Sonny Gray has been clobbered by opposing hitters this season, and Sheryl Ring of Fangraphs suggests that the root of his struggles could be an organizational pitching philosophy that the Yankees seem to be employing. As Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan highlighted in an excellent piece earlier this month, the Yankees are using far and away the fewest percentage of fastballs in the league in 2018 — continuing a trend of increasingly diminished fastball usage in recent years. Ring notes that Gray, however, has never thrown fewer than 55 percent heaters (combining both his four-seamer and two-seamer/sinker). Gray’s success against lefties, in particular, has been in no small part attributable to the success of his fastball up and in on lefty bats, she observes. While there could obviously be multiple factors at play — Ring also notes a mechanical disparity between Gray’s wind-up from 2015 and from 2018, for instance — it certainly seems plausible that Gray’s increased use of breaking pitches is making it more difficult to position himself in favorable counts. He’s thrown a first-pitch strike to just 50 percent of the hitters he’s faced in 2018 — down from a career-best 61.7 percent in 2017.
More from the division…
- Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times takes an interesting look at the number of pitchers developed by the Rays in recent years, pointing out that there have been more games started by pitchers who were originally Rays (45 of 722) in the Majors this season than any other team. That doesn’t include starters-turned-relievers like Wade Davis, Jake McGee and Felipe Vazquez. As Topkin notes, that could be used as a damning method of lamenting the frequency with which Tampa Bay has to trade its talent or as a credit to the organization’s general ability to develop quality pitching. Topkin’s column runs through the best of the best in that group of original Rays and also looks at some names who could ascend that list.
- Teoscar Hernandez’s superlative play with the Blue Jays dating back to last September means he won’t be going back to Triple-A Buffalo anytime soon, as Steve Buffery of the Toronto Sun writes. Manager John Gibbons notes that while the organization saw “a pretty good player” last year when acquiring Hernandez at the non-waiver deadline, Hernandez has improved in 2018 thanks to improved plate discipline and strike-zone recognition. “Who knows what happens (when Donaldson and Tulowitzki come off the DL), but [Hernandez has] got a chance to be an elite player in this game because he does things so easily,” said Gibbons. “He uses the whole field and he’s got as much power as anybody you’re ever going to find.” Hernandez is hitting .316/.391/.702 through 64 plate appearances in 2018 and has posted a collective .283/.340/.641 slash with a dozen homers in 159 PAs since coming over in a trade last July.
Unless a pitcher is constantly injured or they are mediocre teams should leave what works alone
Guess that doesn’t apply to Gray
Agreed. It would also be cool if the article included his current fastball rate. We’re only told he’s never been lower than 55%. What is it at currently?
Yet the Jays decided to overlook/neglect this improved plate discipline by Hernandez and opted to keep Grichuk, who missed a lot of time due to injury in spring. Right now both Grichuk and Diaz are the two guys that need some Buffalo time.
Well they need Diaz since Travis is ineffective and Tulo is injured.
And Randal doesn’t have any minor league options remaining, so they’d lose him on waivers if they tried. Better to try to fix him.
Jays didn’t overlook anything. They brought Teo up pretty quickly.
They were so high on Teoscar they traded for Grichuk and signed Granderson. He was overlooked the entire offseason and spring.
Yeah, given that Grichuk has no options, it must have really baffled you that they didn’t just release him after Spring Training having just acquired him.
It was baffling to have traded for him in the first place.
Gray has been overrated for years now.
Out of all the Starting Pitchers…. Sonny Gray takes the longest. He was the slowest working starter in 2017…
fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=sta&…
Not piling on Gray. Just wish if the Yanks changed something, it would be his pace. CC the master, when it comes to working quick. Sadly, don’t think something like that is teachable. :(
I think Gray tries to pick at the corners too much and works himself into jams if he misses. I would suggest to have Gray simplify his approach and try to use his fastball more/better.
It’s also hard when you need to bury one in the dirt and don’t have total confidence in Sanchez.
This lack of confidence in a Catcher is a really good point. I’m a Mariners fan- Mike Zunino just came off the DL, to my surprise I felt the team missed his defensive qualities as much as his bat. I felt like our backups couldn’t get in front of Felix’s off-speed stuff nor frame pitches as well as Z. Def has an impact
Sheryl Ring’s articles have been consistently fantastic.
Agreed. Her legal analysis piece — from a lawyer’s perspective— about Loria sued by Miami was fantastic. I only read it cuz you recommended it here, that day mlbtr broke the story.
I saw this story, and realized it was the same author. People called her the Shohei Ohtani of Fangraphs in comment section. ;)
I love slash lines as much as the next guy but if you are talking about Hernandez you gotta mention his terrible outfield instincts. Guy just looks lost out there almost like watching Manny Ramirez. Not sure how you fix that.
Some Jays fans are convinced he could replace Pillar in CF. Clearly they aren’t paying attention. Teoscar can stay in LF.