Jim Hendry mans up

[jersey cubs fan]

Bradley is making the 7th most on the team this year and has an OBP floating around .400.

 

His power outage sucks, and he doesn't exactly look pretty out in the field... but if you're making a list of problems on this team, he's nowhere near the top.

 

I'd say he's near the top. Soriano clearly tops it. But your biggest offseason acquisition disappointing in a big way is a significant problem. The fact that others make more than him is pretty meaningless. Most of those guys have been pretty damn good.

 

Okay.. if the money is meaningless, the fact that he was the biggest offseason acquisition should be as well. So let's just look at production.

 

Bradley is producing like a league average RF despite the power outage. 14th in MLB and 6th in NL in EqA amongst RFs. I bet you can name quite a few players on our team that aren't playing at a league average clip.

 

I didn't say money is meaningless. I said his ranking among top earning Cubs players this year is. Your decision to list that is intellectually dishonest. The guys who make more than him are by and large better. Soriano is the obvious exclusion. Of course money matters. Fontenot has struggled as well, but he's not paid crap and shouldn't have been counted on for much more anyway. Bradley spent the vast majority of the season doing nothing. He started to get on base and has been better, but that doesn't mean he's not on the list of problems.

[illiniguy]

You really gotta hand it to the Cubs. I came in to this year pretty excited about the team. Now, I can't wait for it to end.

[Keener98]

Bradley is really picking up steam

 

Too little too late. He starts hitting once we're past the point where it could have helped. That's still disappointing.

 

Hes been hitting since July, thats far from being past the point where it could help.

[GlassCow]

You really gotta hand it to the Cubs. I came in to this year pretty excited about the team. Now, I can't wait for it to end.

 

I came into the season bitter about an atrocious off-season, and surprisingly my bitterness is even worse now. I didn't think that would be possible.

[illiniguy]

You really gotta hand it to the Cubs. I came in to this year pretty excited about the team. Now, I can't wait for it to end.

 

I came into the season bitter about an atrocious off-season, and surprisingly my bitterness is even worse now. I didn't think that would be possible.

Yeah I think most of us hated the offseason. I also think most of us thought we were good enough to get by it. We weren't.

[inari]

Bradley is making the 7th most on the team this year and has an OBP floating around .400.

 

His power outage sucks, and he doesn't exactly look pretty out in the field... but if you're making a list of problems on this team, he's nowhere near the top.

 

I'd say he's near the top. Soriano clearly tops it. But your biggest offseason acquisition disappointing in a big way is a significant problem. The fact that others make more than him is pretty meaningless. Most of those guys have been pretty damn good.

 

Bradley is really picking up steam, and hopefully next year he'll be adapted to the team. The only guy who would be worth dumping would be Soriano. Thats 90 million over the next 5 years, and for that kind of money he should one of the top players in the game. Id be all for doing what the Blue Jays did with Rios and just send him through waivers and see if someone takes the bait. That money could go a long way.

 

And there is literally no chance anyone would take it.

[Sammys Boombox]

You really gotta hand it to the Cubs. I came in to this year pretty excited about the team. Now, I can't wait for it to end.

 

I came into the season bitter about an atrocious off-season, and surprisingly my bitterness is even worse now. I didn't think that would be possible.

Yeah I think most of us hated the offseason. I also think most of us thought we were good enough to get by it. We weren't.

 

I agree. We still would have been fine if ARam was healthy and Soriano hit around .275 or so. Also, that one big guy, #38, should have done his abs work.

[NCCubFan]

You really gotta hand it to the Cubs. I came in to this year pretty excited about the team. Now, I can't wait for it to end.

 

I came into the season bitter about an atrocious off-season, and surprisingly my bitterness is even worse now. I didn't think that would be possible.

Yeah I think most of us hated the offseason. I also think most of us thought we were good enough to get by it. We weren't.

Yes. I think the general consensus was that they definitely wouldn't be as good as last year, but that they didn't have to be to still win the division.

[Guest]

You really gotta hand it to the Cubs. I came in to this year pretty excited about the team. Now, I can't wait for it to end.

 

I came into the season bitter about an atrocious off-season, and surprisingly my bitterness is even worse now. I didn't think that would be possible.

Yeah I think most of us hated the offseason. I also think most of us thought we were good enough to get by it. We weren't.

Yes. I think the general consensus was that they definitely wouldn't be as good as last year, but that they didn't have to be to still win the division.

I can remember getting taken to task for suggesting that they weren't.

[inari]

I think an element of this team that was going to make it worse than last year's no matter what is simply that we couldn't have matched Jim Edmonds' production from last year. We were bound for regression by not having last year's mega season from him no matter what else we did.

[Soonernation]

Bradley is really picking up steam

 

Too little too late. He starts hitting once we're past the point where it could have helped. That's still disappointing.

 

Hes been hitting since July, thats far from being past the point where it could help.

Bradley is not being paid $10 million a year to hit singles and get on base; if he was having even an average year in homers and RBI's how much better would this team be? He's an epic failure in my book

[Guest]

Bradley is really picking up steam

 

Too little too late. He starts hitting once we're past the point where it could have helped. That's still disappointing.

 

Hes been hitting since July, thats far from being past the point where it could help.

Bradley is not being paid $10 million a year to hit singles and get on base; if he was having even an average year in homers and RBI's how much better would this team be? He's an epic failure in my book

RBI? [-X

[illiniguy]

You really gotta hand it to the Cubs. I came in to this year pretty excited about the team. Now, I can't wait for it to end.

 

I came into the season bitter about an atrocious off-season, and surprisingly my bitterness is even worse now. I didn't think that would be possible.

Yeah I think most of us hated the offseason. I also think most of us thought we were good enough to get by it. We weren't.

Yes. I think the general consensus was that they definitely wouldn't be as good as last year, but that they didn't have to be to still win the division.

I can remember getting taken to task for suggesting that they weren't.

Which they still would have been if not for the Cardinals getting Matt Holliday and Chris Carpenter pretending that he isn't made of glass for a year.

[YearofDaCubs]

Bradley is really picking up steam

 

Too little too late. He starts hitting once we're past the point where it could have helped. That's still disappointing.

 

Hes been hitting since July, thats far from being past the point where it could help.

Bradley is not being paid $10 million a year to hit singles and get on base; if he was having even an average year in homers and RBI's how much better would this team be? He's an epic failure in my book

I really wanted us to sign Bradley during the offseason. Nobody expected him to be this bad and although I do love his OBP, 31RBI is not going to cut it.

[WrigleyField 22]

I think an element of this team that was going to make it worse than last year's no matter what is simply that we couldn't have matched Jim Edmonds' production from last year. We were bound for regression by not having last year's mega season from him no matter what else we did.

Except Fukudome did match his production. Well as close as you could have hoped for at least. A little less slugging, but more or less equal.

[Abe Frohman]

I don't think anyone thought they would be gambling with offensive futility when Soriano was signed.

 

Really? You don't think anybody thought there was a significant chance that Soriano would be completely unproductive over large stretches of his contract?

 

Yes' date=' really. EVERYONE knows that Alfonso Soriano is a streaky hitter at best. In my opinion, streaky does not equate to "futile," like I originally stated. "Futile" is how I would describe Soriano's 2009 season.

 

Let me define what I meant - and it is not that Soriano would be completely unproductive over large stretches of his contract. I don't think anyone really thought that his "streakiness" would basically stretch over a total season, as it basically has in 2009. I think we all expected hot streaks and cold streaks. That is how Soriano has been in his career, and we all know/knew it.

 

So, NO, I don't think that many people thought that Soriano would be this terrible for a season. I don't think that he would have received that kind of contract if it was expected for him to be such an offensive/defensive liability.

 

It seems like Soriano is more concerned with his little stupid "bunny hop" before catching a fly ball, or hitting a home run and doing his cute little WWE "you can't see me" hand thing in front of his face - which is altogether as annoying as watching his teammates getting walked to load the bases in order to face him as an easy out.

 

I, for one, assumed it. I didn't think it would necessarily take place this year, but the guys is 33, hardly a shocking time to have a dump of a season, especially when your entire game is based upon your physical abilities and you have a piss-poor approach at the plate.

 

And I know I'm not the only one.

 

You really thought that Soriano would have a year where he basically was cold with only two week long hot streaks? Hmmmm.

[Monco]

Basically every move Hendry made the last offseason was bad.

[Geech]

I' date=' for one, assumed it. I didn't think it would necessarily take place this year, but the guys is 33, hardly a shocking time to have a dump of a season, especially when your entire game is based upon your physical abilities and you have a piss-poor approach at the plate.

 

And I know I'm not the only one. [/quote']

 

You really thought that Soriano would have a year where he basically was cold with only two week long hot streaks? Hmmmm.

 

Like he said, he's not the only one.

 

If you are asking whether anyone specifically anticipated that he would perform like this in 2009, then I'm pretty sure the answer is no. I doubt anyone was even thinking about the deal in quite those terms. However, I was definitely very sure that would be some bad, bad seasons in there, and a lot of other people were too.

[Banedon]

Bradley is really picking up steam

 

Too little too late. He starts hitting once we're past the point where it could have helped. That's still disappointing.

 

Hes been hitting since July, thats far from being past the point where it could help.

 

Sorry for the delayed response...this was one of those "post it and forget about it" posts I guess....

 

Since July 1, Bradley has 4 homers and 9 total extra base hits. He's been getting some singles and OBP, fine...but he's not providing nearly the power that was expected of him.