With a 5-1 record, 1.99 ERA and 1.09 WHIP heading into Tuesday's contest with the Tigers, Sonny Gray has been a pretty extraordinary Fantasy pitcher, but his skills ratios have been nothing special. He's been something short of dominating (7.3 K/9, 9.6 percent swinging strike rate), and his control (61 percent strikes thrown) leaves something to be desired.
What Gray does exceptionally well is get ground balls, which he has done at a 60 percent rate this season. And as I noted in a recent blog post, the Athletics have been unmatched at preventing base hits on ground balls, holding opponents to a .197 batting average on grounders. Even though Gray has walked 3.0 batters per nine innings, he has been helping owners with WHIP, as he has held hitters to a .181 ground ball batting average. As low as that is (the major league mark is .240), it's not too far off the norm for the A's pitching staff.
Unless he improves his control or gets more strikeouts, Gray is due to regress, but he may not fall off his current pace by much. With Josh Donaldson, Eric Sogard and Jed Lowrie backing him up in the infield, Gray could remain among the Fantasy pitching elite, even without the benefit of elite peripherals.