Inside Rockies prospect Jon Gray's mechanics

Rockies top prospect Jon Gray earned healthy praise from Baseball Prospectus authors Ryan Parker and Doug Thorburn, who went into an in-depth examination of the powerful right-hander's mechanics for a piece on the site.

The weak link in Gray's mechanics appears to be his ability to repeat them, but that might be the easiest thing to fix, especially when the Rockies take the training wheels off. That specific thing was mentioned by Parker and Thorburn, and should give Colorado baseball fans quite a bit of hope for the future when it comes to the team's 2013 first-round pick:

[Gray] is an advanced pitcher whose stats should be taken with huge grains of salt given his developmental agenda, which included sacrificing some velocity in the name of arm-side movement with the fastball as part of the right-hander's quest for weak contact, an element which will be critical when he is playing his home games in Denver.

That paragraph isn't necessarily news to the staff and readers of this site, but it's always welcome -- for me, at least -- to hear it from people that are much smarter and more in tune than I am. For Gray to still dominate hitters with a lot more professional experience despite purposely not pitching with his best stuff is incredibly promising. Fellow highly regarded prospect Eddie Butler wasn't able to do the same thing, a development that might tell us a lot about the future of each player.

Be sure to read the full piece, which includes multiple GIFs of Gray's smooth and relatively effortless delivery and also dissects the mechanics of several other top pitching and hitting prospects in the National League West.

Links

Anniversary highlights Rockies promotional schedule | rockies.com
In case you missed it, the Rockies announced their 2015 promotional schedule on Tuesday. The fun includes a solid lineup of bobbleheads, Purple Monday gear, and a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Coors Field. On a related note, I'm in the infant stages of planning a Purple Row meetup that same weekend. What do you guys think?

Baseball Prospectus | Get to Know: Catcher Prospects
Fantasy/prospect guru and Friend of the Row Craig Goldstein includes Tom Murphy on a list of catching prospects to watch for in 2015 and beyond. He also pretty much pronounces Will Swanner's fantasy value dead. I'm not ready to do that just yet, but we'll see how he handles a full season of Double-A and whatever might come after that.

Former Colorado Rockies right-hander Chris Martin refused to give up on his childhood dream | MiLB.com News | The Official Site of Minor League Baseball
MiLB's Ashley Marshall has the feel-good story on the recently DFA'd reliever. The most interesting part is that Martin is referred to as "Former" Colorado Rockies right-hander. A simple case of jumping the gun, or does MiLB know something we don't?

Blogpile

TheTulowitzkiGeneration has posted the voting thread for our Rockies Hall of Fame. Last year, Larry Walker and Todd Helton were voted in as first-ballot inductees. Who should get in this year? I voted for Ellis Burks, Andres Galarraga and Brian Fuentes on the player side as well as executives Jerry McMorris and Keli McGregor. Go vote.

Jake Shapiro of Rockies Zingers looks back at "Faces of the Franchise" who were traded, and the fallout (if any) that ensued. That is relevant, of course, due to the constant trade rumors surrounding Troy Tulowitzki.