5.6 and 85 3 star cornerback Rayshad Williams has committed to Derek Mason and the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Rayshad is a 6'4", 185 pound defensive back out of Whitehaven High School in Memphis. Good players come out of Whitehaven and Rayshad is another one of them.
Rayshad's film is exceptional. Whoever he hits, goes down. No more questions after he hits you. Really good tackler. Great ball skills, saw at least 3 ints on film. Fast, very athletic. Really like this pickup. Rayshad joins high 3 star db's Deshaun Jerkins and Tre Douglas in this class for us in the secondary. Tre committed Thursday and Deshaun dropped anchor on Friday. We have room for one more db and Chandler Jones, a 4 star, is close to committing. Will keep you posted on Chandler. Hope we can get some D linemen in this class. Nick Fulwider, a 6'6", 250 pound d end out of Tyrone, GA., is very interested. High 3 star. Very good player. Would like at least one defensive tackle also.
Sonny Gray had an outstanding game today to move to 3-3 on the season with a 4.45 ERA, which improved greatly with this outing, as the A's swept the ChiSox with today's 5-3 victory at Guaranteed Rate Field on the Southside of Chicago.
Sonny went 7, gave up 4 hits, 2 runs, with only 1earned, 1 walk and 7 K's. The A's were down 2-0 in the 6th, but scored a run in the top of the 6th and 2 in the 7th, and hit two long ones in the 9th. Sonny threw 101 pitches, 64 for strikes against 37 balls. Stellar outing for the man. Sonny isn't worried about any of that trade gossip. He wants to win and he wants his team to win. Sonny's next outing is Saturday at home against Dansby and the Braves, which are playing pretty good baseball right now though they lost to the Brewers today, 7-0, to drop to 36-39 on the season. But they are still greatly improving and Dans is hitting better and better and playing super shortstop.
The A's moved to 34-42 on the season. They made some real progress this weekend. Starting pitching was awesome, defense was superb, and bats were clutch. That's what it takes. Really liked what I saw out of Sonny. Hitting 94 consistently with his fastball, breaking ball was superb, and his cut fastball, which David taught him, was outstanding as well.
David Price pitched well last night though he took the loss. The BoSox lost to the LA Angels, 6-3. David fell to 2-2 with a 4.38 ERA. David went 6, gave up 4 hits,2 runs, with just 1 earned, 0 walks and 5 K's. He gave up a homer, as did Sonny today, but he pitched outstandingly well. His fastball was hitting 95-96, he even hit 97 at least once, maybe twice. He pretty much relied on his heat. Boston manager John Ferrell wants Dave to throw more off-speed stuff, which he did more in his latter innings. David doesn't seem to have confidence with his changeup or his breaking ball right now. That'll come. David pitches again Thursday at home vs. the Minnesota Twins, which are in first place in the AL Central after just sweeping last year's World Series participant Cleveland Indians. The Twins swept the Indians at Cleveland. Of course, the Indians lost to the Cubs in 6 games last year in the Series. That's impressive by the Twins, so David will have his work cut out for him. I see him still getting comfortable on the mound after being sidelined for the first 2 months of the season with a sore elbow. Looking forward to David's challenge Thursday at Fenway.
Pedro Alvarez and Mike Yastrzemski had huge days at the plate for the Norfolk Tides today in their 9-8 victory over the Gwinnett Braves, the Atlanta team's triple A club. The Tides are the triple A club for the Baltimore Orioles.
Pedro was 3 for 6 with a homer and 2 doubles and 3 Ribeyes. That was Pedro's 16th homer of the season, and his 3 RBIs gave him 50 for the season. Yaz was 2 for 5 with the game winning single in the top of the 11th. Great stuff from both of our guys. Both should be in Baltimore soon. The Orioles need'em!