Renck: Change-up can make Rockies pitcher Jon Gray ‘elite’

Colorado Rockies young, budding star right-handed starter Jon Gray is working on a change-up.

It’s not particularly exciting news at a first glance. Basically, as Gray told “Schlereth and Evans” on Friday, he needs “something soft-away for lefties”

“I can’t throw a curveball backdoor every time. I think it will be a great pitch,” said Gray, who said he thought it’s coming along better than he expected.

“It’s not a movement pitch. It’s just kind of there, and it’s slow.”

However, for a pitcher like Gray with an electric fastball and a “wipeout slider,” according to Denver 7 Insider Troy Renck, a third pitch could take the young righty from middle-of-the-rotation starter to an “elite level.”

“If he gets a third pitch, you’re talking about a guy that’s going to consistently look to win 15 to 20 games with an ERA right at 3.00 or a little under,” Renck told “Schlereth and Evans” on Friday.

Renck lauded Gray for showing more mental toughness, especially in taking on a third pitch that requires a lot of trust and faith.

“The hardest part is mentally knowing you’re going to throw a pitch between 70 and 80 miles per hour to big league hitters and is it going to react the way you want it to,” Renck said. “It’s got to dive because a bad change up is a BP fastball, and it’s going over the fence. It’s going to leave exit wounds in the wall. And that’s what guys have to get over.”

Renck said he “loved” watching pitchers like Livan and Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez toss up slow, bending curveballs and trusting it would miss bats.

“I mean that takes courage to throw pitches underneath bat speed. You have to trust they’re going to do something because a bad change-up is one of the worst pitches in baseball,” Renck said.

“But when it’s right, you saw with (Trevor) Hoffman, you’ll see with Greg Holland, it’s an absolute swing-and-miss pitch and you get that weak, butt-out swing, a cheap ground ball.”

The trouble, though, is getting young pitchers, especially at Coors Field, to have the conviction to have a change-up in the repertoire say, “I’m going to throw it. I’m going to throw it,” Renck said.

But if Gray does, “he’s going to be right in the all-star conversation.”

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.