Sonny Gray had a bad season in New York. We all saw that ERA (near 5.0), and his season culminated in his general manager all but telling the world that the pitcher would not be back in pinstripes. There was plenty of blame to go around when it came to Gray losing his way, even if he is willing to take his share.



“At the end of the day, I had to go out there and pitch,” said Gray before a live bullpen with the Reds staff in spring training. “Obviously, stuff was frustrating. Getting beat was frustrating.”



But when a pitcher as good as Gray loses his way, it’s worth examining what exactly went wrong. Especially since that effort can then help formulate the plan for getting back to good. So Gray went back to his roots, and returned to the school that made him a star, to learn more about his repertoire.



At Vanderbilt, with his former and current pitching coach Derek Johnson watching, Gray threw in front of today’s best...