Twenty-One Prediction Fun: Ryley Gilliam
Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2021 8:24 am
Good morning. I'm Riley Gilliam. I'm a minor league strikeout machine who has gotten somewhat surprising invites to camp two years in a row now, and I was almost as surprisingly quickly dispatched to minor league camp with the first cuts both times. If you want to get a look at me, get a look at me, you know?
I had a strong finish to my career in the ACC and was considered close to the majors when the Mets took me in the fifth round in 2018. I've struck out a bushel of dudes in the start to my minor league journey, but close-to-the-majors doesn't quite mean the same thing when they shut down baseball.
The knock on me is my size. But at 5-10, my fastball is a little bit sneaky fast, but I also got one of those Neil Allen hard, fast, curves that you pick up like a fastball before it drops. Compact frame, compact game. That's what Daddy always said when I's back at Kennesaw Mountain High School. That was the attitude that had me on the fast track, but while I've killed it in the middle level minors, I've frankly bitten the big one in the brief stops I've had at Binghamton (4.34 ERA in 18 2/3 innings) and Syracuse (13.50 ERA in 9 1/3 innings). Even if there had been an actual minor league season, the Mets still might have pumped the breaks a little.
But I'm still prodigiously whiffing guys, and I'm still cultivating my big-league-bullpen-ready wispy cheesy mustache. Will that mustache be deployed for you any time soon? Let me know asap, OK?
I had a strong finish to my career in the ACC and was considered close to the majors when the Mets took me in the fifth round in 2018. I've struck out a bushel of dudes in the start to my minor league journey, but close-to-the-majors doesn't quite mean the same thing when they shut down baseball.
The knock on me is my size. But at 5-10, my fastball is a little bit sneaky fast, but I also got one of those Neil Allen hard, fast, curves that you pick up like a fastball before it drops. Compact frame, compact game. That's what Daddy always said when I's back at Kennesaw Mountain High School. That was the attitude that had me on the fast track, but while I've killed it in the middle level minors, I've frankly bitten the big one in the brief stops I've had at Binghamton (4.34 ERA in 18 2/3 innings) and Syracuse (13.50 ERA in 9 1/3 innings). Even if there had been an actual minor league season, the Mets still might have pumped the breaks a little.
But I'm still prodigiously whiffing guys, and I'm still cultivating my big-league-bullpen-ready wispy cheesy mustache. Will that mustache be deployed for you any time soon? Let me know asap, OK?