DL IS PLACE TO BE FOR MLB PITCHERS

Reading a piece that was in a recent Sporting News Today publication, it's astounding to see the number of MLB players who are on the Disabled List (DL) at this point in the season. Sure, some of these roster moves stemmed from injuries coming out of spring training, but the vast majority of these have been come about since the start of the season. Yet, we have not even completed one-third of the 162-game season.

As of May 28th, there were a total of 141 players on the DL, 87 of which are pitchers (62%). There is incredible likeness between the American League and National League's DL numbers.. The AL total number was 70 with 44 pitchers (63%), while the senior circuit listed 71, including 43 pitchers (61%).

That's a lot of bad arms.

In the AL, the White Sox did not have a single player on the DL as of May 28th. That was also true in the NL for the defending world champions in Philadelphia. At the other end of the spectrum, the team orthopaedic staffs in San Diego and Tampa Bay have hung a sign on their doors, "Not Accepting Any New Patients." The Padres had 10 players (7 hurlers), and the AL defending champion Rays boasted 9 on the DL, with "just 4" pitchers among that group. Most teams overall had somewhere between 4 & 7 disabled bodies inactive by the end of May.

ROYALS' GREINKE BEST ARM YOU HAVEN'T SEEN

Coming off of those depressing stats, let's talk about some real positive pitching numbers. Zack Greinke has the misfortune of laboring in anonymity as a Kansas City Royal. But, the 25 year-old righty is off to a major league-leading 8-1 start. His ERA was a miniscule 0.88 until his last start this past weekend and now it has swollen ever so slightly to 1.10.

It's a shame most of America doesn't get to see Greinke. He battled through some personal and emtoional issues about 3 years ago, even heading home for some rest and down time during the early part of the season. He has now grown into arguably one of the top hurlers in the game. It's just that hardly anyone sees him. When he started his last game on a sunny 81-degree Sunday afternoon at home in Kaufman Stadium, there were plenty of good seats remaining considering the 18,000 and change who cared enough to show up. Sad isn't it. Because of the Royals' month of May free-fall from atop the AL Central to now barely holding down fourth place, we certainly aren't going to see Greinke any time soon on some version of a national telecast via ESPN, FOX, or TBS.