That Didn't Take Long

Despite his best efforts, Milton Bradley still does not hold the record for Least Amount of Activity to Cause an Injury. That record is still held by Moises Alou, who once injured himself while standing in the outfield.

Bradley does have to be awarded the silver medal though. Taking a walk in his first plate appearance of Spring Training (while not swinging the bat once) resulted in what was later described as "mild tightness in his left quad." He was removed from the game as a precautionary measure.

I'm sure this is nothing and he will play again during the spring exhibition season (unlike some former Cubs' pitching phenoms I will only identify by saying their names rhyme with "should" and "crier"), but it nevertheless brings the seemingly inevitable specter of injuries into our collective consciousness far earlier in the season than even the most jaded of us fans expected.

This is where many fans will start waiting for when this gets worse. When will we lose our $30 million left-handed bat that was supposed to bring balance to the lineup? Will Milton Bradley be our version of Randy Myers, who got paid about $14 million by the Padres for essentially doing nothing for them (14 1/3 innings and 6.28 ERA in 1998, zero innings in 1999 or 2000)?

I will not be letting myself lose sleep over this. I doubt that Milton Bradley is the difference between success and failure for the Cubs. Plus, I'd rather see Bradley sit out most of the spring anyway. Give him some at-bats to get used to live pitching, but there is no sense on wasting the finite number of games his body has left on meaningless pre-season games.

Maybe they should wrap him in bubble-wrap too. I'd say it couldn't hurt to try, but I bet he could find a way.