The Sonny Gray Thread

[TRF]

I do not believe that the Reds are high on the list because of the Medical staff. They are high on the list because of the lousy way they handled pitchers work loads especially the increase in innings between years. Many of the starting pitchers that got injured came after huge jumps in innings pitched. And once you get injured it is easy to get injured again roughly 80% of guys that are injured during this year were hurt last year.

I disagree with this guy a lot.

but ding freaking ding.

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Kershaw is going to miss the first of the year for the Dodgers.



Kremcheck!!!

[RED VAN HOT]

Seems to me that the Reds are being particularly cautious with pitchers this year. It will be interesting to see if it pays off in better health later in the season.

[OhioRiverBarge]

Just announced Castillo is to start OD, which makes Sonny’s off night tonight very curious.

[HammerTime]

Just announced Castillo is to start OD, which makes Sonny’s off night tonight very curious.

He threw in a B game.

[M2]

Got to say, I'm pretty happy with the early returns on Sonny Gray. Getting real comfortable with the idea that he's going to be around for a few years.

[OGB]

Got to say, I'm pretty happy with the early returns on Sonny Gray. Getting real comfortable with the idea that he's going to be around for a few years.

His start today seems to be a microcosm of the season. Absolutely dominating and then a 4 pitch walk to the 8hole hitter leads to them in a 3 run hole in a game they'll be lucky to score twice.
Sigh.

[Tom Servo]

Having Sonny locked up at only around $10 mill the next several seasons could wind up being the pitching equivalent to the Suarez extension.

Also the New York media, unsurprisingly, continues to follow Sonny like the ex who insists they're over you but still creeps on your social media.

https://nypost.com/2019/04/18/sonny-...-yankees-bust/

[M2]

His start today seems to be a microcosm of the season. Absolutely dominating and then a 4 pitch walk to the 8hole hitter leads to them in a 3 run hole in a game they'll be lucky to score twice.
Sigh.

I cursed him with my post. If you look at the time stamp on it, it was right before the inning with the 3-run HR. My bad for praising a guy in the middle of the game.

[OGB]

I cursed him with my post. If you look at the time stamp on it, it was right before the inning with the 3-run HR. My bad for praising a guy in the middle of the game.

I don't believe in curses, so I absolve you.

[Ron Madden]

Entering the season, it was a common prediction that Gray would pitch better after being reunited with college pitching coach Derek Johnson. Gray and Johnson have made plenty of noticeable tweaks to the right-hander's game. For example, he's using his four-seamer more and his sinker less, making the former his primary heater. There's also the matter of Gray's slider. You might recall that back in spring Gray criticized his old team, the New York Yankees, for having him throw too many of what he considered a bad pitch.

Gray has since taken a liking to his slider, deploying it as his main two-strike pitch. It's working, seeing as how he has a would-be career-best 45 percent whiff rate on it, per Statcast. To be fair to Gray, this doesn't appear to be the same slider he had with the Yankees. Rather, this pitch features more two-plane movement, enabling him added depth.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/s...ve-slider/amp/

[InsaneinthBrame]

Entering the season, it was a common prediction that Gray would pitch better after being reunited with college pitching coach Derek Johnson. Gray and Johnson have made plenty of noticeable tweaks to the right-hander's game. For example, he's using his four-seamer more and his sinker less, making the former his primary heater. There's also the matter of Gray's slider. You might recall that back in spring Gray criticized his old team, the New York Yankees, for having him throw too many of what he considered a bad pitch.

Gray has since taken a liking to his slider, deploying it as his main two-strike pitch. It's working, seeing as how he has a would-be career-best 45 percent whiff rate on it, per Statcast. To be fair to Gray, this doesn't appear to be the same slider he had with the Yankees. Rather, this pitch features more two-plane movement, enabling him added depth.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/s...ve-slider/amp/

He is basically pitching (using pitches) now like the Yankees wanted him to using the breaking ball more and using the 4 seamer up in the zone. These are all analytical pitching trends in baseball.

[mamell]

I think some of it comes down to what's going on in batters minds. They kind of try to time pitches and expect a certain pitch at a certain time. A great pitcher knows to change things up to keep batters off kilter a bit and to not rely solely on one or two pitches especially after it's been proven it ain't working. Gray has great movement on his fb, but has other pitches he can throw at any time to fool batters.
Louie on the other hand has that great FB with that great change up so they have a tough time timing him. He too has good movement on his fb.
I kind of miss the great knuckle ballers who after losing the steam on their fbs learned to float those zig zagging pitches at 50-60 mph..

[NeilHamburger]

I think Sonny is the real deal, and has actually pitched better than his great numbers. I think barring injury he's gonna pitch like he did in Oakland for Cincy. I kinda get the feeling this isn't the Reds year. But, I think 2020 could be really fun with Castillo and Gray in the rotation and with Senzel and potentially Trammell in the outfield. If they take some of this money leaving the books and get a big fish like Madison Bumgarner I could see 2020 being a really good year.

[Benihana]

Sonny went out of his way to get a ball and toss it to my daughter tonight from the dugout. A real class act!

[Larry Schuler]

If your daughter is a young kid, that's real nice of him.

If she's 25, you should have checked the ball to make sure he didn't write his phone # on it.