Hunter Greene is a right-handed pitcher who plays baseball for Notre Dame High School in California. Greene is listed at 6’3” and 195 pounds, with a raw, athletic body.

Greene is committed to UCLA, but it is unlikely that he will attend college. He has received more hype than any other prospect in this year’s draft, although that is mostly due to marketing purposes. At the beginning of the year, he was considered the top prospect in the draft, but he has lost helium as the draft has gotten closer.

Greene has three usable pitches in his repertoire: fastball, slider, and changeup. His fastball sits in the mid-nineties, usually topping out at 97 mph, but has gone higher. His slider will need a lot of work since it has little depth or bite, yet he throws it hard enough that it should be around average when he reaches the majors. His changeup is his worst pitch, but scouts believe that it will develop into an average offering since his fastball can be used to set it up. The heat that he throws is impressive, but his arsenal will need more fine tuning than the other top high school pitchers in the country.

There are some concerns that his velocity will not play against higher competition since he tends to show the ball early and leave it up in the zone. Even his high school competition in California seems to have figured this out, as he has trouble fooling hitters into chasing pitches outside the strike zone. These issues should be correctable through a long development process, and once he learns to open his upper half later in his delivery, the strikeout numbers could climb.

Greene’s control should not be a major problem, although it will never be above average. He is more of a thrower now than a pitcher, but his natural athletic talent should serve him well once he transitions full time to the mound.

The Minnesota Twins are unlikely to make him the first right-handed high school pitcher to be taken number one overall, but there is still a possibility that they could draft him. The Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres have both been watching him closely as well, and he is unlikely to fall past the third pick.

Overall, Greene may be the most recognizable player in the draft class, but one scout I talked to said that he is already at maximum velocity and that he will likely lose some by the time he reaches the majors, so when people see him on their television screens it may not be what was advertised by Sports Illustrated. Greene is one of the best prospects in the draft, but there is an unfair amount of pressure on him, and it could be many years before we see him in the big leagues, yet when he receives the call it will no doubt be exciting to watch.