Eric SorensonArchie Bradley’s career in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization in many ways has resembled that tricky Rubik’s Cube you struggled with in your childhood.
At times he’s looked every bit the part of what you’d expect from a Top 10 pick. Yet his inconsistency has impeded his place every fifth day in the D-backs’ rotation.
His most recent start Wednesday against Tampa was the perfect contrast of both effective and aggravating. Despite allowing a pair of runs he took a lead into the six inning before poor pitch location and control ended his day taking the loss. He struck out five but walked four falling to 2-2.
It came just five days after his 6-inning, one run, 10 strikeout dominant performance against the talented Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
So?
“Archie has a lot of promise,” ESPN baseball insider Pedro Gomez told Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat during his weekly segment Wednesday. “He’s somebody that the Diamondbacks viewed as a big piece of their future.”
Gomez says Arizona’s expectations for Bradley were to be a top-half of the rotation who they believed would one day anchor the staff along with Trevor Bauer who was drafted four slots ahead of Bradley (third overall) in the same 2011 draft.
Bauer is now a regular in the Cleveland Indians rotation (4-2, 3.88ERA this season) while Bradley is a mixed bag of well, pretty much everything.
“You’ve got to think that at some point guys like that learn that…’just because I was a first-round draft pick, I still gotta work,'” Gomez explained. “I’ve still got to produce because it’s a game of production. Sometimes guys don’t get it the first, second or third time around. Sometimes it takes a fourth or fifth trip down to the minors.”
The D-backs are desperately hoping it’s sooner rather than later.
