Harrison Central alum Bobby Bradley showing out in the Show
On Monday, Bleacher Report came out with a pre-season article predicting one breakout star for all 30 Major League Baseball teams.
The Cleveland Guardians player that was name dropped was Harrison Central alum Bobby Bradley. Time flies when you’re hitting dingers, already eight years removed from his senior season with the Red Rebels and now closing in on his lifelong dream of being an everyday first baseman in the show.
“I mean we were just all messing around, I was messing around with our reporter, I mean we’re all just having a good time, and he’s like you know what, you’re going to hit the next one. And I’m like yeah, you know, whatever.”
On July 9th, just 24 hours after Franmil Reyes walked it off against the Kansas City Royals, Bobby Bradley did the same exact thing, as prophesized by his sidekick slugger. “The next night the situation comes up, so I’m getting the chills walking up to the plate, and I’m like, there is no way that I’m in this spot right now. And I mean got down 1-2 I think it was real quick, and fortunately got a slider out over the plate and got a good hold of it, and I mean just couldn’t believe it once it left the bat.”
The drop-the-mic zip line blast was certainly the high point of Bradley’s 2021 season in which he crushed ten home runs across his first 30 games including his first multi-homer showing just 20 games in. “I mean they were all dreams come true, but just thanking God that I was just able to be in that spot to show them what I could do, and just looking forward to the opportunity to show them what I can do over a full year now.”
Overall, Bradley hit 16 homers across 74 games, putting him on pace for 35 over a full 162. Perhaps his most exciting underlying metric, the league’s 16th best expected slugging percentage when he puts the ball in play, ahead of both of last year’s home run leaders Salvador Perez and Vladmir Guerrero Jr. “It’s kind of finding that balance for me, cause I feel like you can fall off the rabbit hole on the same end looking into all the analytics and things like that, I mean because I have before, especially coming up. I’m like, I should be hitting like this and things like that and you just start worrying about the wrong things. In terms of that, just saving it for the off-season to where it’s not like a mid-season adjustment.”
No real need to tinker with an already majestic launch angle, especially with off-season cuts like these at Biloxi’s MGM Park.
For the first time in Bradley’s career, the starting first base job is his to lose heading into spring training and losing it isn’t really a viable option. “Coming in like this is my spot and good luck taking it. I’m going to do everything in my power to keep it.”
After hammering 156 career minor league home runs, Bradley is now entering his age 25 season and living up to his 18-year-old potential as a third-round pick back in 2014, more than capable of producing those same results in that show as Cleveland’s everyday corner infield power bat hailing from Harrison Central. “Just the support that I’ve had from family, friends and just fans coming along the way, everybody believing in me and things like that, and now it’s just time to go show them and prove them right.”
Bradley says the nastiest pitcher he’s faced so far is former Biloxi Shuckers ace and reigning NL Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes.
MLB remains in a lockout with its players union so his date to report to springing training still remains up in the air.
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