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Jon Gray shut down for remainder of season

The Rockies' 2013 first-round, and the third overall, draft pick Jon Gray has been shut down for the rest of the season after an incredibly promising beginning to his professional career.

By Drew Creasman
USA TODAY Sports

The most promising prospect in the Colorado Rockies system is done pitching for the rest of the season. Yes, Jonathan Gray (or simply Jon to his friends) has been shut down by the Rockies after he pitched a combined total of 166 innings this year between college and his professional time at Grand Junction and Modesto, according to the Modesto Bee's Brian VanderBeek.

Gray was scheduled to pitch Friday before the announcement.

Since they shall now be officially stagnant for some time, let's take a final look at Gray's professional stats thus far: 37⅓ IP, 25 H, 11 R, 8 ER, 8 BB, 51 Ks, and a WHIP of .884. His ERA after being moved to a higher level was 0.75 at Modesto and on his professional career he is striking out 13.5 batters per nine innings.

A conversation with Jon Gray

Drew Creasman spoke with Gray while in Grand Junction. Find out what the young gun had to say.

Other encouraging stats in the No. 1 PuRP's young career are his 0.95 FIP at Modesto and the fact that he has only given up one extra base hit (a double) for the Nuts. He has yet to give up a home run and has topped 100 MPH on multiple occasions while mixing in a devastating swing-and-miss slider and an ever-evolving change-up.

Given his success, workload, and attitude so far, shutting him down at this point is probably wise. First, he can now relax and look at those stats I just mentioned above all offseason, building confidence yet still leaving him hungry because he wasn't allowed to finish the season.

Secondly, the organization can relax. They have their guy. He has pitched well and is healthy. He has shown that he can do what he did in college in the pros and there is no need to jump the kid around leagues and make him move a bunch of times in one year. The Rockies can walk away from the table up, knowing that so far Gray is what they thought he was and he has earned some rest before he hits the next level of competition.

Jon Gray is striking out six batters for every one walk he issues. One only needs to watch this video to see that he is better than the players he is facing right now. No reason to keep throwing him out there. Moving him up seems a bit hasty, shutting him down makes sense, and although it's a bummer for us baseball junkies that we have no more stats to gawk at, it will hopefully pay dividends in the days when he will wear a CR on his hat.

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