The 2017 Major League Draft is On Hunter Greene Time

Out of nowhere last night C asks me if I want to watch the MLB draft.  I told him "sure," unsure why he wanted to watch it.  But to spend time with my 15 year old son without the pretense of telling him some life lesson really appealed to me. 

When I walked back into the living room - our so called couch room - I was the draft on and he was sitting on the couch.

"So who do you think is going to be taken #1" I asked.

"This 17 year old kid from California.  He throws the ball 102 MPH and hits bombs..." C explains to me.

"102 MPH?" I picked my head up.  "Really?  What's his name?"

Not the greatest throwing motion...

"Hunter Greene" C tells me, as he shows me a video of him pitching.  That's impressive as I'm watching his highlight package that any recruiting service would be proud of.  "He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated last week."

"What's Sports Illustrated??" I say half-joking.


We then hear the MLB Network guys tell us that Minnesota is on the clock.  Oh, I forgot how much I dislike Harold Reynolds.  2 hours of listening to him not giving me any insight at all should be fun.  I have never even heard of the other guys.  I guess they didn't take any castoffs from ESPN.

I look at Baseball America's website to look up a little more about Greene.  Topping radar guns at 101-102, he throws 4 pitches for strikes.  At the same time he has a lot of pop in his bat at his position of shortstop.  Quite an impressive resume.  I also noticed that he worked extensively with Alan Jaeger.  The guy who teaches long toss and has those bands that I have trouble talking to c about, much less institute.  I think C knows more about this kid than he knows about anyone on the Red Sox.  The Twins are still on the clock.

And the Twins are still on the clock.  I guess it is not an advantage that the Twins have an extra 10 minutes to decided since they have had since the season ended to decide who they were going to take First overall.  Finally Rob Manfred comes up to the podium to declare the first overall selection. 

The Twins ended up taking a different shortstop from California, however - Royce Lewis from Jserra Catholic HS.  Another kid with a lot of pop, but also plus speed.  The Reds picking second end up taking Greene.  I would rather go to Cincinnati myself than Minneapolis.  C remarks that the Lewis is not that good, even in High School and he has not idea where "UC Irvine" is - the school Lewis committed to.  I tell him that maybe it has to do with signability, although one would have heard about that before hand.

C and I watch for a couple of more hours.  I finally turn off the TV when the Red Sox selected Tanner Houck from Missouri.  A lot of talent in the first round.