Beckett, as you know, is coming off a very serious shoulder surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), but he entered spring training camp claiming to be 100% healed and under no restrictions whatsoever. However, because a fifth starter won’t be needed until April 19, it is believed that Beckett will start the 2014 season on the 15-day disabled list (retroactive to March 16) and will make a couple of minor league ‘rehab’ starts to keep him on a regular five-man rotation schedule until needed on April 19. This will give the Dodgers plenty of opportunities to make sure that Josh is completely healed and MLB game-ready.

Josh Beckett says that he is completely healed from his surgery and is willing to accept whatever role he is given. “I just want to be a Dodger,” said the 33-year-old Spring, Texas native. 
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

It should be pointed out that even though Zack Greinke’s comments about the Australia series were brutally honest and are receiving harsh criticism from the media, there is another Dodgers starting pitcher who is also not all that excited about the pending Australia trip.

“I’d love to go there on vacation, I don’t really want to go pitch there”

I guess when your name is Clayton Kershaw and you are the defending NL Cy Young Award winner, you get a free pass from the media for telling it like it is.