Pirates @ Reds (9/15-9/17)

Hunter Greene will give up hitting to focus on pitching

C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer has up two excellent articles today from his trip to Billings, Montana earlier this month (This one & this one). There’s a lot of focus on Hunter Greene from the articles and understandably so. The #2 overall selection in the 2017 Major League Baseball Draft, Greene landed the highest signing bonus ever since the CBA set pool limits for teams in the draft. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a high schooler. In his professional debut he sat 99-101 MPH with his fastball for the Billings Mustangs. While I encourage you to check out both articles (linked above in the first sentence), the big news from it is that Hunter Greene is going to be a pitcher, not a shortstop.

The big question after the draft, and after Hunter Greene officially signed with the Cincinnati Reds was how long would the team let him dip his toes in the “both sides of the ball” waters. Greene said that he would like to do both after being drafted, even though everyone believed that he had a brighter future as a pitcher. He would make his debut as a designated hitter nearly three weeks before he would debut as a pitcher, but he only played in seven games as the Billings designated hitter before his time on the mound took over for the final three weeks of the season. He hit .233/.233/.367 in 30 plate appearances.

On the mound, Hunter Greene was very limited in usage. He appeared in three games – all starts, but threw just 4.1 total innings. Two outings went as well as could be expected. In his debut he tossed a shutout inning with a strikeout. In his final game he threw 3.0 innings with only an unearned run against him, a walk and he struck out four batters. It was that second game that put an ugly mark on his seasonal line as he was charged with six earned runs in 0.1 innings against Missoula on September 1st. Reports were that many of the hits were ones that simply got through, and weren’t hit hard – but at the end of the day, it was six hits allowed with just one out recorded

Hunter Greene will give up hitting to focus on pitching | redsminorleagues.com

Bailey

Romano

Stephenson

Votto goes yard in the bottom of the first. His 35th puts the Reds up 1-0.

Reds doing some yard work tonight...Votto, Schebler and Cozart (twice!) give Homer a 4-1 lead going into 6.

Romano with a very good outing today 8 innings, 5 hits, 6 Ks, 0 BBs and 97 pitches.

And Winkler with another dinger.

Hunter Greene was well spoken and handle the interview pretty well. How long before we see him in Cincinnati?

Hunter Greene was well spoken and handle the interview pretty well. How long before we see him in Cincinnati?

4 or 5 years at the earliest at the rate the Reds move.

Reds sweep the Bucs... now just two games behind them with twelve left to play.

Reds sweep the Bucs... now just two games behind them with twelve left to play.

I'd consider it a small victory if they finish ahead of Pittsburgh.