Why No. 46 pick Sullivan was 'top of [Rockies] list'

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DENVER -- Wake Forest left-handed pitcher Sean Sullivan’s numbers may not catch your eye, but the Rockies were impressed enough by the southpaw to take him in the second round with the 46th overall pick in the MLB Draft on Sunday.

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Pitchers with fastballs in the 88-92 mph range, occasionally reaching 94-95, tend not to go early in the Draft. Sullivan was ranked No. 123 by MLB Pipeline among Draft prospects. The Rockies took Tennessee righty Chase Dollander, the No. 9 prospect, in the first round, ninth overall.

But the hitters couldn’t touch him. Sullivan finished second in the nation in Division I by striking out an average of 14.3 batters per nine innings. He also was fourth in the country with a 0.92 WHIP and fifth with a .175 batting average against.

“It’s funny,” Sullivan said. “You see those guys going out there throwing 100 mph. Yeah, it works. But I’m out there throwing 91, 92 and it’s doing the same thing.”

Sullivan has a deceptive, lower-than-conventional motion, one similar to that of current Rockies starter Kyle Freeland, who used a similar four-seam fastball-slider pitch profile to help the club to the postseason as a rookie in 2017 and in 2018.

“When you’re throwing 70-75 percent fastballs and they’re swinging right through it, that tells you something,” vice president and assistant general manager of scouting Danny Montgomery said. “You put the [radar] gun down. He has 13, 14 guys he might’ve punched out, because something’s different.”

Turns out velocity is not the only measuring stick.

“Our analytics department, he’s on the top of their list,” Rockies senior director of scouting operations Marc Gustafson said.

Rockies coaches, the analytics department and scouts have noted that pitchers with elite apparent “rise” have a good chance for success at hitter-friendly Coors Field. Pitches do not defy gravity and rise, but a pitch that holds its height longer can be effective above the zone. Problem is those pitchers are hard to find, and that specific trait tends to decline quicker pitching at Coors than at other venues.

But Sullivan’s fastball characteristics give him a chance at success when he reaches the Majors.

Sullivan, 20, was a lightly recruited pitcher out of Tabor Academy in Marion, Mass., began his college career at Northwestern but transferred to Wake Forest because of its reputation for developing pitchers. Fellow Demon Deacons pitcher Rhett Lowder went seventh overall to the Reds.

Like Freeland, Sullivan will have to develop a changeup to keep hitters away from his fastball and slider.

“I'm just scratching the surface developmentally,” Sullivan said. “Once I get those offspeed pitches working a little bit better and kind of just continue on my developmental track, the sky’s the limit.”