LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky junior right hander Scott Green has been tabbed the 12th best prospect in all of college baseball, as ranked on Tuesday by Baseball America.
Despite just throwing 17 2/3 innings last season while battling minor injuries, Green emerged as one of the top arms in college baseball with a dominating performance in the Cape Cod Summer Baseball League. The Cape Cod League is widely regarded as the top college summer baseball league in the country, annually attracting the top prospects in the game. Green and UK teammate Collin Cowgill teamed up on the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, leading the team to its second consecutive CCBL crown. Green posted stellar numbers during the summer, starting eight games and working in nine. The Louisville, Ky., native tallied a 3-1 record, and a 1.56 ERA. Green, who attended Male HS, notched a save in his only relief appearance during the summer, allowing seven earned runs and striking out 35 in 40 1/3 innings on the hill.
Green is one of nine Southeastern Conference players to be listed in the top 30, with Vanderbilt?s third baseman Pedro Alvarez ranking as the top player in college baseball. South Carolina?s first baseman Justin Smoak was listed as the third-best prospect. Gordon Beckham (SS, Georgia), Cody Satterwhite (RHP, Ole Miss), James Darnell (3B, South Carolina), Lance Lynn (RHP, Ole Miss), and Joshua Fields (RHP, Georgia) rounded out the SEC players listed in the top 30. The next closest conference in terms of players ranked in the top 30, was the ACC with six players ranked.
Last season, in just nine appearances out of the pen, Green tallied a 3.06 ERA and a 2-0 record. Green earned a save, striking out 20 in his 17 innings. Green missed the 2006 SEC Championship season while undergoing Tommy Johns surgery, after functioning as UK?s Friday night starter as a true freshman in 2005.
The top 30 college prospects for the 2008 draft are compiled by Baseball America through discussions with MLB scouts. Rankings are based on overall future potential without regard to signability or where players will be drafted in 2008.
Kentucky is in the midst of its annual Fall World Series, with game four of the seven-game series scheduled for a 2:45 p.m. EDT first pitch on Wednesday. Black controls a 2-1 series lead, after taking the first game 12-1, dropping game two to the Blue 4-2, and claiming game three on Sunday with a dramatic 11-10 win.
UK opens its 2008 season on Feb. 22, when it travels to the Coca-Cola Classic in Mobile, Ala.
