The Future Is Now: Jon Gray To The Rescue For The Rockies
DENVER (CBS4) - The wait is over, the future is now. Jon Gray is here and ready to save the Rockies.
"I don't think you can put that on one guy," said Gray. "It is a team effort, everything is."
Come on!
Rockies fans want Gray to save the franchise and rescue it from futility.
"I don't know if there is such a thing (as a franchise savior)," said manager Walt Weiss. "It is a collective effort to get where we want to go and it won't take just one guy."
Fine.
Weiss and Gray are right, one guy alone isn't going to turn around this franchise, but that doesn't mean there aren't unrealistically high expectations for Gray.
"I knew there would be" Gray said. "But I have ignored all that stuff, all the questions of, 'What is he doing? When will he be here?' I just take care of my business and not listen to any of that."
The Rockies drafted Gray with the third pick in the 2013 draft -- it was the third time Gray was drafted. Gray turned down the Royals (13th round) after high school and the Yankees (10th round) after a year at Eastern Oklahoma State College.
"It was a little tougher," Gray said about passing on the Yankees offer and going to Oklahoma. "But something said you can do better than this, I have more to improve on, so I passed up on I and it turned out pretty well."
The Yankees were offering about $500,000 in 2011; the Rockies signed Gray for almost $5 million in 2013. But the price of success? Having to pitch at the not so friendly altitude of Coors Field.
"I have pitched at elevation before and it can be used as a weapon because you pitch there all the time and your opponent doesn't so you can use it as an advantage," Gray said.
So Gray says he's not worried about the expectations and he's not worried about the altitude, but he will admit that the pressure of making his big league debut did get to him a bit.
"Everything was speeding up," Gray said about his Aug. 4 debut. "I was really telling myself to slow down and make pitches, but it was tough the first inning."
Gray's line for four innings of work: 5 hits, 4 strikeouts, 3 runs, 2 earned and 1 prospect Rockies fans are still counting on to turn this thing around..
"There is pressure and expectations but not anymore than the pressure and expectations I put on myself," Gray said. "You just do what you can and that is the only thing you can do."
Mark Haas is CBS4's weekend sports anchor and sports reporter. Read his bio or follow him on Twitter @markhaastv or on Facebook.
