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Hunter Greene, P
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Scouting report
A Greene recap, for the uninitiated: Greene was an amazing two-way high schooler who sat in the mid-to-upper 90s on the mound, played a slick shortstop, and hit huge tanks in BP. He went wire to wire as one of the best prep prospects in his class from basically his sophomore year on. He was drafted second in the 2017 class as a pitcher, and he began dominating in his first full season (especially with his fastball) as he was allowed to go deeper into Low-A games in May and June of 2018, which culminated in a seven-inning shutout (2 H, 0 BB, 10 K, and all in just 69 pitches) on July 2 against Cleveland's affiliate, and then a legendary Futures Game appearance during which he sat 99-102 in front of the whole world. Eleven days later, Greene's season was over. He had a PRP injection and rehabbed, but he ended up having surgery in April of 2019 and did not pitch in a live setting again until he was at the Reds' alternate site during the pandemic. Perhaps the individual baseball timelines least-impacted by the pandemic were those of injured pitchers whose years were already going to take a predictable shape in a rehab and development-focused environment. By throwing in California and then at the alternate site, Greene performed some facsimile of what he would have otherwise done in 2020. But it will still be nearly two years between when he last threw a pitch in a minor league game and when he will again, delaying and complicating the arc of a very talented prospect. Here's another complication: Greene's arm slot is now lower than it was before he got hurt. Significantly lower. His arm slot now looks more like it did when he was in high school, creating tailing action rather than carry on his fastball. It might impact how well his fastball plays, even though he was throwing really hard at the alt site, but we won't really know until he's made some 2021 minor league starts. The new-ish slot has also aided the action on Greene's breaking stuff. He's added a former cutter/slider to his original, slurvy breaker. The layoff and change in mechanics add degrees of variance (and probably added relief risk) to a profile that already included a lot of it, but I ultimately have faith in Greene's combination of elite ability and seemingly strong desire to be really good, so I continue to project that he will be. (Alternate site)