Cincinnati Reds young star Hunter Greene is still adjusting to life as a major league hurler.
Certain expectations come with the position, and they are often unfair.
Once they settle down and let their talent do the talking, these talented pitchers often start to shine.
This is precisely what is happening with Greene.
“21, 21, 21. Hunter Greene has been named the NL Player of the Week,” the Reds’ Twitter account wrote on Monday.
21, 21, 21.
Hunter Greene has been named the NL Player of the Week❗ pic.twitter.com/bLQu24d9fo
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) June 13, 2022
This past week included two excellent starts from Greene.
He Can Be Really Tough To Hit When On
He covered 12 innings and had a 0.75 ERA, 15 strikeouts, and a minuscule 0.42 WHIP in the two starts.
Batters hit a meager .079 off him.
This is the perfect time to show MLB audiences just how dominant Greene can be when his command is on point.
The 22-year-old flamethrower can surpass 100 mph with his fastball, but if he can’t locate it, he won’t be an upper-echelon pitcher.
When he does, however, he can be a monster, which is precisely what happened this last week.
Greene is a young pitcher playing in MLB for the first time in his career: there will surely be some obstacles in the way.
But he projects to be an elite pitcher once he is considered a finished product.
Right now, he has a somewhat disappointing 5.10 ERA in 60 innings, but the Reds are not expected to contend this season and have the luxury of letting Greene learn from his mistakes.
That 5.10 ERA could decrease in a hurry if he has more weeks like this in the foreseeable future.
Hopefully, he unlocked something and can now show more consistency throwing quality strikes.
As baseball fans, we all want him to do well.
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