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    Hunter Greene (Photo: Doug Gray)
    Photo: Doug Gray

    Reds MiLB Notebook: Hunter Greene K’s 10; ACL No-Hitter

    Doug Gray 12

    Thursday night saw Hunter Greene take the mound for the Triple-A Louisville Bats and put together arguably the best start of his career. Celebrating the final day of his 21st year on Earth, Greene dominated the St. Paul Saints in his ninth start in the Triple-A East. The Cincinnati Reds top prospect allowed just one hit and one walk over 6.1 innings while striking out 10 batters. The 10 strikeouts tied a career high that he had reached twice this season with the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts and once in the 2018 season when he was with the Low-A Dayton Dragons.

    The St. Paul Saints games have a radar gun on their scorebug. I haven’t been able to confirm how accurate it was, but based on the relievers that followed, it may have been a tick hot based on previous velocities from those guys. But according to that radar gun, Greene was sitting 99-102 on the night and regularly hitting 103 in the first few innings.

     

    Over the first two innings the pitch count wasn’t great despite not giving up a hit as Greene had a long at-bat in each inning that pushed his pitch count to 42 pitches. But from the third inning on, Greene needed just 39 pitches to compete the next 4.1 innings.

    The start on Thursday night was just a little bit of a step forward, but a continuation of the last month for the right-handed start. Over the last five starts, Greene has allowed just six runs in 27.1 innings – that’s a 1.98 ERA – while giving up 21 hits, walking just 7 batters, and striking out 37 batters. On the season between his two stops he’s made 16 starts with a 2.84 ERA in 85.2 innings while walking 31 and striking out 120.

    An Arizona Complex League No-Hitter

    Earlier this year the Daytona Tortugas pitches a combined no-hitter. On May 22nd James Proctor, Vin Timpanelli, Ricky Karcher, Nick Hanson, and Carson Spiers combined for 16 strikeouts in a 1-0 win over Jupiter. Last night in Arizona, the Arizona Complex League Reds gave the Cincinnati Reds organization a second no-hitter of the year.

    The game was just a 7-inning contest. Yomil Maysonet started the game and kept the Rockies hitless through the first three innings. Damian Henderson came out and kept them hitless for the fourth inning. Jake Gilbert threw a hitless fifth and sixth inning.That left things up to Tyler Garbee in the final inning and he wrapped things up with a ground out and two strikeouts. The group as a whole had eight strikeouts and five walks in the win.

    While the no-hitter was the story, it wasn’t the only story in the game. 4th round draft pick Ruben Ibarra got the start at first base and went 2-2 with a walk and his first career home run. Yerlin Confian also homered in the game. It was the 4th of the year for the 18-year-old outfielder. He’s hitting .306/.366/.506 on the season through 23 games.

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    12 Responses

    2. Doug are you concerned about Greene’s development if the Reds call him up in September and pitch him out of the bullpen? I struggle to trust the FO not to get in love with seeing him throw his 103 MPH gas out of the pen, but he would be a great addition late in the game this year. His greatest value is as a SP, but unless there is an injury, there won’t be an opportunity for that this year.

      1. Not at all. I just don’t think they are dumb enough to make such a short term decision.

        1. I hope you are right. I would love to see him this year selfishly. I think it would be fun to see him get to be a part of a Reds playoff push and pitch out of the pen under the big lights much like Wainwright did for the Cardinals when he first broke into the league.

          Antone
          Lorenzen
          Givens
          Cessa
          Sims
          Hembree
          Garrett
          Hoffman
          Greene

          That’s a bullpen that dare I say might be somewhat reliable in the playoffs.

    3. Seems like a pretty remarkable run of productive draft picks since 2015

      2015 – Stephenson, Santillan
      2016 – Senzel, Trammell
      2017 – Greene, Downs, Fairchild
      2018 – India, Richardson, Gray
      2019 – Lodolo, Hinds

      Seems like way above average results so far, even taking into consideration that the first round picks were generally near the top of the round.
      Sure hope Senzel and Hinds can get and stay healthy. From your latest analysis, Doug, it seems like Hinds is actually Superman disguising himself as a minor league baseball player. Keep expecting to see a category of the tallest building prospects can leap with Hinds as the only entry.

      1. Looks like 2020 1st rounder Austin Hendrix is a bust hitting low 200 in Daytona Beach. Lodolo and Hinds along with many of the 2020 high drafts spend to much time on DL. What year did the Reds change the Directors in the Scouting and International Departments? The New International Director I’m sure was involved in signing Shogo Akiyama. That 21 million for 3 years contract could have helped Nick Krall keep RAISEL IGLESIAS in the closer role for this year. Instead they have to just give him away for a box of Balls and the REDS BULLPEN GIVE AWAY games THE SAME WAY. This club would be a serious contender with IGLESIAS as the Closer. By the way he was an International Fre agent signing by the previous Directors along with Aroldis Chapman, Vladimir Gutierrez, Jose Barrero, Alfredo Rodriguez to name a few expensive signings who have of will make impact at the MLB level during their careers. That is for now 4 for 5 in HIGH DOLLAR DECISIONS by the Scouting department.

        Is Chris Buckley still in the scouting department? if not they should bring him back and be very involved these SCOUTING DECISIONS.

        1. A bust? Hendrick,not Hendrix, has played less than 50 games in his career and he’s actually crushing the ball of late, so this is a real strange time to come here complaining about it. The international scouting director doesn’t really deal much with a guy like Akiyama – he focuses on the young guys on the international market.

          And yeah, Buckley is still in the org, very high up the chain of decision makers. Higher up than he used to be, in fact.

        2. Ha! I think so too Doug. We’ve seen what major league hitters do to straight 100 mph heat. He needs to keep developing his off-speed stuff and location of the fastball in my humble opinion. However, I’ve been very impressed with his 2021 campaign and he has obviously worked hard to overcome some setbacks – not all bonus babies do. Good for him and hopefully the Reds!

        3. Hendrick is nowhere near a bust. He’s fresh out of high school playing against 21 to 24 year olds. He is holding his own and recently showing signs of coming around. Many of us on this site were claiming India to be a bust just 4 months ago. I think its a way early for labels on a 2020 draft pick.

    5. What do you think of the idea of Greene joining the team in September, and being assigned to pitch 3-4 innings in Mahle’s starts, in light of the fact that Mahle rarely goes more than 5 innings?

      In this way, Greene’s appearances are relatively short, and he pitches on a schedule. He can warm up as if he were a starter, and still contribute significantly to the team’s playoff push. And we won’t have the concern that Greene enters the game for just one inning or less, and so tries to hit 105 on the radar gun.

      I think really hard throwers working in short relief seem to develop a bunch of arm trouble. I agree that Greene would be best used as a starter, perhaps as soon as 2022.

    6. Yikes! Greene was executing his pitches and sure looked like a major leaguer. What is next for Hunter in development? I’d say a run of consistency would be appropriate.

    7. Greene reminds me of Strasburg. Good control, relatively few walks. Hope he stays healthy.

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