The start of the 2018 season hasn’t gone exactly as the Cincinnati Reds had hoped it would for Hunter Greene. That’s not so much an indictment on how he’s pitched, but how the weather hasn’t cooperated. In his season debut the temperature was 39° at first pitch. His second start was snowed out. Then the next game was also snowed out. It wound up being nine days between starts due to the snow and a scheduled off day for Dayton. Wednesday night saw the Reds prized 18-year-old pitcher take the mound for the second time on the season, and the weather appeared to be cooperating at first. Through the first two inning, the rain held off. The third inning, however, saw the sky open up. At first it was just a light sprinkling, but the rain got pretty heavy after the first batter of the inning.
In the middle of the, with a full count, the umpires had to call for a delay. The mound was a disaster, there was standing water around the infield. The delay would last for an hour and thirty three minutes. For Hunter Greene, outside of the shortened start due to the rain, things went well. He allowed three hits in 2.1 shutout innings. There was a hit batter on a 101 MPH fastball, which surely felt wonderful for Christian Donahue. And there was also a walk in the downpour final frame. But it also came with three strikeouts on the night, giving him 11 on the season with just one walk.
In the first start of the year, Hunter Greene only threw one change up. After the game he noted that he wanted to continue to work on getting out left handers. Last night he threw more change ups to left handed batters in the South Bend lineup. Let’s take a look at the fastball versus the change up to a lefty.
These were back-to-back pitches. Not shown here was the next pitch, also a change up. The first thing that stands out is that at 99 MPH, there’s late life on that pitch. With the next pitch, there’s similar life to it. What’s very nice to see, as well, is in the overlay of the two pitches, how well the mechanics, arm action, arm speed – all of it, remains the same between the two offerings.
The change up is still a clear third offering behind the fastball and the slider. But Wednesday night showed that it’s a weapon that can be utilized, particularly against left handed hitters. He sells it well, there’s good velocity separation on the pitch and with more repetitions it could become an above-average offering to pair with his two plus ones he’s already showing.