Me drawing this was pretty much inevitable.

Kevin Gausman, as we all know by now, really likes donuts. There’s plenty of other things to know about Kevin Gausman, but we had to get the donuts bit out of the way first.

Let’s talk about his pitches. According to Baseball America, they break down like this:

• Fastball: 94-96 mph
• Two-seamer: low 90s
• Changeup: 84-86 mph
• Curveball: 76-79 mph
• Slider: 82-86 mph

The curveball and slider, which he threw in college, have merged, or so says BA. This more or less gives him a slurve. He’s also a smart kid, which never hurts on the mound unless you overthink things (which is one of the many things catchers are for – they can refocus you when you do that). BA projects Gausman to start things off in Bowie, but also points out that there’s a good chance he’ll find himself in Baltimore by the end of the year. I’d love to see him and Dylan Bundy in the rotation together, but I don’t want to see either pitcher being rushed to the front.

After Bundy and Gausman, there’s a sharp drop-off in our organization’s skills prospect-wise. This is a bit disconcerting to hear, of course, but we’ll save that for the next several posts in this series.

Let’s not talk about that. Let’s just watch Gausman pitch now.