7/14/14

Fangraphs - Polished Hurlers - RHP Robert Gsellman



Robert Gsellman, RHP, New York Mets (Profile)

Level: Low-A   Age: 20   Top-15: N/A   Top-100: N/A
Line: 77 IP, 82 H, 30 R, 58/22 K/BB, 2.92 ERA, 3.63 FIP
SummaryGsellman is armed with an ideal frame and three solid pitches at a young age.
NotesLike Plutko, Robert Gsellman (pronounced “gazelle-man”) looks like a pitcher. He’s 6’4″ and probably somewhere around 215 pounds, and he employs an easy motion that makes it look like he’s just playing catch with his battery mate. Unlike Plutko, Gsellman hasn’t quite ripped Low-A hitters apart, though his statline is far from problematic. However, the biggest difference between the two is that Gsellman is two years younger and still has far superior stuff.
Gsellman is not an overpowering pitcher, working at a pedestrian 90-93 mph with his four-seamer. However, he also extensively utilizes a running two-seamer at 89-92, touching 93, and the latter pitch is already slightly above average thanks to its reasonable velocity and solid movement. Gsellman has only allowed two home runs all season and has had consistently strong groundball rates due to the downhill plane he gets from his size and the good movement on the two-seamer. With his easy motion allowing him to project for at least average command and these attributes giving him a shot to maintain >50% groundball rates, Gsellman could end up as a solid rotation contributor even without posting many strikeouts.
He’s not necessarily hopeless when it comes to bat-missing projection, however, because his curveball and changeup also grade out fairly well. In my viewing, the curve was the superior pitch, grading out as slightly above-average. It arrives at 75-79 mph with big 11-to-5 break. Gsellman didn’t seem to throw it for strikes much, preferring to bury it in the dirt, and he’ll need to demonstrate the ability to get called strikes with the pitch, but I don’t have any significant concerns about him making that adjustment at some point. Gsellman’s 80-83 mph changeup flashes good fade and sink and shows signs of being an average offering, though it was his weakest pitch (a 40) in my look due to his tendency to overthrow it and leave it up in the zone.
At age 20, Gsellman has years to figure out how to locate his offspeed pitches more consistently, and if he can, he should be able to miss a fair amount of bats. While he’ll likely never be a truly intimidating pitcher, his ability to throw strikes and keep the ball on the ground should make him a valuable rotation contributor in the Charlie Morton mold if he adjusts well as he ascends.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/prospect-watch-polished-hurlers/

2 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Gsellman is the kind of guy other teams would have in their top 5 pitching prospects. Sounds like a future major leaguer to me, but not with Mets. Wish him well.

Stephen Guilbert said...

I like guys like Gsellman and Ynoa. They don't "wow" you in the way Matz or Syndergaard do but they're absolutely future major league pitchers, in some role. I hope they find playing time on another team and net us a good bat.