Minor League Ball daily discussion, February 10th, 2017

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Minor League Ball daily discussion thread for Friday, February 10th, 2017.

Today my main work goal is completion of the rough draft of the Top 175 MLB prospects list for 2017. I have spots one through 160 complete. Today will be slogging through the large mass of Grade B- prospects to consolidate the final 15 spots. My goal is to issue the list on Monday.

After the Top 175 is done, we will update the Top 20 prospects per organization list to account for grade changes (there are a few), then we will begin to pivot to 2017 MLB Draft coverage.

As the college and high school baseball seasons get started, the top talent on the board right now is right-hander Hunter Greene, from Notre Dame High School in Stevenson Ranch, California. Greene is a candidate to become the first right-handed high school pitcher drafted first-overall. As J.J. Cooper noted yesterday at Baseball America:

Greene touched 97-98 mph on occasion last summer on the showcase circuit, but after an offseason of rest and workouts, it will be a surprise if he doesn’t tickle triple digits this spring. Scouts have already seen him touch 101 mph in games this month and he isn’t even fully stretched out yet.

Cooper notes that other recent high schoolers have hit 100, including Riley Pint last year, but Greene has some advantages over Pint or other recent hard-throwers like Tyler Kolek.

Pint’s velocity came with effort in his delivery. Greene’s is easy. It makes it easier for scouts to project him to consistently locate his fastball, something he’s already demonstrated. His fastball also has late life that generates swings and misses. He’s also shown a potentially plus slider, a curve and a promising changeup.

Another factor is Greene’s overall athleticism and feel for the game: he is also a fine hitting prospect and would be a first-round candidate as a shortstop. Indeed, note that the USA Today file photo illustrating this article is of Greene hitting. His makeup is also considered excellent. . .athleticism, makeup, velocity, polish, Greene looks like a complete package at this point.

We’ll see how things look three months from now, but what is your view on Greene at the moment? Would you draft him first overall if you were the Twins?