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Posted at 11:00 AM EST.

2:10 PM EST. This is the first game of a double-header and after getting smoked last night and getting smoked often on the road all year, the Athletics are tough to get behind but we’re going to do exactly that because the value is there. Neck, shoulder and forearm injuries affected Sonny Gray’s playing time last year (10 weeks over 2 DL trips). His control and hr/f ballooned sending his ERA, WHIP and opponent OPS soaring. Even so, his K-rate, first-pitch strike rate and groundball rate stayed solid, giving hope that with health, 2016 can be forgotten but so far that hasn’t been the case—on paper.

Gray has 2-2 record after seven starts (he started the year a month behind everyone else) with a 4.57 ERA. Pitching half his games in Oakland makes that ERA look even worse. However, under the hood, Gray is finally starting to resemble the budding rotation anchor that he used to be. Underneath his near-5 ERA are 8.1 K’s/9, 2.6 BB’s/9 and a 60% groundball rate. He missed bats at a decent clip (11.3%) and got ahead of hitters (65% first-pitch strike rate) at a good clip too. Gray’s low 64% strand rate is the reason his ERA is high. We’re paying attention to his outstanding 3.05 xERA over his last five starts. If you want to speculate on a former high-upside starter with great value, this is a good place to do so.

Erasmo Ramirez (RHP, TAM) toes the rubber for start number 6. Though he faces the same OAK team as Andriese, Erasmo Ramirez has only completed the 6th inning in one start and has only made five on the year after appearing 12 times in relief. Ramirez’s 2016 move to the bullpen was essentially a remix of previous years in shorter takes. He’s a pitcher without a role. He’s appeared in 162 games since 2012 with 68 of those being starts.

Lefties and long flies have always been problematic even though he’s a groundball pitcher. Neither role has uncovered anything hidden in his skill set so he’ll likely be more valuable to his team than he is to us. Ramirez will have some good outings and some bad ones and we have no idea which it’ll be today. At this point, it's hard to envision him as anything but just a pedestrian arm. What we know for sure is that Gray is the superior pitcher taking back a tag.

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