The Cubs refused to believe they were out of the playoff chase last year when they hadn't gained a game on the Cardinals in over a month, but they showed a brand new can-quit spirit today as they shipped off pouty Milton Bradley to Seattle in exchange for a pitcher that will most likely make us look back fondly on the Neal Cotts Era.
I'll put it another way. The Cubs traded their answer to all of their 2008 problems in the playoffs for a pitcher that has injury problems, is kind of a dick in his own right, and sucks at getting opposing batters out. The eleven and a half months of the Milton Bradley Era is the biggest conglomeration of poor judgement and mismanagement of my lifetime and quite possibly the entire history of the Chicago Cubs. (Move over Larry Himes.)
It is readily apparent that this move is a marketing and PR move and not a move that is intended to make the team better at the actual game of baseball. The last time marketing and PR came into play in player personnel decisions, we wound up with the Neverending Contract in left field that will continue to hamstring the roster for years to come.
The Cubs decided it was easier to market a shitty team without the stain of Milton Bradley than a potentially shitty team with Milton Bradley.
The purely baseball decision here was to bring Milton to camp and pray to God he started hitting the baseball with authority so that the price could be raised enough to get a player of some value back, or to save more than the $6 million they cut in the deal with Seattle.
I'm not saying that the Cubs would EVER get true value back for Milton's talents that will almost assuredly be on display in the Pacific Northwest this season. I'm talking about raising his value enough so that other teams might begin to actually believe that the Cubs didn't HAVE to trade him and thereby stop trying to shove barbed wire up Hendry's ass in any trade discussions.
Meanwhile the Cubs are relieved Milton won't be distracting them in the clubhouse anymore. Ryan Theriot went on Waddle & Silvy on ESPN 1000 in Chicago and talked about how much easier it will be to focus without Milton around anymore and I wanted to reach into the radio and strangle him. Blaming Milton Bradley for all of the ills of the Cubs last season is horseshit copping out.
I've worked with people that I hate and its no picnic, but it shouldn't affect your job performance. Unless Milton was going around the clubhouse setting things on fire, destroying game tapes, or falsifying scouting reports, there is no excuse for letting one guy take the blame for the entire season of fail last year.
Nobody in this scenario is clean. The Cubs players are apparently fragile, whiny bitches. The coaches enabled a destructive belief that the players can't hit, field, pitch, or run as long as Milton was moping around the clubhouse. Hendry never should have signed him in the first place, and most certainly never should have given him three years. Hell, even the media started poking Milton with a stick the moment Spring Training started and exacerbated every situation at every opportunity. Any fans that yelled anything racial at Milton or any other player they don't like should be hog-tied and laid out in the Wrigley urinal troughs during a game.
The good things about the trade are that it is finally over and I have a new easy target for my lame jokes.
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11 comments:
Milton was in the dugout and sometimes, when Theriot was up to bat, Milton would yell "Swing Batta!" It got Theriot every time.
Really funny stuff. Can't wait for the Carlos Silva jokes to start coming in.
Mr/Ms. Anonymous, you can't have it both ways. Either the Cubs players were whiny bitches who couldn't tune out an annoying coworker to do thier job, OR they're not whiny bitches and their struggles were not MB related.
You ever try to play on a team with someone you don't get along with? It's hard, even for professional athletes. All those winning teams, all those championship teams, all have one thing in common, team chemistry. Remember kids, baseball is 90% mental and anyone who has ever played baseball could tell you how difficult it is to be successful even when everything is going your way. Bradley was acidic and harmful to the Cubs in more ways then his poor performance on the field.
The 2009 Cubs had many problems, Bradley was the one that most people saw and focused on. When you get paid $30 million dollars to play baseball you better show up to play and not walk to first base when you ground-out, or deal with the 'boos'.
First of all, Anonymous #2, you need to learn how to use an occasional punctuation mark and that the shift key is your friend.
Second, you need to learn the difference between "are" and "our" if you want to be taken seriously.
Third, the team OPS was .712 (that is horrible) in September/October, so their bats couldn't have picked up too much after Bradley was told to leave.
Lastly, I'm the kind of fan that doesn't want players on his team who make excuses and pass the buck for their own crap play on the field. If they are going to blame others like a whiny bitch, that is exactly what I am going to call them.
I'm not disagreeing Tim, but I'm still thrilled that dude is no longer a Cub. What a waste.
Matt, I'm with you on being glad the guy is gone, but this was bungled from start to finish by the Cubs in every way imaginable and it pisses me off to no end. (In case you couldn't tell.)
Could they have traded Bradley to the UFC for a different Silva, Anderson Silva? I think that Silva would prove more valuable to the Cubs and Bradley would be quite entertaining the UFC. That would be a great trade.
Charley
Bradley was scapegoated the moment it looked like the Cubs were gonna be shitty.Now I'm not saying he was performing well until people started picking on him but his teammates weren't exactly saying "Milton isn't the problem" so I can imagine he probably felt unwanted. The fact is he was a problem but far from the biggest. Soriano is making a tooooon of money and can't seem to recognize a ball from a strike but instead of realizing that people decided to go after the new guy. And I'm not gonna even get started on Fukudome who isn't exactly playing for free.
Mrejr, I think that the criticism of Milton by guys like Lee, Ramirez, and Dempster speaks volumes about the type of asshole Bradley is.
I'm sure they are thrilled he is gone as would any of us who finally rid our lives of such a miserable human being, but to blame their poor performances on Milton being a jerk (as Theriot suggested) is copping out. Nothing Milton did or said had any affect on whether or not they threw to the wrong base, struck out with runners in scoring position, or gave up game-tying homeruns.
But its over and now they don't have any excuses.
I would hate to work with anounymous #2. If he didn't like me, he'd think it was ok to be a slacker. When he/she wasn't "busy" slacking they would probably "busy" being a whiny bitch - complaining to everyone about why they don't like me...never getting much actual work done.
My company doesn't base my paycheck on how easy going and successful my co-workers are. I do not get the luxury of blaming my motivation or lack of production on co-worker attitudes, etc. I have/do work with some great people but I have/do work with more than my fair share of dicks/bitches. In a perfect world, we'd all get along. It's not a perfect world so no matter who I work with or how we feel about each other, I am held accountable for my own work.
My company expects me to show up each day, be professional and work hard for my paycheck. I do the best I can because I need to keep my job but also because I take pride in my work.
I feel like a whiny bitch complaining about my job on "bad" days, because I am so grateful to still have one when so many others have lost theirs in the past year - and I do NOT make millions.
Their "job" involves getting paid millions to play a game so they should quit being whiny bitches and wasting time making excuses. If the whiny players put 1/2 that much effort into being the best THEY can be, who knows what could happen....
Could 2010 be the year the Blackhawks and the Cubs both win it all?!?
Tim, I am not drunk. You know my hope springs eternal. ;-)
N
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