Hunter Greene will make his first Triple-A start for the Louisville Bats Thursday night in Omaha, so can we at least wait until Friday morning to start screaming for him to come to The Show?
Greene was simply too good for Class AA. Seven starts, five wins, no losses, 41 innings, 27 hits allowed. Sixty strikeouts, 1.98 ERA. Nice knowin’ ya, son. Hope you liked Chattanooga.
In an age when pitchers are speed-rushed to the majors, sitting in first-class atop a radar gun and a thumb drive filled with every statistic known to man, Greene makes the words “fast’’ and “track’’ seem ponderous. As a lark, I asked David Bell on Wednesday if it were possible we’d see Greene at the Small Park this summer.
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I expected the Reds manager to chuckle and say, in his mannerly way, “Uh, probably not.’’
Instead, Bell said, “I don’t think that’s unreasonable for any guys’’ in Triple-A. “He’s definitely getting close.’’
A story:
In 2006, Reds fans already were clamoring for the call-up of 20-year-old Homer Bailey. The Reds hadn’t developed a good starting pitcher since about 1869. Bailey was as close as they were going to get. Wayne Krivsky, the club’s general manager at the time, refused their clamorings. He didn’t like the idea of calling up to the majors an unfinished pitcher who might have to be sent back down to the minors.
“You don’t want them on that yo-yo,’’ Krivsky explained Wednesday. “That mental game starts coming into play. The game is hard enough, you don’t want them to have to battle that.’’
Krivsky really didn’t like it that Bailey had not mastered a third pitch to complement his fastball and curve. He was working on a changeup. Krivsky went to Chattanooga to see Bailey pitch, demanding Homer throw 10 percent changeups. “I won’t promote you to Triple-A unless you do,’’ Krivsky recalled.
“Homer threw 10 changeups in the first inning, then went back to throwing fastballs and curveballs.’’
The Reds promoted Bailey to the majors in June. Krivsky still wasn’t convinced the team was doing right by Bailey. ”I thought we were rushing it, but we didn’t have anyone else,’’ he said. Bailey already had thrown 542 innings in the minors. “That was more the norm back then. You wanted 500, 600, 700 innings before you called guys up, especially high school kids.’’
Cautionary tale, 14 years later?
Hunter Greene, 21, has thrown 113 professional innings and didn’t pitch at all in 2019 or ‘20. His AA numbers are gaudy but they show only that he can dominate other 21-year-olds.
Wayne Krivsky is out of baseball but still in the loop. He believes minor-league pitching numbers might be inflated.
“Players are at a level higher than they should be,’’ he maintained. “The talent is a little watered down and guys are coming back after not playing last year.’’
Easy pickings, perhaps, for a pitcher as prodigiously gifted as Greene.
Oh, but look at the talent. Follow that fastball! The Reds can win the NL Central and Greene can help them do it. He’d be a cool breeze in that furnace of bullpen arsonists.
OK, but…
Greene already has blown out his arm once, throwing too hard at a Futures game. You want the Reds best pitching prospect since… since… when? Going full-on Wayne Simpson as a rookie with just a couple hundred pro innings on his resume?
“You need to do right by the player first,’’ Krivsky said.
“We need to do what’s best for Hunter,’’ Bell said.
Who knows what August and September might bring.
If there’s an injury in the Reds ‘pen or they make a deal involving a reliever, then maybe summon Greene in September. Until then, well, Michael Lorenzen will be back in mid-July, and he’s better right now than Hunter Greene.
In fact, Greene’s teammate Nick Lodolo has been every bit as impressive as Greene: 2-0, 0.90, 30 innings, 45 strikeouts with Chattanooga. Lodolo is 23 and played three years in college.
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Get them both to Louisville. Have them refine their secondary pitches and tell them there will be nameplates above their cubicles at the Small Park next spring. Give them time to figure things out. They’re worth it.
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