Taj

Bradley

Bradley has done well to pull the nose up on a season that was spiraling out of control over his last few starts and certainly ended his season on a high note here. His fastball is always excellent, but he’d lost the touch on his secondary pitches as he struggled. He showed much better command of both his splitter and cutter and that helped him to better vary his pitch sequencing more than he’s been doing of late. He’ll end his season with a 4.11 ERA after quite the roller coaster ride and is likely to be atop every sleeper and breakout piece again this winter.

Bradley put together one of his better starts in the second half after posting a 7.88 ERA over his last nine starts. He held the Blue Jays to one run over five frames, giving up a run in the fifth on a walk and two base hits. Bradley struck out four. The 23-year-old right-hander will take a 4.30 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, and a 147/46 K/BB ratio across 132 innings into a final start against the Red Sox in Boston on Friday.

The Bradley breakout felt so real until it didn’t. He’s done well to pull the nose up of late after a 10.41 ERA in August, but can’t rediscover the dominance he showed earlier this summer. A huge reason for the regression was a total disappearance of his command, especially on off-speed pitches. He found the command of his splitter in this one and it forced eight swings-and-misses as his primary pitch. On the flip side, his fastball was ineffective and the Guardians put enough balls in play to end his day early. He’s scheduled to face the Blue Jays at home in his next start.

Bradley struck out six and walked two while posting a solid 32 percent whiff rate and 32 percent CSW. It’s never been about swing-and-miss stuff with Bradley but is more about the precision of his command which has been inconsistent since a hot stretch at the beginning of the summer. The 23-year-old has now allowed at least three earned runs in eight straight starts and has started tinkering with his pitch mix again, leaning on his cutter more tonight instead of his four-seam fastball. He’s incredibly hard to trust right now and is a very risky play in a matchup against the Guardians this weekend.

Bradley allowed six hits and walked one. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up the overwhelming majority of his damage in the second on a three-run homer by Edouard Julien, and he gave up another run an inning later on a solo blast by Matt Wallner. From that point on Bradley was excellent, but the damage was done. He’ll be back on the mound against the Phillies on Tuesday.

What an ugly start for Bradley. San Diego was on him from the jump as five of their first six balls in play were hit hard and turned into three quick runs. It was more of the same in the second inning when they loaded the bases before Manny Machado hammered a long grand slam. Bradley hung a bevy of curveballs and left way too many splitters high in the zone. Neither of those secondaries forced a single swing-and-miss and there wasn’t one moment in this outing when it looked like Bradley would get it together. He’s now allowed at least five runs in four of five August starts as his ERA has risen from 2.71 to 4.35. He’ll try to get back on track next time out against the Twins.

Bradley struck out five and didn’t hand out a free pass. He gave up seven hits, including two-run homers to Teoscar Hernández and Shohei Ohtani, respectively, which accounted for most of the damage against him. The 23-year-old righty was hit extremely hard in four starts during the month of August, finishing with a lackluster 8.14 ERA, 1.76 WHIP and 16/8 K/BB ratio across 21 innings of work. It’s possible he’s simply hitting a bit of a wall from a workload standpoint, but his second-half slide is concerning for fantasy managers. He’ll attempt to turn things around on Friday when he faces the Padres back at Tropicana Field.

Bradley took his fourth loss in a row, but at least this one was a quality start. Still, the 2/3 K/BB ratio against a mediocre lineup was disappointing. Bradley should be better than this and probably will be, but he’s a mediocre play in mixed leagues right now. He seems like a bad choice this weekend with the Dodgers in the schedule.

It’s a nice development for fantasy purposes as Bradley will get to face the Athletics on Monday instead of squaring off against a red-hot Diamondbacks lineup on Sunday afternoon. It also sets up a two-start week with a matchup next weekend on tap against the Dodgers. The 23-year-old is aiming to rebound after clunkers against the Astros and Cardinals, respectively, in his previous two starts. It’ll be Tyler Alexander drawing the starting assignment for Sunday’s series finale against the Diamondbacks.

It’s a second consecutive clunker for Bradley, who ran into an absolute buzzsaw on Monday night facing a red-hot Astros lineup, which tagged him for eight hits, including a pair of home runs. He finished with six strikeouts and only issued a pair of walks. Despite a pair of rocky outings to kick of August, the 23-year-old former top pitching prospect has put together a legitimate breakthrough campaign, registering a strong 3.49 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 112/33 K/BB ratio across 95 1/3 innings (17 starts). He’ll aim to turn things around on Sunday in a home outing against the Diamondbacks.