Melody assistant 7.7.0f crack6/11/2023 ![]() ![]() The Rays internal stuff metrics likely cast Bradley’s arsenal in a similarly positive light, which might be part of the reason he was given the first crack at filling a rotation spot from Durham.ĭespite his elite pitch grades and strong performance in three not-so-easy starts (solid offense in Boston, a tough pitching environment in Cincinnati, and a strong offense in Houston), Bradley was optioned back to Durham following his third start. His cutter also boasts a Top 10 Stuff+ among starting pitchers, giving Bradley two elite offerings to serve as the foundation for his array of weapons. Among starting pitchers with at least that many four-seamers thrown, here is where Bradley ranks in some key performance and characteristic movement metrics:īradley currently has the third-best fastball by Stuff+ among starting pitchers in Major League Baseball. Arguably more exciting, however, was how his pitches graded out after his first taste of MLB action.īradley has made four total major league starts thus far, amassing 20.1 innings and throwing over 100 fastballs. Still, this was an extremely exciting introduction to the big leagues for Bradley. He commanded his four-seamer and cutter reasonably well and they both performed in response, but he only threw his changeup twice out of 78 pitches and his curveball served as more of a called-strike weapon than a source of chases. This debut actually did a good job of capturing the various strengths and weaknesses of Bradley at this point in his career. Regardless, Bradley got the call and dazzled in his debut, going five innings strong in the Trop while fanning eight Red Sox and putting up a 35 CSW%. ![]() It was an aggressive promotion considering the presence of Luis Patiñoand Yonny Chirinos, who were both stationed in Durham at the time and had extensive big-league exposure between them. “Too bad! We need you now!” said the Rays, as they called Bradley up for his MLB debut to replace the injured Zach Eflin in a game against the Red Sox on April 12th. He started playing with a split-change that showed real promise during its brief run in Durham between 2022 and the first couple of weeks of 2023, but he hadn’t really nailed it down yet. He was able to cruise through the minors largely on the strength of his fastball/slider/cutter mix, but he needed another consistent offering before breaking into the big leagues. He just tossed it over for easy-called strikes most of the time, assuming he had command of it. He had a half-decent curveball throughout his minor-league career, but it was never really a true putaway pitch. The biggest question for Bradley was what his third pitch would be. He commanded both of these pitches extremely well and showed an advanced ability to manipulate the shape on his slider to give it the properties of a cutter on occasion. His biggest selling points as a prospect were his lethal four-seamer and his hard gyro slider, both of which received 60 FV grades prior to his debut. He wasn’t even a Top 10 pitching prospect in the Rays’ farm system heading into the 2021 season but by the 2022 All-Star Break, he was the number one Rays prospect and just outside the Top 20 overall prospects in baseball according to MLB.com. Regarding the ascension of pitching prospects, Taj Bradley’s was among the most rapid and dramatic we’ve seen in the last decade. ![]() We’re going to go through some of the more anticipated starting pitching prospects to debut this season and discuss what they currently do well, what they could do well in the near future, and what adjustments they need to make to reach their sky-high potential.Īnd to lead off our look into the young, bright stars taking the mound in today’s game, let’s talk about the youngest and (arguably) the brightest among them. It seems like we are in a new golden age of young, exciting flamethrowers in baseball, and I’m here to go through the best and brightest of them. Starting pitching prospects tend to take a longer time to accumulate experience as they move through the minor leagues and their workloads are more closely monitored thanks to arm health concerns for young, hard-throwers.Įarly on this year, however, we’ve seen an unprecedented amount of high-end starting pitching prospects break through to the major leagues in just the first two months of the season. Generally speaking, position players in Major League Baseball debut much younger than their pitcher counterparts. ![]()
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