Gushing over Jon Gray

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

It is cool to actually see Jon Gray pitch. The excitement from the glowing reports on a top pitching prospect like him are one thing, but to actually see him on the mound, no matter how poor the quality of the video or the unfortunate camera angle utilized in a Double-A park, is quite enjoyable.

It is in that spirit that I present to you the following: an opportunity to gush over top prospect Jon Gray, who has been stellar for the Tulsa Drillers as of late, and what he will eventually bring to the Rockies rotation. Accompanying these thoughts will be animated GIFs: they are enough to see Gray and get excited, though perhaps not enough to get into the finer details of analysis because of aforementioned issues with quality and camera angle.

With that in mind, let’s get excited about one of the two blue-chip starting pitchers currently in the Rockies minor league system.

Gray’s fastball

Worthy of consideration on its own, the life on Gray’s fastball is apparent right away. It gets on hitters in a hurry and he generally seems to locate it well when he’s going right. He’s been going right quite often in recent weeks, and much of that good work has presumably been because he can overwhelm Double-A hitters with his fastball.

Downward tilt on the fastball

I found this especially promising as I watched Gray’s starts. Many of his fastballs have nice downward tilt on them. Combined with his plus velocity, that is going to create a lot of weak ground balls. You know what the Rockies love? Starting pitchers who can get ground balls. If Gray has the ability to pair his swing-and-miss stuff with the ability to consistently get grounders and therefore work more efficiently, he will be uniquely positioned to be the rare true ace in Colorado.

Gray’s slider

Gray’s slider has a lot of downward break on it (also acknowledging the deceptive camera angle here). It looks like it breaks sharply and right-handed hitters especially have trouble picking it up. He gets some truly awkward swings and makes guys look pretty bad when he has them set up for his slider.

Gray’s fastball-slider combo

Not surprisingly, he gets some uncomfortable swings at his slider and some late swings on his fastball when he uses one to set up the other, especially when he uses his slider to set up his fastball as he does on the strikeout found above. As for the GIF below…just watch the helpless swing on the slider for strike two and try not to get giddy.

Gray’s change-up

Such as these things go, this is likely the pitch in progress for Gray, the elusive third pitch that will be required for big league action. With his ability to make his fastball more than one pitch, in a sense, then his change-up will mainly be his weapon against left-handed hitters.

That might be a lousy camera, blah blah, but the movement on that change-up is downright cartoonish. It sure looks like a big-league ready pitch to me.