Our objective here at IHOB is to educate you about baseball, so I thought it would be a good idea to give the readers here a little scouting report on the potential first round picks in this summer’s MLB entry draft. I already wrote about Stephen Strasburg a few weeks ago (you can find it here), so now I’m going to introduce you to Grant Green.
Green is a Shortstop from the University of Southern California; he was the first freshman to start for the Trojans at Shortstop. Green was drafted in 2006’s draft by the Padres in the 14th round but decided to put his professional career on hold to go to USC and play for the Trojans. His freshman year, Green won co-freshman of the year in the Pac-10 and then came back his sophomore year and hit .390. His freshman year at USC, Green hit .316 with 2 home runs, driving in 24 while stealing 6 bases. As mentioned previously he hit .390 his sophomore year, he also reached base at a .438 clip, while hitting 9 home runs, stealing 10 bases and driving in 46 runs. Green is a great athlete with good power for a middle infielder and displays good speed. Scouts say he rushes at times defensively but they believe he can play shortstop his entire career. Green played in the Cape Cod league and John Schiffner; his manager there believes that Green is as good as advertised. He is even compared to Evan Longoria by Schiffner, who says that Green is a five-tool talent.
So far this season, Green is hitting .389 and getting on base at a .465 clip through 29 games. He only has 2 home runs and 17 RBI but it is still early in the season so look for Green to get it together offensively and hitting the ball with more authority. Scouts also say his early season funk shouldn’t hurt his stock too much since it is early.
According to some mock drafts, Green will go as high as number 2 overall to the Seattle Mariners. Some believe that if the Washington Nationals believe they can’t sign Strasburg (due to the enormous financial demands by agent Scott Boras), they should draft Green instead as he is a polished hitter who won’t come with such an insane price tag. This is why the MLB Draft is so interesting because teams don’t draft based on need, they draft based on extenuating circumstances (such as financial terms) and who the best player available is due to the length of time players take to make an impact on the major league level.
Here’s a very short video of Grant Green:
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