Hunter Greene’s throwing motion resembles honey flowing from a pot. He can throw a fastball at a hundred miles per hour as if throwing a horseshoe. As easy as a Sunday morning. Maybe that’s why David Bell let Greene shoot 118 shots Sunday in Pittsburgh. It’s so easy.
After seven hitless innings, Greene had hit 103 shots. Not so long ago, the mark of the century was the unwritten separation between a beginner pitcher and his pen. Now it’s less than that. Five-inning starters make a smart living in baseball today.
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Greene was on 103 shots in a 0-0 game. Greene came out to pitch the eighth. I grimaced. He was knocked down, and then he went down to a batter. My elbow started to hurt. When he stepped on a Pirate moment, I feared that on Greene’s next pitch, his elbow would land on catcher Aramis Garcia’s glove, right next to the baseball.
“He worked his way through to have a chance to play nine rounds, get a win and a safe shot,” Bell said later.
Greene threw 212 professional baseball innings, the vast majority of them against bus passengers who couldn’t see his fastball, let alone soften it. They are bigger than any Greene I have faced in Chattanooga.
A week ago, another 22-year-old pitcher, Reid Detmers of the California Angels, threw a no-hitter pitch. 3 years of launch at the University of Louisville.
Greene didn’t go on to college, but is now moving on to school. Perhaps Bell sought to push his young pitcher to his intellectual and physical limits. Greene’s advance by 7 0. 33 innings showed who he could be. Now we are moving on to see how he recovers.
Why do we see how he recovers?
You put Hunter Greene’s right hand in a window between exits. You don’t send it to 118 locations. Greene threw too many balls for a full game without a set shot. Forty-nine, to be exact. If Greene hurts his arm by throwing adrenaline-filled sliders in search of a relatively meaningless no-no in front of a variety of more common Triple-A vagabonds, what has anyone gained?
What if Greene had tried to do too much with a pitch and knocked down his glorious slider?”I felt pop” would be the next thing we would hear him say. He has already undergone surgery on Tommy John.
The 118 were the most shots taken this season. According to Keith Law in Stat-Based Baseball Fangraphs, “Since the start of the 2012 season, only 3 times has a pitcher age 22 or older thrown at least 118 pitches,” none. in those beyond 4 years.
This is the territory of the red zone. If Greene has the kind of career we expect for him, he will have more than a few opportunities to throw a hit. Unless the arm is damaged. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts retired Clayton Kershaw this year after seven best innings. Kershaw threw all 80 shots, but still retired thirteen batters. The term is “effective in height”. Greene wasn’t that.
Kershaw has treated back injuries over the years, never having Tommy John surgery. Again, Greene does.
The Reds’ 2022 total point is to prepare for 2023 and beyond. There is no instant gratification here. C is the sport of parents who invest in their children’s school fund. Praise is on the way. Don’t joke about profit along the way.
The same logic applies to the problem of open receptor concussion Tyler Stephenson. He had three. Concussions are sinister. Not because of its rapid impact. For the collective value they take. The next one is less difficult to suffer than the previous one. If you think five years later and not five minutes, Stephenson is your first baseman. That’s a no-brainer. Voluntary word game.
Stephenson had to leave the game on Saturday after a fake ball from his mask. Just because you tested negative on concussion test #4 doesn’t mean you don’t need to worry. Move him to first base. Joey Votto can DH on his return.
At the very least, reduce Stephenson’s time behind the plate. Plan a long career that includes a decade or more of Stephenson. This is only imaginable if it is not a common receiver.
In the meantime, give Hunter Greene an extra day off. Find this showcase. There’s not much time on the injured list.