FOR SOME LIKE SONNY GRAY, THE BRONX CAN BE OVERWHELMING

Clearly.

Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

So what happened with Sonny Gray this season?  Well, he hasn't been consistent.  Sometimes he can be truly great and at some points of this season he can go 2, sometimes 3 games with some really good stuff.  Other times it's a crap shoot and you don't understand how he's a major league pitcher.

Now, I am not the fan who sits there looking at a major league pitcher throwing a bad outing and says "This guy's garbage."  If you can get the major leagues and stay there for a period of time, there is no real reason to ever suggest that anyone is garbage and truly mean it, other than just being a frustrated fan.

Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

It's hard to get the major leagues... it's harder to stay there.  That being said, I would suggest that if the Yankees are truly invested in this guy and the pros aren't working for him, maybe he needs to be sent down or sent to the pen and work on things.

I'd give Gray the option of the pen or AAA. He's thrown enough games out the window this year with mediocrity. It's August and the small sample size days are over.

— Yankeesource (@YankeeSource) August 1, 2018

Seems simple enough but for some reason, the Yanks aren't trying to do that.  Whatever... it's fine.   But this is what you get.  Inconsistency and now a whole other level of frustration and anger toward Gray by us fans.

USA Today has this story and it will anger you I think:

"Add Sonny Gray to the growing list of major league players who may have to answer for inappropriate social media posts from their past. 

Shortly after the New York Yankees starting pitcher was removed from the game in the third inning against the Baltimore Orioles, Gray deleted some questionable tweets from his Twitter account. In Gray's case, it appears he used a racist slur in a tweet unearthed from 2012, when he was in the minors of the Oakland Athletics organization.

Gray becomes the fourth major league player to come under scrutiny for offensive remarks on social media in recent weeks. Milwaukee Brewers reliever Josh Hader, Atlanta Braves starter Sean Newcomb and Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner had old tweets come to light in the past two weeks."

To top it off, he walked off the field in today's game smiling after he got shelled.

(Photo: Noah K. Murray, USA TODAY Sports)

Look, I hate to be riding this guy, after all, everyone else does and I'd like to be the voice of reason here, but here's the thing, I can't.  Social Media saves everything and if you make a racist comment and it's between friends and an "Inside Joke" but it's public, it really doesn't matter.  If it's out there, it's going to offend someone.  Jokes or not, it's not a good look.

And so now it's strike 2 for Sonny Gray I'm afraid.  He's been an inconsistent pitcher and now he will be accused of being a racist and in society and baseball... that's not good.

Maybe he just doesn't want to be in the Bronx.  Maybe he's looking for an out.  Maybe it's too much pressure for him and he was trying to figure out some subtle way of getting "busted" in hopes that the Yanks would just let him go.  Maybe? I don't know. I do know it's embarrassing that this kid that the world was hyped about, can lay an egg on the mound... and then lay a racist egg for the world to see in the same day.  It's disturbing.

What will come of Sonny Gray? The pressure in New York is just too much I suppose.  He will need to apologize many times over. He will need to think about how offensive he was and he will really need to wonder if in New York City, the melting pot of the country if that's the kind of guy we want here... in a Yankee uniform no less.

I'd love to hear the official reasoning and what comes out of it. But as a fan, I'm disappointed.  It's 2018... we gotta get past the racial tweets and insinuations and move forward... joke or not, it's not good and I'm sorry... there are kids out there all watching.  We don't need it.

As far as his pitching... Sonny needed to figure it out so his Yankee career could continue this year.  He didn't and moreover, the Yankees didn't do much to help him out.  Rothschild's the pitcher whisperer and we got nothing really solid out of Gray this season.  And now... today, August 1, 2018... it may be the end of Sonny Gray in the Bronx for a variety of dumb and inconsistent things.

Hey... maybe he knew it was the end. Maybe seeing Lance Lynn and JA Happ show up ticked him off.  Maybe mentally he's not strong enough to handle the pressures. I don't know.

I do know this... he cemented his fate.  I don't see Gray around much longer.  The good news is maybe he's willing to take his lumps...

Sonny on possibly losing rotation spot: "I want them to do whatever is necessary to help us win, whatever that may be. If I get the ball in 5 days, I’m going to take it and do my best to put us in a position to win. If not, I’m going to do whatever I’m called upon.

— wallace matthews (@OysterBayBomber) August 1, 2018

Sonny Gray is how they described certain kids for the A's in the movie Moneyball when the scouts were around the table with Billy Bean as they were trying to assemble their team... and I'm paraphrasing... "He's got a nice face and he has the tools to be great."

When we're talking about Sonny Gray, this is true. But sometimes you need to dig down deep and be consistent in this game and sometimes you have to act like a leader and like you've been there before.  That's my take anyway.

Too bad it all happened this way.