Well that comes with the obvious question as to why they'd deal the guy. Just as an aside, if you compare the situations of the Giants and Rockies the Giants are already in first place. Their starter era is 3.51. The rockies by contrast have a team starter era of 4.77. Colorado is 2 back in the wild card. I think it's pretty fair to wonder what the giants motivation here is in trading a top 50 prospect for a relatively minor upgrade overall. Lincecum and Vogelsong would clearly be replaceable but if we assume they are going to make the playoffs, they already have 3 quality starters for playoff series in Cain, Hudson, and Bumgardner and both Lincecum and Vogelsong have played well in the playoffs if memory serves last time the Giants made a title run.
I suppose their motivation doesn't particularly matter if you think Crick is the goods even if they may or may not. However, a team like the rockies being perhaps a bit more desperate to consider trading a Gray level prospects makes sense. They clearly need the pitching badly to make a run. In their case, Butler has just hit the majors and while he got shelled in his first outing they obviously hope to get more out of him. Tyler Matzek a former high round pick finally hit the majors and pitched good in his first start. Jordan Lyles has been a decent starter for them as well. However, most of their other regulars have been 4+ ERA. And while Brett Anderson has only made two starts due to a finger injury, he should return shortly. Even when everyone is healthy they don't have "the guy" at the top.
Hypothetically, if they traded for Shark, you would have him, Brett Anderson(26), Jordan Lyles(23), Butler(23), Matzek(23), Tyler Chatwood(24) as MLB ready or pretty close in the case of Butler and Matzek. They also drafted Kyle Freeland as a college arm with the 8th pick. They also have Jhoulys Chacin as an Arb. 3 player. Obviously you can make the case for them being patient with Gray. I mean he's not far away right? The problem is that Cargo and Tulow are arguably at their peaks right now. I read something about the Indians in the pre-moneyball times having a database that calculated a players peak year at 29 typically. It was an interesting read that you can view
here if you want. Anyways, Tulow is 29 this year. Cargo is 28.
So, while Gray looks every bit the part of a top of the rotation starter, can they honestly afford to wait maybe 2 years for him to be a full time starter? They along with the O's are really the only team with a pitching prospect who has TOR potential where I feel it makes sense for them to go for it. In the case of the Rockies, it makes a lot of sense if you think Shark can get you to the playoffs. They have numerous younger options for 4/5th starters and enough highly thought of young arms that the loss of Gray wouldn't really kill you.
