Vanderbilt baseball pitcher Sonny Gray makes our list of the 100-greatest athletes we've covered at No. 21. Follow our complete countdown to No. 1 here.
Honors and awards: 2009 first-team Freshman All-American (Collegiate Baseball)
2009 SEC Freshman of the Week
2009 Team USA
2010 second-team All-SEC
2010 All-SEC Defensive Team
2010 SEC Pitcher of the Week (twice)
2011 first-team All-American (ABCA, Perfect Game; second-team by Baseball America)
2011 second-team All-SEC
2011 All-SEC Defensive Team
2011 SEC Pitcher of the Week (twice)
2011 All-SEC Tournament
2011 All-Nashville Regional
In the VU record book: Single-season wins: tied-fifth (12 in 2011)
Single-season innings: third (126 in 2011)
Single-season strikeouts: fifth (132 in 2011)
Career wins: third (27)
Career strikeouts: fourth (311)
Career innings: ninth (293 1/3)
Before VU: Starred at Smyrna (Tenn.) High, where he was named to the AFLAC All-American game. Started four years in baseball and was team captain as a senior. As a senior, went 4-0 with an 0.79 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 35 innings, while hitting .518 with three home runs. Was a three-year starter and two-year captain for the football team; played quarterback and led team to back-to-back state titles. Voted best All-Around and Homecoming King by his peers. Ranked as the 52nd-best prospect for the draft by Baseball America, and 67th by Perfect Game. The Cubs took him in Round 27, but he came to VU.
Freshman (2009): Led the team in appearances (22) and saves (five) on a 37-27 (12-17 SEC) squad that finished runner-up in the Louisville Regional. Pitched 10 SEC regular-season games, throwing 30 innings with a 3-1 record, three saves, a 6.90 ERA, 36 strikeouts and 12 walks. All 23 runs charged to Gray in league play were earned. Pitched twice in the NCAA Tournament, striking out three and allowing one hit in 1.2 innings of scoreless relief against Louisville while scattering seven hits with 10 strikeouts in eight shutout innings vs. Indiana. Allowed four runs, scattering eight hits and three walks with a season-high 11 strikeouts, in seven-inning start against South Carolina at the SEC Tournament. Won at Georgia, holding the Bulldogs to one run and three hits while striking out seven batters. Earned save vs. Mississippi State, allowing three hits and one earned run, while striking out six in 2 2/3 innings. Picked up the win with one run and one walk in 1 2/3 innings of work vs. Middle Tennessee. Named SEC Freshman of the Week after picking up a win and save in the series win over Florida. Pitched two innings of one-hit scoreless relief with three strikeouts in win over Gators. Also had another save in the series, with an inning of one-hit scoreless relief with a walk and strikeout. Tossed three innings of scoreless relief, allowing three hits and two walks while fanning two in Sunday game against Kentucky to get a save. Allowed one run and two hits with three strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings of relief to pick up a win over Ole Miss. Allowed three hits and one walk with three strikeouts in three innings of scoreless relief vs. Stanford. Pitched for the USA National Team, going 3-1 with a 0.75 ERA in eight appearances. Struck out 27 in 24 innings, allowing a .139 average against.
Sophomore (2010): Pitched in 19 games, starting 16, for a 46-20 (16-12) team that fell in Game 3 of the Tallahassee Super Regional. Threw in 10 SEC regular-season games, with nine starts. Had a 3.68 ERA over 58 2/3 innings, with 62 strikeouts and 31 walks in those innings. Led the team (and finished second in the SEC) in strikeouts (113), innings pitched (108.2) and walks (48); opponents hit .246 on the season. Struck out at least eight batters in seven starts on the year. Earned win vs. Florida State in super regional, with six innings of two-run ball. Was 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA and 10 strikeouts in 9.1 innings over two appearances at the NCAA Louisville Regional. Struck out eight in seven scoreless innings to beat Arkansas in the SEC Tournament. Beat the Razorbacks with eight innings of three-run ball, with nine strikeouts, in the regular season. Allowed five runs, scattering seven hits over five innings with five strikeouts and a walk, to beat Mississippi St. Picked up save vs. LSU, giving up one run on two hits with three strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings. Beat Tennessee, allowing one run on three hits with 10 strikeouts in seven innings. Defeated Auburn, giving up three runs (one earned) on seven hits with seven strikeouts and five walks in 6 1/3 innings. Took the loss in a complete-game, three-run effort vs. South Carolina. Shut out Kentucky, with six strikeouts over seven innings to earn SEC Pitcher of the Week. Beat Ohio, giving up three runs with five strikeouts over eight innings. Got win over Kent State, allowing one run with 10 strikeouts. Earned SEC Pitcher of the Week honors after throwing eight scoreless innings with eight strikeouts vs. Niagara.
Junior (2011): Was the Friday night starter on a 54-12 (22-8) team that shared the SEC title and finished third at the College World Series. In 68 SEC regular-season innings, Gray struck out 69, walked 29, and went 5-3 with a 2.35 ERA. Pitched 6 2/3 innings, with four strikeouts and one run allowed, to beat Oregon State in the Nashville Super Regional. Started VU's NCAA Tournament run with 4 2/3 perfect innings before allowing a runner, ending the night with six shutout innings and a win over Belmont. Picked up a win in VU's 7-2 victory over South Carolina in the SEC Tournament, throwing 6 1/3 innings. Struck out nine and threw a complete game, but fell 2-0 at Kentucky. Struck out 12 in a complete-game loss to Arkansas. Struck out 10 in a win over Mississippi St. Beat Auburn with a five-inning outing. Pitched seven shutout innings to beat Illinois-Chicago. Earned SEC Pitcher of the Week for a complete-game, 15-strikeout, no-walk performance vs. Brown. Struck out six and gave up one run in six innings to beat Stanford.
Post-VU: Oakland took Gray 18th overall in the 2011 MLB Draft. He made the Majors by 2013 and stuck there, making the All-Star team twice and finishing third in the American League Cy Young voting in 2015. Gray reunited with former VU pitching coach Derek Johnson in Cincinnati in 2019, again making the All-Star team and finishing third in the National League Cy Young voting. Gray is still with the Reds heading into the 2020 season, if and when that ever begins.
Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: Gray pitched during a high run-scoring environment, meaning you can shave about 25 points off that career 3.19 ERA if you want to "normalize" it to an average run-scoring environment between 2003-19. On the other hand, Gray allowed 1.39 runners per inning, the fourth-highest mark of the 24 pitchers who made the VandySports 100.
I had originally slotted Gray seven spots higher on the list, but that last number was the reason I knocked him down to 21st. I'm not saying Gray posted the numbers he did because of smoke and mirrors; that would be diminishing what was undeniably a great career. But because of that, Gray's career component ERA was 20 points higher than his actual ERA, which means there was some good fortune involved.
The latter is about the only knock on Gray, who was a fearless competitor and a gamer from the minute he hit campus. Gray, who lost his dad in an auto accident at 14, played football the same night--and threw four touchdowns in that game. That's the kind of leadership and competitive spirit that Gray brought to the mound from the minute he hit campus, and also the same reason Gray has succeeded as a starter in the Majors despite reservations around his being 5-foot-10. He also won league Gold Glove honors twice, the only VU pitcher to ever do that.
Gray's outings weren't always the prettiest, and the tampered-bat era that peaked around 2009 certainly didn't help Gray as a freshman. But from his sophomore year on, Gray could almost always be counted on for a competitive outing and to pitch deep into games even when he didn't have his best stuff. Gray never backed down from a challenge and was a leader on VU's first CWS team. All considered, 21 seems a fair landing spot.
