Colorado Rockies Top 10 Prospect Countdown

We’ve just about reached the end of our Colorado Rockies prospect countdown. Today, we’re taking a look at the top pitching prospect in the organization, a teenager who’s velocity is anything but pint-sized (sorry).

#2: Riley Pint

Position: Pitcher

Bats/Throws: R/R

Age: 19 (September 6, 1997)

Height/Weight: 6’4″, 195 lbs

Highest Level Reached: Rookie League

Estimated Big League Arrival: 2020

One Sentence Summary: With a right arm blessed by the baseball gods and an athletic, repeatable motion, Pint seems destined for stardom (it just might take a little while)

When reading about Pint, there’s one number you’re bound to see come up repeatedly: 102.

That’s (reportedly) Pint’s maximum velocity when he lets his fastball loose. It’s what led the Rockies to take Pint with the 4th overall pick last year and give him $4.8M to break his commitment to pitch at LSU.

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Perhaps the thing that scouts like the most about Pint is that his velocity seems to come easily to him. Pint’s motion and delivery are smooth, exceptionally so for a guy still in his teenage years. Pint has been compared to Justin Verlander before, and it’s not just because of the explosive velocity. Mechanically, the two have a lot in common.

While Pint’s heater is his bread and butter, he also has a strong feel for his breaking ball. Thrown between 82-86 MPH, the pitch has a surprising amount of depth and break for such a high velocity. Pint is another in the recent Rockies tradition of developing starters that rely on a power fastball-slider combo, but with the possible exception of Jon Gray, Pint’s might be the best 1-2 punch in the entire franchise.

However, for all the hype surrounding Pint, there are some potential red flags the Rockies need to be monitoring in 2017 and beyond. While his pitching motion is mostly clean, it’s not entirely free of problems. Pint’s head tends to shift violently right before and as he releases the ball. This motion, informally known as a “head whack,” has some scouts concerned.

The main problem with Pint’s “head whack” is that it shifts his focus at a critical point in his motion. Ideally, a pitcher is going to keep his eyes on his target (the catcher’s glove) through his entire motion, even once he’s thrown the pitch. Pint’s mechanics right now aren’t allowing him to do that.

There’s a reason why archers still their entire bodies right before they launch an arrow at the bullseye; hitting a tiny target is difficult, but hitting a tiny, moving target is damn near impossible. The head whack isn’t a death sentence for Pint’s career, but if he doesn’t change it, he’ll probably have a hard time ever showing command that’s anything above mediocre.

Here’s footage from Pint’s appearance in the 2015 Under Armour high school all-star game. You can see the explosive velocity and the sharp breaking ball… but you can also see him walk multiple hitters and throw multiple pitches to the backstop.

That inning does a nice job of summing up Pint as a prospect right now. His lack of command got him into trouble that probably could have been avoided, but once his back was against the wall, he blew a high-90s fastball past a middle-of-the-order hitter.

The Rockies drafted Pint to be a front-line starter, but if he’s going to get there, he’ll have to start commanding his pitches better. The good news is that he’s still very young and athletic, so there’s no reason to believe he can’t do that in time. It would be unreasonable to expect a kid who was pumping 100 MPH heaters past high schoolers less than two years ago to have MLB-ready command.

The downside is that this process might take a while for Pint and the Rockies. He has all the arm talent in the world, but it won’t mean much if he continues to 5.59 batters per nine innings like he did in Grand Junction last season.

If the Rockies want to speed the process up, they could decide to shift him to the bullpen and convert his power arm into a closer. A few scouts have suggested this might be more logical long-term fit for him, given his strikeout stuff and shaky command.

Ultimately though, you have to believe Colorado wants Pint to be near the front of their starting rotations. They didn’t use the 4th overall pick in last year’s draft with the intention of landing a reliever.

Next: The Top 5 Right-Handers in Colorado History

I believe in Pint’s ability, and think he’ll eventually become the starter the Rockies want him to be. Patience is going to be key though; Pint’s learning curve may be longer than some, but if Colorado is willing to see it through to the end, they could end up with a special pitcher in their rotation.

Colorado Rockies Top 10 Prospect Countdown – #2: Riley Pint