Hunter Greene will have some new hardware to add to his shelves as he was just named as the National League Player of the Week for his performance over the last seven days. The Cincinnati Reds rookie made two starts and threw 12.0 innings between his games against the Arizona Diamondbacks and St. Louis Cardinals. In that span he allowed just three hits, one run, walked two batters, and he picked up 15 strikeouts. With an ERA of 0.75, a WHIP of 0.42, and he’s held batters to a .079 average while having just two walks and 15 strikeouts it’s tough to imagine another pitcher, or batter for that matter, having a week that could top that one.
For the most part last week was just more of the same Hunter Greene that we’ve been watching over the last month. On May 5th the 22-year-old rookie was lit up by Milwaukee for eight runs in 2.2 innings. His ERA after the game – which was his 5th start of the season – was 8.71. Things weren’t looking great as he had just allowed five home runs to the Brewers before getting out of the 3rd inning. The script has flipped since then, though. Greene has now made seven starts in the month+ since then and he’s allowed just 14 runs in 39.1 innings – that’s good for a 3.20 ERA. He’s also walked just 15 batters, allowed just five home runs, and he’s struck out 50 of the 158 batters he’s faced in that span. In his last five starts he’s walked just six hitters.
There’s been plenty of adjustments for Greene since the start of the season. He’s switched up his pitch usage several times. He’s been able to manipulate his slider to give two different looks on the pitch. The usage of his fastball has been going down despite him having the fastest fastball in Major League Baseball. He still hasn’t thrown a change up to a single right-handed batter all season, but he’s finding success right now without that being on the table.
Over at Fangraphs earlier today, Ben Clemens took a look at Hunter Greene and how he was utilizing his pitches to take advantage of his stuff and take advantage of hitters. Go give it a read.
And the Reds continue to waste good starts.
Just try to enjoy the good starts. The team aside from the top 4 of the rotation is just very unstable right now with no obvious path to better times on the horizon.
A nice concept but I want to see accountability. And we haven’t seen any in a long, long time.
Jim Maloney first came up in 1960 but didn’t really settle in until 1963. He was Reds ace in 1960s.
Gary Nolan first came up in 1967 but didn’t really settle in until the 1970s. He and Don Gullett were Reds aces on Big Red Machine before Seaver came to town.
Mario Soto first came up in 1977 but didn’t settle in until 1980s. He was Reds ace in 1980s.
Reds P rarely take off in their rookie years. Wayne Simpson did in 1970 but he was never that good again. Tom Browning never had a better year than his rookie season in 1985.
new rope meet gripes
Every time good news is posted about the Reds, I can always count on a negative post from LDS to throw a bucket of cold water on my excitement.
What you can count on is I’m not distracted by individual awards and rah-rah fandom. I still want to see results. Too many here are happy to trash the roster or talk about meaningless analytics (player x is unlucky, look at his BABIP) or Votto hit a home run, he’s back. In the end, the Reds usually lose. So, I don’t care about individual awards nearly as much as actually winning games. The team has a culture of losing and not holding any manager or player accountable. That I find inexcusable. So those of you happy with good starts, player of the week awards, or a player having a good game, more power to you. I’ll hold out for actual teams wins.
Just a suggestion, but you may want to switch your allegiance to one of the teams with double the payroll of the Reds. They may get the “results” you’re looking for.
I’ve probably been a Reds fan longer than you’ve been alive. And it’s not a payroll issue. It’s a management and system issue.
Baseball is a unique game where it is a team game, but team performance is made up of individual performances in 1 on 1 battles with an opponent. So if you want to celebrate team wins, you better start celebrating individual accomplishments. As they oile up, the team wins will come.
*pile
LDS, this reminds me of a long debate over at RedsMinorLeagues regarding Ben Lively and Robert Stephenson. And I apologize for reminding anybody of that debacle. One fellow argued endlessly for the minor league system and the club to reward “production” by pushing Lively ahead of Stephenson on the promotion list. This took place regardless of Lively has more pedestrian stuff than Stephenson, not to mention a smaller draft investment. He wanted “production” to trump “development,” one, and “investment,” two. It was never gonna happen. Yet the dude raged against the machine endlessly. Might have actually gotten banished, though I cannot be sure. I think what most objected to was the negativity directed against a prospect many were rooting for (Stephenson), even though many also were impressed with Lively. So what I’m reading into this discussion here is this. The accountability issue, right now, with THIS team, is almost irrelevant. For instance, David Bell has a new 3-year deal. He’s staying. So is DJ. The bullpen has some large craters, but there’s no one else to throw. The Mendoza line will hereafter be called the Acquino Line (or as I prefer, Mr. Slider Away). I think the fella over on RedsMinorLeagues eventually lost his mind over something that wasn’t in the cards and was not going to be in the cards. In others words, not only was the calvalry not coming, they were never going to come.
Just my thoughts.
I agree DaveCT, we’re doomed to lousy, uncompetitive teams as far as the eye can see. But, I guess that’s the modern world from baseball to politics – mediocrity thrives.
LDS,
“What is the Peter Principle?
The Peter Principle is a human resource theory. The overall concept of his theory is that people within an organization are promoted until they reach a level at which they are incompetent.”
PS I’m doing doing heart prevention
Totally agree with you wkuchad!
LDS – The Reds are winning and you are still complaining. The Reds are 19-17 with a winning record in their last 36 games. After a horrible start, this team has overachieved given the roster and young players. There isn’t a high chance of making the playoffs this year due to the start among other things. It is fair to complain after the initial poor performance but that’s over a month ago. No need to post on the positive articles and player achievements with negativity.
Thankfully, Ashcraft was human yesterday or I’d be eating even more crow for being a tad insistent over the winter that both start in AAA.
Sometimes being wrong is a good thing
Fortunately it’s the Reds so I just try to break even. Hahaha
12 innings was a 5 inning outing and a rain shortened 7 inning outing where he threw a lot of pitches
Next step is pitch efficiency. Especially with this bullpen and his talent need him going 6 and 7 innings every game. If he can figure that out, watch out baseball
Greene’s pitch efficiency is a work in progress (and Ashcraft is a good influence therein), and I wouldn’t bet against him. Yes, he throws more pitches than some and he needs to work on it, but he is a rookie that has had less seasoning than most rookies.
However your depiction of “a rain shortened 7 inning outing where he threw a lot of pitches” amounted to 87 pitches is off the mark. That is pitch efficiency at it’s best.
Oh geez, I’m obviously thinking of a different start apparently.
Yes – that is pitch efficiency. And tbh he strikes out a lot of hitters, which takes pitches to do. If that’s what continues to work for him I am all for it – just looking at what absolute ceiling would be
No worries. These games do all blend together and HG could certainly pitch more efficiently.
As I said earlier, my money is on Hunter figuring it out.
I guess it’s safe to say now he shouldn’t be sent down to AAA. 🙂
Now, yes, safe to say. Five starts into the season was not safe to say.
Also safe to say now Drury should not have been jettisoned, though many called for it.
Safe to say now, or at least looks more likely, that Votto should not have been put to pasture, as many wanted.
Not safe to say Barrero is ready, and the longer his ST goes, the worse his numbers get, though many wanted him up as fast as possible.
Safer to say Farmer is a player, and for more than one month of his career.
Hindsight is handy.
@Doc, Careful, you can’t say nice things about Farmer on here. I wasn’t sold on the guy last year, but I’m all in this year. You put it well, Farmer is a player. It’ll be interesting to see how the Reds go forward with him. SS, Trade bait, position change, or role player. I’d keep him at SS, until someone takes it from him, I wouldn’t give it to someone.
Best case Ontario Barrero plays him off of it. Drury or Farmer as your utility guy is a much better roster than Reynolds or Lopez
I don’t know why you would be all in on Farmer. Even this year, where people think he looks great, he still has an OPS+ of 105. This is the first year he’s ever been above the average player, and only by 5%. I’m not all in on 5% above average on the team’s starting shortstop. Is Barrero the answer? Who knows. But Farmer is not. The only reason 5% above average seems so good this year is because his bar is so low.
Don’t read me as anti Barrero. I want Barrero to play everyday, just not as our SS. We need OF help, and we need it now, but we especially need it in 23. With Barrero’s speed and arm, he’d make a great CF or RF.
Our organizations top 3 position prospects are Barrero, De La Cruz, and McLain, all 3 SS’s. That’s not to mention Torres who might be the best fielding SS of all of them. That’s a lot of options to take over SS, it’s not Barrero or bust, so why displace Farmer this year (who you admitted was above average), when next year McLain might be ready to take over. By 24 De La Cruz, or Torres could supplant Farmer.
I hate to say it, but McLain is likely a bench piece with a fairly low ceiling. And I believe that De La Cruz will eventually move off shortstop. I know he is opposed to it, but as that body fills out it may be unavoidable. I don’t think we are as flush with major league shortstops as you think.
I hear what your saying, obviously prospects are just that, and that includes Barrero. We don’t have an average or better OF for 2023, but we do have an average or better SS for 2023. That’s 3 spots that are not being covered by an average player.
McLain to me is an India type, a solid player not a super star. In fact I viewed India like you are viewing McLain, I thought he’d be a utility player. I thought the same of Barrero until his 2021 season in the minors. I think he’s earned his shot as an everyday guy. As soon as it looks like his bat is turning around, he needs to be promoted, and played on a daily basis.
On the quiet spaces of the internet I will let it slip, that I actually want Torres to take over SS, but he has a long way to go to earn it. He’s got to show he can make it through AA much less make it as the Reds everyday SS.
Can always count on you to disparage Barrero. He obviously wasn’t ready in 2020 when the Reds brought him up. But last year he killed AAA and then proceeded to get called up and sit on the bench. He had 56 PA in 21 games. Complete malpractice on how to handle a young player. I don’t expect him to get back to where he was immediately coming off a wrist injury, but thinking Farmer has any kind of future with the Reds and should be blocking him is very short-sighted.
Aquino the DH? I understand if you want his defense in RF, but Reynolds is definitely a much better choice to DH. BA a 100 pts higher, OBP 140 pts higher, SLG 85 pts higher and OPS about 230 pts higher.
Yeah but he’s the Punisher! He may hit his one home run of the month!
Wow, did someone read what I wrote? Haha
Just looked at the revised lineup and Reynolds is starting at 2B and Drury the DH.