Davis and Hollowell promoted to big leagues, add promise to Rockies' roster

Newly promoted pitcher Noah Davis had a lot of connections to the organization before he was acquired in a trade by GM Bill Schmidt last season.

“I’ve always been a fan from afar of the Colorado Rockies,” Davis said earlier in the year. “Something drew me to them. I went and visited the stadium when I was in high school and fell in love with Coors Field. Got a really good vibe in Denver.”

The UC Santa Barbara product was originally drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 11th round of the 2018 MLB Draft. Colorado acquired him and Douglas County High School’s Case Williams from Cincinnati in a deadline deal for Mychal Givens.

“I got that call and it was a shock,” Davis admitted of the trade. “But I was pretty excited right off the jump to come over here and get an opportunity to meet some new faces, get a new perspective and see where this road will take me.”

Ryan Spilborghs may not have been a familiar face to Davis, but he is a friendly one.

The two UCSB alumni follow each other on Twitter and share tweets on Gauchos baseball.

According to Bud Black, acclimating himself to those around the Rockies like Spilborghs is the biggest benefit to this opportunity. Battling alongside the players that will be teammates with Davis over the next few seasons is also beneficial.

“It’s such a small sample size for a lot of these guys that I think it’s more important for them to be here and gaining experience that way. Big League clubhouse, rubbing shoulders with Charlie (Blackmon) and (C.J.) Cron and (Daniel) Bard. Seeing the day-to-day activity of the cage, of bullpens, of the weight room,” Black said before adding, “That’s what’s equally important as well as facing big leaders.”

Sometimes, those interactions with veterans can lead to making the annual run for coffee and donuts in Chicago.

When examining his player page, Davis, 25, had a much better season at Double-A than some numbers suggest. 

While he held a 5.54 ERA for the season over 26 starts with the Hartford Yard Goats, he posted a 3.28 ERA over his last eight outings dating back to July 30. 

“He’s got a good breaking ball. He’s got velocity movement to the fastball and good breaking pitches. A curve and a slider,” Black detailed Davis’ pitching arsenal. “So there’s a strikeout in his game.”

At 10.3 strikeouts-per-nine inning, Davis led Yard Goat starters in missing bats. His 152 strikeouts were third-most in the Eastern League. 

Believe it or not, this was not a component of his game when Davis first joined Colorado’s organization last season.

“When I was with Cincinnati I was throwing a lot more off-speed. Really working on getting deep into counts with offspeed trying to throw as many strikes with those as possible. And then once I got over here, we upped the fastball percentage, tried to establish the fastball. Start trying to pitch to more contact a little bit. So we lowered the walk rate, lowered the strikeout rate a little bit, but found a nice in-between and ended up with the same results.”

With a 3.60 ERA at High-A Dayton of the Midwest League in the first half and a 3.60 ERA with High-A Spokane of the Northwest League, Davis had one of the more improbable stat lines for a player actively trying to be different. 

Despite his success as a starting pitcher, the future for Davis may be in the bullpen, at least for the final 17 games of the season.

Diamond Details

Colorado also promoted RHP Gavin Hollowell ahead of Sunday’s game against the Chicago Cubs and placed RHP Alex Colomé on the bereavement list.

The 6’7″ reliever was selected in the sixth round of the 2019 MLB Draft out of St. John’s University. Hollowell served as the closer for the Yard Goats this season where he saved 16 games, third-most across the three leagues of Double-A.

The 24-year-old had a 3.14 ERA (48.2 IP, 17 ER) with 64 strikeouts and 14 walks during his first year with Hartford.

(Photo Credit: Colorado Rockies)