Tigers fans, you’ve got a great one in Riley Greene.
- Born: September 28, 2000
- B/T: Left/Left
- 6’3″, 200-lbs
- Drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 2019 MLB June Amateur Draft from Paul J. Hagerty HS (Oviedo, FL)
The Numbers
His raw numbers are listed above courtesy of baseball-reference.com. Let’s aggregate by year then focus on the important numbers for minor leaguers:
What does a top prospect look like in the stat line? It looks like the “Level” column above. In 2019, after he was drafted, he blew through three levels. In 2021, he took care of the other levels, the top levels of the minor league system, as a 20-year-old.
Furthermore, his numbers got better as he climbed levels. He always shows a bit of speed, and his power grew, while his strikeouts remained reasonable, and he took his walks. He produced runs for his team.
Breaking it by each level, the only time he struggled was at A-ball in the end of the 2019 season. You know, the year where he was drafted, signed, began playing professional ball, took care of Rookie ball in short order, took in Low-A ball in pretty good shape, and then finally ran out of gas in A-ball. As an 18-year-old. How much responsibility did you have at 18?
Other than that late-2019 blip, he always draws his walks, and he strikes out between 24% and 28% of the time. He has power and on-base ability, and yes, he can steal a base.
He likes hitting lefties more than righties, but when you get on base against righties at a .337 and a .391 clip, there’s no need to be talking about platooning here. He can hit over .300 against anyone.
That just shows his 2019 hits, and that shows the pull power he had as a teenager. In 2021 he showed more power. In 2021 he had a Hard Hit% of 32.8%, which is fantastic. The kid has power.
The Scouts
- Rotowire: #3 on their Top 400
- Fantrax: #4 on their Top 400
- Fantasy Six Pack: #80 on their dynasty Top 1,000+
- Imaginary Brick Wall: #4 on their Top 473
Warnings
Does he strike out too much?
Is the speed enough to get more than a handful of bags?
I’m reaching here…
Conclusion
At the rate Greene is going, he’ll be in Detroit early in 2022, and the fans will love him. He can play the outfield just fine, and he can hit lefties with a vengeance, and righties pretty well too, so he will get full-time ABs when he reaches the majors. As I write this, he already hit a home run in spring training, so yeah, he might even reach the majors in April.