Milton BADley

For many years as a Cubs fan I've been able to keep my mouth shut but enough is enough

Sure, hindsight is 20-20. But the day I heard Milton Bradley was just signed by the Cubs, my body ached and my teeth cringed. "That man is a disease." I said aloud. I then recalled with colleague several Bradley anecdotes including fan altercations, injuries most able bodied major leaguers could avoid, and several bonehead plays that ANYONE who grew up in or around the game of baseball could never fathom.

Throughout the season I've watched him ground into double play after double play, leave men on base, make half assed attempts at fly balls, and run the bases with the Baseball IQ of a oversize headed Gerber baby... but what I saw Friday, Are you kidding me?

Now the double play number, 6, is seemingly harmless on the surface, but digging deeper, it is outpacing a career high and even more revolting when compared to a measily 16 RBI. I need not mention he has only hit 5 Homeruns to point out how awful Bradley's production has been, but why not throw it out to the fans anyway? Afterall, he did.

The half assed attempts at fly balls, I can understand. I find myself half assing my way thru most of my life. But, Milton, this is your profession, act professional. You have 24 other teamates and the city of Chicago counting on your efforts, give it your all.

Twice this week we actually got to see Milton Bradley run the bases. That's right. He actually got on base and then was able to run around them without injuring something. Ok now he reached base more than twice this week (slightly), but these two times happened to cost the Cubs outs and potential runs as complete bonehead decisions were made and Bradley was tagged out. In both these situations I would like to say he was caught in the heat of the moment, but both situations were pre-empted situations in which a runner should be thinking "HOLD" There really is no excuse for not knowing the game.

All of those failed to compare to the most recent blunder. The audacity of a man to even pose for a routine fly ball as if it were some great catch making up for his prior (uncharged) error of losing the ball in the sun, while wearing white designer sunglass, mind you. After making the catch and posing for a matter of seconds, still wearing white designer sunglasses, Milton, threw the ball into the stands with 2 outs. Somehow he was so caught up in his own glamour that neither his teamates running at him with their mitts up, nor the fans yelling at him to throw the ball back to in the infield were enough to deter this mockery of the game.

Bradley is signed for the next 3 seasons at a hefty penny. At the age of 31, we can only hope his prime has not passed, though lingering injuries to the lower body seem to be taking their toll making this signing even more questionable.

In 2008, Bradley's best season. He hit only .273 with RISP and a mere .163 with 2 outs and RISP. He hit a solid, but much deflated .290 on the road, and only 6 home runs came away from hitter friendly Rangers Ballpark at Arlington. His power numbers also diminished over the course of last season with only 3 HR and 20 RBI in the second half of last year.

The reason for the signing in the first place was to add a left handed bat, Milton hit .309 as a lefty, while .346 as a righty, so really, they didn't even get the left handed bat they desired.

Milton's struggles have been so great he has considered hitting only right handed and his 35 runs produced this year (19 R, 16 RBI) have come at a cost of $200,000 per. Using the same metric, Albert Pujols' runs produced (48 R, 55 RBI) come at a cost of $140,000 per.

And did the Cubs forget that Micah Hoffpauir hit .342 last year and a stellar .355 against right handing pitching. Did they not realize that is runs produced in 2009 come at a cost of only $15,673 per!

Now I understand Micah Hoffpauir may have not been ready to play every day against the better left handers in the league, but without Bradley's $30 mil collective deal, there was no need to trade Mark DeRosa, who hit .310 against southpaws. DeRosa's runs produced in 2009 have come at a cost of $66,265 per.

What makes the DeRosa trade even more dispicable is the abandonment of Casey McGehee The Cubs entered the season knowingly having no legitimate back-up to Ramirez who missed 43 games over the last 2 seasons. McGehee, age 26, is coming into his own after the rival Brewers who scooped him up for a bargain $400,000. MeGehee is hitting .311 and .356 as a starter since filling in for the injured Ricky Weeks.

Of course without McGehee, DeRosa still could have moved to third and Hoffpaur becomes a deserving everyday outfield, or Lou Piniella could chose to promote Jake Fox to fill in for DeRosa against lefties, Fox is hitting .416 in AAA but has yet to catch on with consistant MLB at bats.

With DeRosa's salary compared to Bradley's, the Cubs would have saved $1.5mil. This would have been coupled with the $9,750,000 in salary they dumped on Colorado with Jason Marquis, who happens to be tied for the NL lead in wins.

This saved money would have been more than enough to fill the more immediate hole vacant at the closer role with the departure of Kerry Wood. For $6,000,000 their competition (again the Brewers) were able to sign Trevor Hoffman, who has yet to allow a run this season. Instead, for $4,200,000, or $1.8 mil less (or pretty close to the DeRosa to Bradley pay increase) the Cubs settled for Kevin Gregg, who oh by the way has already given up 13 runs, and blown 2 saves. Once again, it makes me wonder if the Cubs did their Due Diligence. If so, they may have realized in 2008, Kevin Gregg blew 23% of his save chances. Hoffman blew a mere 11%.
If the Cubs wanted to really spend the money, for the full price of the Marquis and Bradley/DeRosa savings, they could have had K-Rod, who blew only 10% of saves last year and finished the season with 63.

Of course, even without the mistakes of this year's offseason, the Cubs would still have to deal with Kosuke Fukudome's $12mil a year or $227,272 per run produced, oh ya and his helicopter swing, and Alfonso Soriano and his $250+ per run produced, and stupid ass crow hop in the outfield.

In fact, the Chicago Cubs $36,500,000 starting outfield cost a mere $334,000 more than the entire Florida Marlins team! The Cubs big boppers in the outfield (Bradley, Fukudome, Soriano) have produced 154 runs while the Marlins starting outfield (Hermida, Gload, Ross) has produced a grand total of, gee, 154 runs! Let's also mention the Marlins outfield payroll is a mere $6,375,000... or less money than any one of the aforementioned Cubs as an individual, and each of the Marlins are 3-5 years younger than any of the aforementioned Cubs. Oh yeah, the Marlins are also 2 games under .500 while the Cubs are a whopping 1 game better than that.

With these hefty long term deals to aging players, trades become unlikely without giving up too much of the future. Luckily, I believe the Cubs have the answers on their bench. Reed Johnson has hit .296 as a starting centerfielder and .326 when hitting in the 5 hole in the batting order, offering protection to the clean-up hitter, and oh yes, he's hitting .364 at the friendly confines. Need we be reminded of the countless incredible, and clutch, catches he has made in the outfield, his knowledge and aggressiveness on the basepaths and a game winning or tying hit scattered in here and there. and another oh yeah, he's making $3,000,000 this year.

Micah Hoffpaur is hitting .278 against right handed pitching, but the power numbers are there (4 HR, 16 RBI in under 100 at bats) and he is hitting .308 as a starting right fielder.

Perhaps while the Cubs struggles continue some sort of platoon, or all out changes are in order.

It was refreshing to see Alfonso Soriano play second base instead of Aaron Miles (the man is useless and a sad excuse as a DeRosa impersonator, much less life) Perhaps this opens up the door for a Lee, Soriano, Theriot, Ramirez infield and a Hoffpauir, Johnson, Fox outfield. Sounds thunderous to me... Rumors are swirling that the Indians may trade their leading RBI man, Mark De Rosa, and the front runners to get him are once again, the Brewers. The Cubs need to address they made a mistake and get back the man Lou Piniella once dubbed, "The Cubs' MVP" before their division rivals do.