Taj Bradley: 2024's Sleeper for Your Fantasy Baseball Team
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 - Start with some bounce backs.
00:04 Let's go to Tampa.
00:05 Again, a team that people easily always seem
00:08 to forget about and they shouldn't.
00:11 Bounce back candidate from the pitching staff for you?
00:13 - Yeah, I think a guy last year that got thrown
00:16 to the wolves a little early was Taj Bradley,
00:18 a really talented young pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays.
00:21 And the Tampa Bay Rays have a history
00:23 of producing some really good pitching talent
00:27 from their own organization,
00:28 but also bringing in talent from other places
00:31 like Zac Eflin last year.
00:32 And the list just goes on and on forever
00:34 with the guys that, you know, if Tampa is on a guy,
00:37 you should be on a guy.
00:38 And that's the end of the story and the conversation always.
00:41 But with Taj Bradley last year,
00:43 I think this was a situation
00:44 where he was making really good progress.
00:46 You saw this player at, you know,
00:49 double A look dominant, right?
00:51 You saw this guy at A ball the year before have a 176 ERA.
00:57 And they got moved up to high A and a 1960 ERA.
01:00 So Taj Bradley knows how to pitch.
01:02 I just think last year he wasn't anticipating
01:05 getting knocked up to that major league level.
01:07 You had Jeffrey Springs go down,
01:08 you had a ton of injuries at the top of this rotation.
01:11 And next thing you know, all of a sudden,
01:13 you know, Shane McClann is out there,
01:14 Springs isn't there.
01:15 And Taj Bradley's asked to do, I think,
01:17 a little bit too much that he was ready to do.
01:19 Now I'm cautiously optimistic that because of the fastball,
01:22 because of the strikeout ability of this player,
01:24 that you're going to get a better version of him.
01:27 So I understand last year that 5.59 ERA of Taj Bradley
01:31 is not something you're currently excited about.
01:33 I get that.
01:34 But let's not forget all the good work that he did
01:37 over 340 plus minor league innings,
01:40 where that ERA was 3.02.
01:43 And that's not good.
01:44 That's dominant.
01:45 That's a big difference here.
01:47 So Taj Bradley is one of these guys too,
01:49 currently being drafted at 281.
01:52 So free square, minor league track record, young pitcher,
01:57 all those intangible things that you would look for
01:59 that you get really excited about drafting a player
02:01 in the top 100 or even 200,
02:04 this guy's going closer to 300 overall.
02:06 And I think that's way too far down the trough.
02:08 Last year, you know, he had a combination of 100
02:12 and I think it was 140 plus innings.
02:15 So innings aren't going to be a problem here
02:18 for Taj Bradley.
02:19 It's a matter of location.
02:20 The strikeout stuff is there.
02:21 It's a matter of just getting that mix
02:24 a little bit better,
02:24 making the better pitches at the better time,
02:26 and also just a little bit of confidence.
02:28 So this is another player where you want to see
02:31 good stuff happen in spring.
02:33 If he has a couple of starts here, not early on,
02:35 but then the next couple of weeks in March,
02:37 where he takes his turns in the rotation
02:38 and he looks good over the three or four inning sample size
02:41 that he has as he ramps up,
02:42 he's probably going to be that fifth guy in this rotation.
02:45 I think he's going to be far more difficult to deal with
02:48 for the rest of the league in 2024 than he was in 2023,
02:51 because I think he was just rushed.
02:53 And sometimes certain guys just aren't ready
02:55 for that developmental jump,
02:57 but that doesn't mean that you're going to dismiss
03:01 everything that he did last couple of years,
03:04 building up to that.
03:05 Again, 300 plus innings, a 3-0-2 ERA.
03:09 That is a very special young pitcher that they have.
03:12 And he is young enough here as well,
03:14 turning just 23 years old,
03:16 where I think Taj Bradley has a lot of future
03:19 potentially ahead of him.
03:20 These are great by low in Dynasty
03:21 or Keeper leagues right now.
03:23 And a pitcher that I think at this ADP
03:25 is absolutely somebody to take a stab at.
03:26 Matt, what do you think about Taj Bradley
03:28 and this Tampa Bay rotation in 2024?
03:30 - Well, you did a great job.
03:32 And what I love that you did was pointed out
03:34 when an organization is on a player,
03:36 there are certain organizations in baseball
03:38 and St. Louis Cardinals, the Atlanta Braves, the Tampa Rays,
03:42 when they're on a player, they're usually right.
03:44 And I'll point to a guy like Aaron Ciavalli,
03:47 who could be another great bounce back candidate in Tampa.
03:49 So I like what you're saying about Bradley.
03:51 I do agree with what you said.
03:53 And I also think that not having him shoulder the load
03:56 of being a one, even a two, or even a three,
03:59 put him down there as a four or a five
04:00 and see what he can do and let him mature
04:04 as that entire team needs to.
04:05 (upbeat music)
04:08 [MUSIC]