Wild Thing: Blue Jays prospect Greene gets Sheen-esque encouragement from Charlie Sheen

Toronto Blue Jays pitching prospect Conner Greene is not like all minor-leaguers. The high-ceiling right-hander has some acting pedigree, as fans know well by now, appearing in a small role on the show Anger Management after meeting Charlie Sheen, who he calls a friend.

Yesterday, Greene was named the Eastern League (double-A) Pitcher of the Week after throwing six no-hit innings. This morning, Sheen tweeted out his encouragement that begins, as all good encouragement does, with “bro…”.

Sheen nicknamed Greene Ricky Vaughn Jr. after his character Wild Thing in the movie Major League.

“Tony Todd was a high school coach, he scouted me and he just so happened to be a long-time friend of Charlie Sheen,” Greene told Mark Zwolinski of The Star back in March. “So I said to him, ‘I gotta meet Charlie.’ He said ‘I’ll make you a deal, — you get drafted and I’ll set it up.’ So the next day I got drafted and before I knew it I was playing catch with Charlie Sheen.”

Greene comes with a little bit of the Daniel Norris gene, too, and is a lover of surfing.

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“With me, it’s baseball first,” he told The Star, “100 per cent. I wouldn’t be anywhere else (the acting, the surfing) if it came down to baseball.”

After pitching to a 2.90 ERA over 15 starts with the advanced-A Dunedin Blue Jays, Greene earned a promotion to double-A New Hampshire where he’s found some bumps in the road. In eight outings, he owns a 4.40 ERA, but there’s reason to believe the 21-year-old is turning a corner.

Including his recent no-hit bid, two of his past four starts were very strong and he’s held opponents to a .226 batting average, much better than his .252 mark from Dunedin.

Originally considered as the number one or two Blue Jays prospect by most rankings entering the season, Greene’s stock has dipped slightly. With 122.2 innings under his belt already this year, however, Greene will push in the direction of 150 and should position himself well for a big 2017 season.