I know what you heard this weekend, but I’m here to bare the bad news to you at the beginning of a new week.  Despite reports that the Orioles have been “going hard” for Brewers righty Zack Greinke, the General Managers have not discussed a trade between the two teams and therefore are not close to a deal.

At 40-45, Milwaukee finds themselves 8.0 games back of the first place Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL Central.  Though Greinke could be viewed as a valuable trade chip for Doug Melvin, the Brew Crew still isn’t far enough out of it to start selling off big pieces.  Even if the Orioles are interested in Greinke — and I’m sure they’re interested in any serviceable arm at this point — a deal with the Brewers wouldn’t be made until the very last minute.  Milwaukee won’t sell until they’re positive that they can’t be buyers themselves.

I caught all kinds of grief on Saturday when I tweeted about Greinke’s attitude after he was ejected for spiking the ball four pitches into his start against the Astros.  I discussed that Greinke’s character has always been the storm cloud that hangs over him and that despite scouts knowing what he can do on the mound, his biggest unknown is his personality.

Royals All-Star Billy Butler was critical of Greinke after he was traded to Milwaukee, saying that he “didn’t want to be” in Kansas City.  “You don’t want somebody to be somewhere they don’t want to,” Butler told MLB.com’s Matthew Leach back in 2010.

Greinke made headlines during the 2011 postseason for calling Cardinals starter Chris Carpetner “phony.”  In three playoff starts, Greinke is 1-1 with a 6.48 ERA.  He never pitched past the sixth inning and seemed to burn out down the stretch in Milwaukee.

Still he’d be an improvement to the Orioles rotation.  But so would a lot of other arms.