Reds pitcher Sonny Gray didn’t appear comfortable during his time with the New York Yankees. He spent all of 2018 and part of 2017 in the Bronx, finishing with a 15-16 record in 41 games in pinstripes.
Now that Gray’s moved on, via an off-season trade, he’s talking about what went wrong with the Yankees. He blames the Yankees and their love of sliders.
Via NJ.com:
From the report:
“They love sliders,” Gray said. “Sliders are a great pitch. The numbers say slider is a good pitch, but you might not realize how many sh*tty counts you’re getting in while throwing all those sliders. They wanted me to be [Masahiro] Tanaka and I’m way different from him.
“I can’t command my slider that well. I want to throw my slider in the dirt with two strikes, and that’s about it. I don’t have that type of slider, like Tanaka’s slider. His slider, the catcher will catch it, and the batter will swing and miss. If I get a swing and miss, the catcher is blocking it in the dirt. When I try to throw sliders for a strike, I get around it and it’s just a (crappy) spinning pitch. I don’t know how people throw sliders for strikes that are still tight, good pitches. I’m at 2-0 and I’m throwing a slider, and either I’m throwing a sh*tty slider in the zone, or I’m yanking it into the dirt and it’s 3-0 and I’m screwed either way.”
No wonder the Yankees were more than happy to send him on his way. They’re paying you to throw a baseball. Figure it out, you’re supposedly a professional.
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