Follow the Prospects: Elijah Green, OF

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Wily Mo played mostly CF in the minors.  He was smaller than Green back then.

Wily Mo had the MLB contract, so i guess he played 3 years in the minors and burned the options?

[SkinsNatFan21RIP]

Poll: Worst top draft pick of last couple years?

Nats - Elijah Green?
Wiz - Johnny Davis?
SKins - Emmanuel Forbes?

Forbes. Especially when you factor in Rivera picked him over Gonzalez for no reason.

[imref]

Way too early to write off Green. He showed some glimpses of why he was such a highly regarded pick last year. Let's see what happens this year and remember that he's only 21.

[IanRubbish]

Re: Wily Mo, he never had the patience that Green has.  Green's issue is the obscene number of K's, but he's nothing like Wily Mo.

[IanRubbish]

9K's in his first 10 ABs in Wilmington this year

[imref]

4 for his last 11 with a HR and 3Ks

[welch]

4 for his last 11 with a HR and 3Ks

He would be "found money".

[imref]

He would be "found money".

Disagree. He's 21 and was drafted as a guy who needed to develop but had a high ceiling.

[welch]

Disagree. He's 21 and was drafted as a guy who needed to develop but had a high ceiling.

Meaning that we have written him off. "A bust". Comparisons above to Willy Mo Pena, the guy who closed his eyes as he swung.

If EG learns to connect, he will be a star. Power and speed.

[imref]

Carrying this discussion over here from the Crews thread in The Clubhouse:

Seaver King was picked with better talent on the board and Elijah Green was always a "what if" even before he was drafted. I just hate that we were the team to draft him.

FWIW, I looked up the 5 players taken after Green:
#6: Jacob Berry - Almost 24, in AAA, currently hitting .083 with a .431 OPS
#7: Cade Horton - 23 year old pitcher who had a 7.50 ERA in AAA last year in 5 starts but who has had two great starts so far this year
#8: Brooks Lee - 24 in AAA, hitting .300 with a .664 OPS in 3 games, 10 ABs. Jumped from A to AAA in 2024
#9: Gavin Cross - 24 in AA, hitting .270 with a .688 OPS. Spent last year in AA and hit .261 / .770 with 15HR and 30SBs
#10: Gabriel Hughes 23 in AA, 6.21 ERA last year in 14 starts across A+ and AA. Good so far this year with a 2.25 ERA in 2 starts at AA

All of those players are much older than Green, none are looking like superstars yet though I'd certainly rather have the two pitchers at this point.

[Smithian]

Elijah Green was drafted knowing he was a risk.

I think Seaver King worst case is still improving enough to be an AAAA utility player. Green? I always knew his floor was low. He was drafted for the sky high ceiling.

[imref]

2nd HR tonight

[RD]

Carrying this discussion over here from the Crews thread in The Clubhouse:

FWIW, I looked up the 5 players taken after Green:
#6: Jacob Berry - Almost 24, in AAA, currently hitting .083 with a .431 OPS
#7: Cade Horton - 23 year old pitcher who had a 7.50 ERA in AAA last year in 5 starts but who has had two great starts so far this year
#8: Brooks Lee - 24 in AAA, hitting .300 with a .664 OPS in 3 games, 10 ABs. Jumped from A to AAA in 2024
#9: Gavin Cross - 24 in AA, hitting .270 with a .688 OPS. Spent last year in AA and hit .261 / .770 with 15HR and 30SBs
#10: Gabriel Hughes 23 in AA, 6.21 ERA last year in 14 starts across A+ and AA. Good so far this year with a 2.25 ERA in 2 starts at AA

All of those players are much older than Green, none are looking like superstars yet though I'd certainly rather have the two pitchers at this point.

Guys are still young so the jury is still out. But the guys before him haven't been too hot either. Termarr Johnson has been mediocre. Druw Jones has been banged up but hasn't been up to the hype either. Of course, Rocker and and Holliday have made it to the show.

If I remember correctly Kevin Parada was the other guy connected to the Nats quite a bit. He hasn't fared well either. Hasn't been able to figure AA out in his 3rd trip there, 2nd full season.

[imref]

Guys are still young so the jury is still out. But the guys before him haven't been too hot either. Termarr Johnson has been mediocre. Druw Jones has been banged up but hasn't been up to the hype either. Of course, Rocker and and Holliday have made it to the show.

If I remember correctly Kevin Parada was the other guy connected to the Nats quite a bit. He hasn't fared well either. Hasn't been able to figure AA out in his 3rd trip there, 2nd full season.

i went back and looked at the 2022 draft thread. Green, Parada, Temarr Johnson and Brooks Lee were all linked to the Nats at one point or another.

Johnson went 4th. He's at AA this season after playing in A+ last year. Seems to be a high OBP / low power / high speed guy. He's only 20. He strikes out about 30% of his ABs.

[Elvir Ovcina]

i went back and looked at the 2022 draft thread. Green, Parada, Temarr Johnson and Brooks Lee were all linked to the Nats at one point or another.

Johnson went 4th. He's at AA this season after playing in A+ last year. Seems to be a high OBP / low power / high speed guy. He's only 20. He strikes out about 30% of his ABs.

Johnson has a fair amount of power, especially for a guy who's his size (5'8" or so).  15 homers as a young-for-level 20-year-old is decent pop.  My issue is that he sells out a bit for it, again due to his size.  I saw him yank one about 370 right down the line last year in Greensboro with not much air under it.  Ball was smashed.   He also has limited defensive upside, though: he's really 2B-only and no more than above average there.

But he does hit the ball, which Green does not regularly do.  For those who don't think Green is at all like Wily Mo as a prospect: he's a power/speed guy who absolutely smashes bad fastballs but can't hit anything off-speed at all and is a potential plus defender with a cannon arm.  That's Wily Mo Pena when he first came up, to a T.

Green would have been quite good 20 years ago.  Pitching has changed.  There are no longer many guys throwing lifeless 91-mph 2 seamers with only an unproblematic tight 3-inch slider, even in the mid-minors.

[nobleisthyname]

Wily Mo Peña had a significantly better hit tool than Green. Peña never struck out more than 30% of the time in the minors and even in the majors had a career 30.3% K rate. Except for an 8 game stretch in 2023 in the Nationals' complex league, Green has never managed a K rate below 40%.

He's at 46.8% so far this season through 12 games in A+.

[imref]

Another HR and a SB tonight.