The Rockies will promote top pitching prospect Jon Gray to the majors on Tuesday, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding reports (Twitter link). Gray, a 23-year-old right-hander, will make his Major League debut that evening at Coors Field in a start against the Mariners.
Rockies GM Jeff Bridich expressed some caution over Gray’s timeline to the Show earlier this month, saying that he wanted Gray to be fully prepared before coming to Denver, possibly influenced by how Eddie Butler, another Rockies prospect, has struggled since coming to the majors. Given how the Rockies have long been lacking in reliable starting pitching, it’s hard to fault Bridich for being careful with such a vaunted homegrown prospect, though it remains to be seen how Gray will adjust to the unique challenge of Coors Field.
Gray’s impressive performance in July may have swayed Bridich’s mind, as the righty has posted a 2.70 ERA and 43 strikeouts (against just 13 walks) over his last 30 innings for Triple-A Albuquerque. For the season as a whole, Gray has a 4.33 ERA, 8.7 K/9 and 2.68 K/BB rate over 114 1/3 innings; respectable numbers considering it’s his first taste of Triple-A action and the Pacific Coast League is notoriously hitter-friendly.
Colorado selected Gray with the third overall pick of the 2013 amateur draft, and he’ll join Kris Bryant, Marco Gonzales, Chi Chi Gonzalez, Michael Lorenzen, Corey Knebel and Matt Marksberry as 2013 draftees to reach the Major Leagues. A University of Oklahoma product, Gray is a 6’4″, 235-pound righty who the 2015 Baseball America Prospect Handbook projected as a possible No. 2 starter at the big league level. According to the BA Handbook, Gray owns an above-average changeup, a slider that could also become an above-average out pitch and a booming fastball that touched the 102mph plateau as recently as 2013, though he was working in the 94mph range last season.
Gray entered 2015 ranked highly top-100 prospects lists from MLB.com (#16th), ESPN’s Keith Law (#22), Baseball America (#24) and Fangraphs (#28). The midseason BA top-50 prospects list bumped Gray down to 35th, noting that “scouts who have seen Gray wish they saw dominant outings on a more consistent basis.” It’s worth mentioning that this list was released on July 7, prior to much of Gray’s recent strong work.
Hooray!!!
they sure love to rush their pitching prospects. lets get them rocked as soon as possible is the philosophy.
yeah…no.
I wouldn’t consider 2 years for a 3rd overall out of college rushing it.. The Royals brought Finnegan up last year after only a couple of months.. The Phillies promoted Nola a few weeks ago and he was just drafted last year..
those are the worst examples, those 2 were literally drafted because they were at their ceilings already… i.e major league ready the day they were drafted. finnegan isn’t a starter, they can try but he’s not. nola is a mid rotation guy, was the day he was drafted.
So your argument lists two out of 1200 people drafted a year ago were promoted. His argument is that it is rushing because he isn’t exactly blowing people away in the minors. I’m siding with cookiemonster on this one
He’s 2.70 over his last 6 starts in the PCL with stuff remaining in the mid 90’s and a lowered pitch count with 8 of 10 changeups meeting scout expectations.
If someone wants to take the side of pitching prospects not turning out stellar they aren’t exactly Nostradamus….but if Gray were getting called to their team they’d be excited. It’s better to have Gray…who timeline looks a lot like Carlos Rodon…than keep restocking with #5 free agent retreads. People need to understand that even getting an average staff together in Denver makes the Rockies a challenge due to the offensive advantage.
Fact is…people just go grab some stats with little insight and start making comments that they want to make.
stats are irrevelant. there is no benefit to bringing him now.
Cookie monster…there’s no sense in leaving him in AAA to shut down on Labor Day. Hes been excellent in a tough league over the summer. They likley want to run him out there to help adjust their winter philosophy. He’s not all that rushed. Similar to Rodon last year…just a teams call on what they want to do. I think we need to consider this his September call up. Player clock be darned…
I’m looking forward to seeing him pitch in the majors. But it seems like a bit of a desperate rush by the Rockies. He was struggling in AAA this year and had been very average in AA. A 4.33 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP in AAA doesn’t pop out as someone ready for the bigs quite yet, and his ERA was in the high 3’s at AA before that. I guess it’s throw him in the deep end of the pool and learn to swim time in Colorado…
As the article mentions a 4.33 ERA in the PCL is actually pretty respectable.. The entire league is a hitter’s paradise..
I’d see games in Colorado Springs and Albuquerque and the ball would just sail like it had helium in it. We’re talking pop outs that would normally be less than warning track short carrying out by 20 ft….gap shot liners turning into wall one hoppers…
UMy only issue with Cubs fans is that they’re so sold on the magic of Theo that they have this feeling that all prospects he touches are gold. To be fair this was Royals fans too….who’ve basically had like 1/3 of their vaunted system pan out. So….go apply that 1/3 theory to the Cubs.
Would the next Rockies disappointment please stand up.
Why are you so negative about every other teams prospects? Don’t need to be so bitter. Not like Josh Vitters or Brett Jackson panned out. Albert Almora dropped of every notable prospect list and Javier Baez looks like Ryan Howard except he plays 2B.
I don’t think Howard has ever struck out as much as Baez.. In Howard’s first extended look at the majors he struck out 100 times in 348 at bats or about 29% of the time.. Last year Baez struck out 95 times in 229 at bats or about 42% of the time.. So Brixton, please don’t tarnish Ryan Howard’s hitting ability by comparing him to Baez..
you mean howard as a 25 year old compared to baez as a 21 year old? sure that’s fair…
Ryan Howard won a Rookie of the Year, NL MVP, a World Series title, and has made over $100 million dollars in his career. I don’t think Javier Baez would mind that comparison as much as you think.
Issue is that Baez looks like the downhill Howard. .238 20 hr type
I’m not sure any Cubs fan has much room to talk about prospects panning out…that organization has a history of washouts….I mean its shorter to name anyone that has worked out. Oh…Joe Carter…whoops…guess he worked out in that Mel Hall trade with Cleveland. Hall of Fame 3B Gary Scott….Mark Prior.
@Brixton I’m not bitter, I’m realistic. And thanks for pointing out Cubs prospects who haven’t or didn’t pan out, never heard that before. What’s next, are you going to tell me that the Cubs haven’t won a World Series in over 100 years?
107 years to be exact
Being “Realistic” would be including facts or statistics to back up what your side of the argument is. This just looks trollish more than anything else.
You overlooked Matt Marksberry, the Braves 15th round selection in 2013, who made his debut in the past few days.
Post updated. Thanks.
Big mistake comparing one teams prospect to another’s prospect. They bare little resemblance to each other. Thing is…if Gray comes up and is hot he’ll cool off..and if he gets shelled he’ll likely find a happy medium level of production. It’ll be awhile before we know what we have. But if pitchers CAN’T toss in Denver then there is no use having a team there. But there’s balance..the offense gets a boost and other teams much pitch there as well without being built to pitch or play there 81 times. Coors should be an advantage.
So they give him a month worth of starts to see what he has at the MLB level and then shut him down after labor day…not sure it’s that big of a deal. They weren’t going to wait until roster expanison and then let him rack the innings up to end the season. They’re just letting him finish his season in the big leagues