Prep phenom Hunter Greene could be generational player

Zach Buchanan | Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption Will possible No. 1 MLB draft pick pitch or hit? MLB draft prospect Brendan McKay is a duel threat as both a position player and pitcher.

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. – For someone who grew up in southern California, Alec Moss seems to have been at the center of a lot of baseball happenings in Cincinnati. He played four years at Xavier, winning all-conference honors as a junior. A few years after his graduation, he spent a year as a coach for the Musketeers.

But he was also a high school teammate of former Cincinnati Reds prospect Chris Dickerson, who once spent a couple weeks living on Moss' couch in Cincinnati as Dickerson rehabbed from shoulder surgery. Moss also knew Aaron Boone through a mutual friend when Boone was with the Reds, and would watch Monday Night Football at the third baseman's house.

Now Moss is an assistant baseball coach at Notre Dame High School in this Los Angeles neighborhood, but he could wind up with another significant Cincinnati baseball connection soon enough. One of his players is prep phenom Hunter Greene, who some feel is the favorite to be selected by the Reds with the second pick in the draft Monday.

“It’s pretty cool to think it could happen,” Moss said. “I hope it happens. I don’t think Hunter is a Skyline Chili guy, but I could see him at Montgomery Inn a lot.”

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No player in this year’s draft arrives with as much hype as the 17-year-old Greene. He’s a lanky 6-foot-4 and 197 pounds, but is considered by some to be a generational talent. He carries a first-round grade as a shortstop, but many predict his future will be on the mound after the right-hander fired fastballs up to 102 mph this year.

The fact that he’s being considered for such a high draft pick speaks to his potential. Teams historically have been unwilling to spend such a high pick on prep pitchers, especially right-handers. Only three high school arms have been taken with the first overall pick, and all were lefties. Prep pitchers going second is more common, but only three high school pitchers have gone at No. 2 since 1978.

For a team to do something considered to be so risky – especially in the age of pitcher arm injuries – a player must be head-and-shoulders above his peers. Greene certainly has generated that type of excitement, as Notre Dame head coach Tom Dill knows well.

Dill has coached more than his fair share of eventual big-leaguers. He had Dickerson, shortstop Brendan Ryan and catcher Brett Hayes go on to lengthy big-league careers. His marquee alumnus is Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton, whom Dill still calls Mike out of habit.

Stanton is another physical marvel who does things almost no one else can do. As a prep player, he generated but a fraction of the interest that Greene has, Dill said. Once Greene threw 102 mph in a January scrimmage, Notre Dame’s fancy field-turf baseball stadium became the center of the amateur scouting world.

“That’s when it got crazy,” Dill said. “Then it was GMs. I had a game where four GMs were at the game. I’d never had that before. I’d never met a GM, I don’t think.”

Greene probably always has been destined to be taken highly in the draft. He’s been baseball-focused since he could flash his age on his fingers, and Dill marvels at how the Greene family seems to have prepared for the frenzied attention the 17-year-old's talent would generate. Still, Dill couldn’t have predicted Greene would be this good.

Dill started Greene at short as a freshman and saw his talent there, but as a pitcher he was throwing in the low 80s out of the bullpen. But with each year came more ticks on the radar gun. The summer before his sophomore year, he hit 90 mph. As a sophomore, he hit 92. A year later came 96, and then the fateful 102 as a senior.

It defies logic, but Dill isn’t so sure that Greene is done adding velocity. He’s never seen someone make such leaps when it comes to throwing hard, and doing it with such an easy throwing motion.

“You don’t usually keep going,” Dill said. “How hard can you throw? What’s the hardest you can throw? Does he throw 108 next year? I don’t know.”

Throwing that hard that young comes with a heightened risk for arm injuries, which is a large reason why Greene was shut down after just five starts this year. He hasn’t pitched in more than a month, and the 28 innings he produced as a senior will have to be enough for interested teams.

The Reds are certainly among those, though they are not alone. Greene was unavailable to talk for this story because he was headed to Minnesota for a meeting with the Twins, who hold the No. 1 pick. It’s unlikely he’d last past the San Diego Padres at No. 3 if the Twins and Reds pass.

Like many Reds fans, Moss is pulling for Cincinnati.

“That ballpark, that city, as much as they love professional baseball there and just being a great city, the great downtown environment around the professional stadiums,” Moss said, “it would be awesome for Hunter.”