Tampa Bay Rays: Rays Get a Steal in 37th Round with Rob Finneran

For those of you who don’t live in the New England area, you may not have had a clue who Rob Finneran was when he was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 37^th round this week. Let me be one of the first to tell you that the Rays’ have acquired an absolute steal in Finneran.

I’ve had the pleasure of covering Rob for the last year while he played for Division II Bentley University in Waltham, MA as well as over the last few weeks as he’s been playing for the Somerville Alibrandis of the Yawkey Baseball League.

Now this could make me slightly biased, but I’ve seen a lot of high school and college players and he’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.

While at Bentley this past season, he went 8-3 in 12 starts, pitching in 79.2 innings with a 2.26 ERA and averaged nearly one strikeout per inning. The ace of the rotation is Bentley’s career leader in wins, winning percentage, strikeouts and ERA.

It’s not even really close that he is the best pitcher in the program’s history. Oh yeah, he also only played in three seasons with Bentley after having to undergo Tommy John surgery that caused him to miss the 2011 season.

He has great life on his fastball and controls his off-speed pitches well. Finneran has the ability to go deep into games and rarely gets rattled on the rubber.

Even though he’s only pitched in 4.1 innings for his summer team, he’s been lights out. The sample size is small, but he didn’t give up a hit in those 4.1 innings and also struck out six while picking up a save in one of his two appearances.

After hearing his name called, Finneran spoke with the Bentley Athletics department and was overly excited.

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I'm thrilled to get drafted and I can't thank my coaches and teammates enough. They've been extremely supportive especially this past year coming back from Tommy John surgery. I couldn't be happier going to an organization like Tampa Bay where they're known for developing young arms and have a great farm system. I'm really excited and I can't wait to get started.

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There’s no doubt in my mind that Rob will be great in the Rays’ minor league system and eventually make it to the major leagues someday. Congratulations to Rob on being drafted and to the Tampa Bay Rays for getting their hands on one of the best pitchers in the Northeast.