{"id":5479,"date":"2011-11-11T10:42:27","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T16:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=5479"},"modified":"2011-11-11T10:42:27","modified_gmt":"2011-11-11T16:42:27","slug":"top-50-prospects-44-sonny-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/5479","title":{"rendered":"Top 50 Prospects: #44 – Sonny Gray"},"content":{"rendered":"

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#44 Sonny Gray<\/p>\n

Oakland Athletics<\/p>\n

DOB: 11\/7\/1989<\/p>\n

Previous Rank: N\/A<\/p>\n

ETA: 2013<\/p>\n

Sonny Gray receives constant knocks for being undersized, having a high-effort delivery, and lacking an average or above third pitch. We at The Sombrero have never shied away from guys with sound yet high-energy deliveries. In fact, in some cases we prefer them. Gray is one of those cases.<\/p>\n

He is extremely athletic and has never given anyone reason to fear injury beyond the fact that he is small-bodied and very explosive. His breaking ball was the best one in the 2011 draft class, even at only 5-foot-11. His fastball can reach 97 mph, and he sits at 93-95 mph most starts. His fastball, like most short righties, has phenomenal carry and explodes through the strike zone.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Year<\/th>\nAge<\/th>\nTm<\/th>\nLg<\/th>\nLev<\/th>\nAff<\/th>\nW<\/th>\nL<\/th>\nW-L%<\/th>\nERA<\/th>\nG<\/th>\nGS<\/th>\nIP<\/th>\nBB<\/th>\nSO<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
2011<\/td>\n21<\/td>\n2 Teams<\/td>\n2 Lgs<\/td>\nAA-Rk<\/td>\nOAK<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n.500<\/td>\n0.82<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n22.0<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n20<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2011<\/a><\/td>\n21<\/td>\nAthletics<\/a><\/td>\nARIZ<\/a><\/td>\nRk<\/td>\nOAK<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n.000<\/td>\n4.50<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n2.0<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2011<\/a><\/td>\n21<\/td>\nMidland<\/a><\/td>\nTL<\/a><\/td>\nAA<\/td>\nOAK<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n1.000<\/td>\n0.45<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n20.0<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n18<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n
1 Season<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n.500<\/td>\n0.82<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n22.0<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n20<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tfoot>\n<\/table>\n
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com<\/a>: View Original Table<\/a>
\nGenerated 11\/9\/2011.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Year<\/th>\nAge<\/th>\nTm<\/th>\nLg<\/th>\nLev<\/th>\nAff<\/th>\nERA<\/th>\nIP<\/th>\nWHIP<\/th>\nH\/9<\/th>\nHR\/9<\/th>\nBB\/9<\/th>\nSO\/9<\/th>\nSO\/BB<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
2011<\/td>\n21<\/td>\n2 Teams<\/td>\n2 Lgs<\/td>\nAA-Rk<\/td>\nOAK<\/td>\n0.82<\/td>\n22.0<\/td>\n1.136<\/td>\n7.8<\/td>\n0.0<\/td>\n2.5<\/td>\n8.2<\/td>\n3.33<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2011<\/a><\/td>\n21<\/td>\nAthletics<\/a><\/td>\nARIZ<\/a><\/td>\nRk<\/td>\nOAK<\/td>\n4.50<\/td>\n2.0<\/td>\n2.000<\/td>\n18.0<\/td>\n0.0<\/td>\n0.0<\/td>\n9.0<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2011<\/a><\/td>\n21<\/td>\nMidland<\/a><\/td>\nTL<\/a><\/td>\nAA<\/td>\nOAK<\/td>\n0.45<\/td>\n20.0<\/td>\n1.050<\/td>\n6.8<\/td>\n0.0<\/td>\n2.7<\/td>\n8.1<\/td>\n3.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n
1 Season<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n0.82<\/td>\n22.0<\/td>\n1.136<\/td>\n7.8<\/td>\n0.0<\/td>\n2.5<\/td>\n8.2<\/td>\n3.33<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tfoot>\n<\/table>\n
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com<\/a>: View Original Table<\/a>
\nGenerated 11\/9\/2011.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gray reached Double-A by his second professional start and only allowed a single run in 20 innings. His peripherals were solid despite being low in quantity (18 strikeouts vs. 6 walks). Gray was one of the best pitchers in the history of Vanderbilt, and, while many scouts see a reliever or mid-rotation starter, we see two 60 pitches with a chance at a 50 third pitch, a fast mover, and ace potential. The only obstacles to overcome are public opinion and minor command issues. The Bay Area has been pretty accepting of small-bodied righties with explosive fastballs and hammer benders recently, so we think Gray will be able to solve at least one of these issues fairly easily.<\/p>\n

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#44 Sonny Gray Oakland Athletics DOB: 11\/7\/1989 Previous Rank: N\/A ETA: 2013 Sonny Gray receives constant knocks for being undersized, having a high-effort delivery, and lacking an average or above third pitch. We at The Sombrero have never shied away from guys with sound yet high-energy deliveries. In fact, in some cases we prefer them. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,1300,6,9,11,13,2880,2368,10,1616,775],"tags":[2172,560,726,2913,2914,3463,1813],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5481,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479\/revisions\/5481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}