Sonny Gray Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

While his strikeout ability still showcases his upside, we can't hide the fact that Gerrit Cole has shown several alarming trends this season, primarily in the form of a 43% hard contact rate, high average exit velocity off opponents' bats, a 10.2% barrel rate allowed, and 13 home runs in nine starts. I won't fade him entirely in GPP's tonight, but don't be afraid to pivot to other options. Sonny Gray is my favorite, as he will be under-owned after a bad start his last time out. The Cubs can be beaten by good pitching, especially in the cool weather environment that now exists in Chicago. Gray has plenty of upside with a 3.15 xFIP and a 31.6% strikeout rate this year, and I love him as a tournament option on this slate.

During his career with the A's, Sonny Gray was a constant disappointment despite his immense talent, and he posted merely a league average strikeout rate of around 21%. However, his career has taken off with the Reds, as he had a strikeout rate of almost 29% last year. That has jumped even higher so far in 2020. His ascension with a new team almost parallels the rise that we saw from Gerrit Cole when he went from the Pirates to the Astros. Sometimes, all it takes is a change of scenery. Gray matches up well with a depleted Cardinals lineup and is one of the top options on the slate in all formats.

We've got two aces close together with Stephen Strasburg and Sonny Gray. Strasburg is the better overall pitcher here, but they have very similar strikeout ability and Gray comes with the better matchup and a bit of a savings. The strikeouts have remained steadily in the 30% range for Gray and he has thrown over 100 pitches in four of his last five starts, giving him some added cushion. The control is always a bit of a wildcard, but the added edge from the high strikeouts in the Mariners lineup outweighs that risk here.

This seems like a high price for Sonny Gray, but the gap between him and every other pitcher on this slate is too big to ignore. Gray not only has an ideal matchup against a Marlins team with high strikeouts and ground balls, but his 29.2% K rate is heads and shoulders above the rest of tonight's slate. He's gotten stronger as the season moves on, up to a 32.1% K rate since the All-Star Break and has back-to-back 10 K games against better teams than what he faces tonight.

The top of the pitching pool is strong with Clayton Kershaw and Shane Bieber, but we've also got a lot of hitting to spend on tonight. You can get similar upside from the 28.7% K rate of Sonny Gray at a significant savings from Kershaw and Bieber on DK/FDRFT. Gray has remained above 30% strikeouts since the All-Star Break, and he gets a high strikeout opponent tonight with the Padres coming to town. There is a little more power risk here than what Kershaw and Bieber have, but it's priced in without losing the ceiling.

It's a really close call between Gray and Darvish at the top tonight, and you really can't go wrong either way. I've tagged both as elite GPP options, especially since Darvish has shown much better command of late. However, I'll side with Gray as the slightly safer option, especially since he is the one pitching at home. Since the beginning of July, Gray has posted a 1.59 ERA over seven starts, and he has faced some dangerous offenses in that stretch -- two starts against the Cubs, one start against Atlanta, one start against Milwaukee, and even a start at Coors Field. Gray owns a 28% strikeout rate for the year and draws a reasonable matchup against a Cardinals offense that has underwhelmed all year. Fire him up with confidence this evening.