With a few days to think about it, the Rays series in Boston was just not a good time.
The team was seemingly out of every game and were even shutout on Saturday with Garrett Crochet tossing his first ever complete game (Shane Baz was pretty good, but it doesn’t matter when your offense is kaput). The teams position players as a whole put up -0.6 fWAR which was the worst in baseball over those four days as was their 44 wRC+; only one player had positive fWAR and that was Jake Mangum (0.2 fWAR). The pitching
wasn’t much better with the bullpen once again allowing games to be lost late, including a walk-off loss on Friday.
With that being said, someone has to be the Player of the Series and Taj Bradley seems to be as good a choice as any.
During the series opener on Thursday, Bradley delivered one of the better starts of his career (13th best according to Baseball Reference’s GameScore). Bradley hurled six innings and allowed a lone run on two hits while he walked three and struck out five. Unfortunately, Bryan Baker made his Rays debut and allowed three runs. Boston eventually won the game, 4-3.
Bradley is now in the thick of his 3rd season in the big leagues and the 24-year old currently has a 4.60 ERA | 4.14 FIP with a 20.4 K% & 9.2 BB% over 103 2⁄3 IP across 19 starts.
DRAYSBAY PLAYER OF THE SERIES
- 1st: Kameron Misner
- 2nd: Jake Mangum
- 3rd: Brandon Lowe
- 4th: Jose Caballero
- 5th: Joe Boyle
- 6th: Shane Baz
- 7th: Chandler Simpson
- 8th: Christopher Morel
- 9th: Chandler Simpson
- 10th: Mason Englert
- 11th: Taylor Walls
- 12th: Yandy Diaz
- 13th: Travis Jankowski
- 14th: Brandon Lowe
- 15th: Drew Rasmussen
- 16th: Curtis Mead
- 17th: Junior Caminero
- 18th: Zack Littell
- 19th: Zack Littell
- 20th: Junor Caminero
- 21st: Christopher Morel
- 22nd: Yandy Diaz
- 23rd: Junior Caminero
- 24th: Brandon Lowe
- 25th: Yandy Diaz
- 26th: Shane Baz
- 27th: Brandon Lowe
- 28th: Yandy Diaz
- 29th: Joe Boyle
- 30th: Jonathan Aranda
- 31st: Taj Bradley
More from draysbay.com:
- Former Tampa Bay Rays Pitcher, current Boston Red Sox ace, David Price has elbow soreness
- Baseball America releases Rays Top 30 prospects list in 2017 Prospect Handbook
- Rays Organization Ranked 2nd in AL East
- Tampa Bay Rays Trivia Thursday - Most Homeruns by a Rays Second Baseman
- The United Kingdom loves pastel baseball hats
