He can hit 102 on the gun, and dingers up to 450 feet out of major league parks.
No high school baseball player has had this much hype since Bryce Harper seven years ago.
And as Bill Belichick would say, he’s on to Cincinnati.
Taken as the second pick in last week’s MLB draft by the Cincinnati Reds, Hunter Greene is on his way to stardom. He doesn’t turn 18 until August 6, and with his ridiculous skillset, people are calling him the greatest MLB prospect ever.
Featured on Sports Illustrated’s May 1 cover, Greene was labeled as the star baseball needs. To say there’s excitement in the air about this kid would be quite an understatement.
Selected as a right-handed pitcher in the draft, Greene stands 6’3” and weighs 195 pounds. His other position is shortstop. And after playing four years of varsity ball at Notre Dame High School, he’s committed to attend UCLA.
As a freshman at NDHS, Greene hit just .122 (6 for 49) at the plate. But over his final three years, it more than tripled to .375 (104 for 277) while he slugged .646.
This past season, Greene finished his NDHS career with personal bests in home runs (six), RBIs (28), and runs scored (23). He also hit .324 at the dish. Not quite the .406 mark the previous two years, but impressive nonetheless!
On the bump is another area that saw Greene excel his senior season. In 28 innings, he recorded just four walks while punching out 43. Per seven innings, that’s one walk and 10.75 strikeouts. During his first three years those marks were 2.025 and 7.65, respectively. More strikeouts, less walks—excellent sign!
Each year for Greene saw a decrease in his ERA (3.50, 1.77, 1.63, 0.75). His WHIP also got much better throughout high school, going from 1.25 in his first two seasons to 0.78 his final pair.
Aside from high school, in 2015, Greene participated on Team USA in the 18U (18 and under) Baseball World Cup as the Americans clinched their third consecutive championship in the tournament that summer.
Additionally, a Baseball America article mentions that Greene started training at MLB’s Urban Youth Academy in 2007. Among those who coached him at the academy were Aaron Hicks and Anthony Gose.
The sky’s the limit for Greene as his early resume speaks for itself. There’s no telling what type of numbers he’ll put up when he makes it to the big show, but it’ll be interesting to find out. He’s the real deal—an electric presence at the plate as well as the mound.
In the SI article previously linked, it’s noted about Greene: “Several scouts agree that he is the best two-way amateur prospect they have ever seen, a first-round pick as a pitcher and a shortstop, with comps to Noah Syndergaard on the mound and Alex Rodriguez in the field.”
Growing up in Los Angeles, ESPN notes that Greene’s favorite player was Rafael Furcal who played for the Dodgers from 2006-2011.
So there you go, a little bit more about the prodigy known as Hunter Greene. Baseball’s second pick in 2017. Many anticipated he would go number one, but the Minnesota Twins took shortstop Royce Lewis instead. Nothing bad about two though—and nothing left but to see what Greene’s path to the majors will be like!