A Gray Day Provides the Best Light

Painters and pitchers are the same things. In my eyes, they’re both artists. Painters use a brush to turn a canvas into a work of art. Pitchers use a baseball to turn the strike zone into a work of art. Leonardo Da Vinci was an artist who not only gave us amazing art, but also the title of this story. He famously said, ” A gray day provides the best light.” I have zero idea what he’s talking about in connection to art, as I am somebody who once got a C for the year in 8th-grade art; however, if he were talking about baseball, then I’d assume he was talking about the days Dodgers pitching prospect Josiah Gray throws from the mound.

Before the season, we talked a lot about Josiah Gray in the premium section/ Gray has been on our pitchers-to-buy list all year. The reason I liked him so much was that he was a DII collegiate pitcher with some feel for pitching but not a ton of experience, and he was traded to the Dodgers. I felt that the Dodgers, a known pitching factory, could help draw out every bit of talent Gray has. So far the results have been very promising.

Gray has pitched in both A and A+ ball this year and succeeded at both levels. For a DII college pitcher, who didn’t get drafted out of high school, to have this type of success early on is huge. It’s especially huge because he was a 2-way player for part of his college career and didn’t focus full-time on pitching until his draft year. He has limited experience pitching against high-level competition, and yet in 51 innings, he’s put up a 2.82 ERA with 63 Ks and only 14 walks.

Gray is a very raw prospect that is putting up good stats against probably the first solid competition he’s faced in his life. I imagine as he continues to get a feel for pitching, especially under the tutelage of the Dodgers, he will start to gain recognition, and his card prices will increase. Right now he’s in the $8 range shipped and $5 range for local pickup. That feels low for a guy that has shown a lot of promise and is in a system that produces pitching prospects by the handful.

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