We could go on for days in order to determine just what is wrong with the Oakland Athletics (hint: it has nothing to do with Yoenis Cespedes). They’re freefalling through the ranks of the American League and now will be lucky to grab a wild card, with a division title that looked like a lock just a couple of months ago now almost completely out of the question.
In the midst of all this, and perhaps just as disconcerting as the struggles of the Oakland A’s, Sonny Gray has not been the pitcher we saw in the first half of the season. An emerging star in Oakland, and someone the A’s were surely relying on to anchor their rotation even with the star-studded additions of Jeff Samardzija and Jon Lester, Gray hasn’t quite lived up to what he was able to do in the first half of the season, when the A’s were decimating seemingly everyone they played.
Gray’s overall numbers on the season aren’t bad. He’s pitched to a 3.22 ERA and a 3.53 FIP, so it’s not like a solid A’s defense has bailed him out and made him look better than he actually is. His strikeouts are up a touch, at 7.77 K’s per nine, but his walks are also higher than normal, at a shade over 3.3 BB/9. He’s at a 2.7 WAR for the season, which is 34th in the league among starting pitchers.
Those are solid numbers, to be sure. However, his second half figures have been less than impressive. As the A’s continue their slide, Gray hasn’t exactly done much to mitigate their recent failures. His first half numbers featured a 2.79 ERA, 7.71 strikeouts per nine, and just a hair over three walks per nine. His WHIP for the first half was just 1.19. Not quite Felix Hernandez, but enough to throw him into the backend of the Cy Young conversation.
The second half has represented a completely different story. Gray’s ERA has ballooned up to 4.06 in the latter part of the season, with his FIP almost identical at 4.08. His strikeout rate has fallen to just 6.58 per nine, while he’s walking almost four batters per nine at this point in the year. His WHIP is up at 1.29 since the second half got underway. So to what exactly should we attribute the second half struggles of Sonny Gray?
There aren’t any dramatic changes in his approach on the mound, but there are some discernible patterns. He’s used his fastball less as the season has worn on, ditching it almost entirely in his two starts in September in favor of a sinker, which has increased steadily throughout the year. He utilized that pitch to get ahead, and that could certainly be attributed to a bit of his struggles, especially when talking about the increase in free passes. That’s especially true because everything else has remained constant, as far as usage, such as his curveball that does remain effective.
In his two recent starts in which he’s struggled mightily, a pair in the last month or so in which he surrendered six earned runs, it’s just a matter of control. He’s failed to harness his pitches in the way that he typically does, as his stuff is heavily reliant on his ability to locate his pitches. If he can’t do that, he struggles. That’s the case for a lot of pitchers, but it’s especially true for Gray, especially when he’s fooling around with his selection. So we can absolutely find some cause for his second half issues there.
The A’s are in danger of missing out on a playoff spot in what would be one of the largest collapses in league history. They spent a great deal of time acquiring effective starting pitching to compliment Sonny Gray at the top of the rotation. It’s going to be on Gray and the rest of his fellow starters if the A’s are going to climb out of this landslide and salvage a wild card spot before the end of the month.
