This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding's Rockies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
PORTLAND, Maine -- Timing up Double-A Hartford left-handed pitcher Sean Sullivan, the Rockies’ No. 10 MLB Pipeline prospect, has been a frustrating exercise for hitters. It’s even tough to find an era where Sullivan fits best.
On July 8, Portland hitters spent the early part of the evening unable to wait for a slider and changeup that seemed never to get there. Just when they thought they were on time, Sullivan’s fastball -- often below 90 mph -- either beat their bats or left them frozen. And just as hitters sped up, he slowed down.
Seven strikeouts in seven innings -- with the final inning all strikeouts -- of a 6-1 victory was the result.
“As you go up, execution is so key,” Sullivan said afterward. “It’s the name of the game. That seventh inning, I definitely toned it in a little bit. I knew I was going to have to make some pitches to get out of there.”
Sullivan, a second-round MLB Draft pick (No. 46 overall) from Wake Forest in 2023, celebrated his 23rd birthday on Tuesday night by striking out nine in 6 2/3 innings of a 4-2 victory over New Hampshire at Hartford.
This season, Sullivan’s performance has been a celebration of either an old-time, soft-tossing lefty or a post-modern display of pitching to the analytics.
After winning the High-A Northwest League Pitcher of the Year Award last year with Spokane, Sullivan underwent surgery to correct a right hip labrum problem. The Rockies invited him to Major League camp but kept him on a slower pace. Since he joined the Hartford starting rotation in early May, Sullivan is 8-4 with a 2.78 ERA in 12 starts covering 68 innings. His ERA would lead the league, but he’s just shy of enough innings to qualify.
“Sean’s special in a lot of different ways,” Hartford pitching coach Dan Meyer said. “One of them is he’s not going to light you up on the radar gun, but he’s deceptive. The ball moves.”
To dust off the baseball writer language of nearly a century ago, “portly portsider” best describes Sullivan. “Portly” as in the archaic definition -- “of a stately or dignified appearance and manner.” The “portside” is the left side of a ship or boat, facing forward.
Sullivan, fittingly, concerns himself with what’s necessary. Concerning himself with the velocity on the scoreboard is so undignified.
“I’m not too huge into numbers,” Sullivan said. “I like to look at stuff like first-pitch strikes. You’re trying to execute pitches, get ahead of hitters, put hitters away as quickly as possible. I try to give my team a good chance to win the ballgame.”
But Sullivan stacks up well by important numbers.
Sullivan’s lengthy stride and sweeping arm angle combine to give him close to 7 1/2 feet of extension (the point at which he releases the ball). Being that much closer to the plate gives hitters less time to determine the spin of his offspeed pitches, and the reduced distance makes the fastball appear faster.
“All of a sudden, that 86 [mph] has some good run to it, it looks a lot harder and he elevates at the top of the zone really well,” Meyer said. “And he’s got two average-to-above-average offspeed pitches.”
How quickly can Sullivan advance? It’s like his pitching: Not too fast or slow. He was able to develop a solid between-starts routine, and the hip has been healthy enough most of the time to allow him to maintain it.
“That was the reasoning behind the extra month in Arizona,” Sullivan said. “We’ve had a couple hiccups here, but I have been able to get extra treatment and a little extra time here and there. I’ve come up with a good routine here with the training staff on how to attack it.”