Bradley Suspended for the Rest of the Season

[Transmogrified Tiger]

This seems likely as the Cubs finally making a business decision. While railroading Bradley out of town is a bad baseball decision (by destroying any trade value he has) it is an excellent business decision, and that's probably what it came down to when the decision was made at the executive meetings.

 

As soon as Bradley continued to go after the fans it painted the Cubs business wise into a corner and when push comes to shove they (along with almost every club) will choose business over baseball.

 

I'm not sure I buy this as a business decision. Are people really going to stay away from Wrigley if Bradley is on the team next year?

[RedFlash]

Well, it looks like Bradley gets to be the scapegoat this season. It's a shame, there are plenty better options...

 

That's what happen when you sign a big deal in the offseason, and was "crowned" the jewel of the offseason. Bradley knew what he was getting into when he signed here, and that didn't stop him from signing the contract. Being thescapegoat comes with the territory of signing a big deal. Soriano is in the same boat.

[Wilson A2000]

I hope Paul Sullivan and all you idiots are happy now. The team is now worse and we'll have to watch Bobby Scales in the OF the rest of the season.

 

Blame Sullivan? Oh please. Who cares who we have to watch. The team isn't going anywhere.

[Rusch33]

 

Hell, from a baseball standpoint, we'd be better served to make DLee the scapegoat and run him out of town. We have no legitimate options for RF right now... so we're gonna have to pay Bradley's contract, plus a FA contract. Or we can run Fox out there and watch him cost us 25 runs on defense. This is a disaster, and the fans and media are to blame just as much as Bradley.

 

And considering the FA options in RF, good luck.

[NonProfitCow]

Chicago media sucks. But hey, at least they got their "Milton Bradley is a headcase" story they've been pining for since the season started. They should be embarrassed.

[Schwarber Fan]

I hope Paul Sullivan and all you idiots are happy now. The team is now worse and we'll have to watch Bobby Scales in the OF the rest of the season.

 

1. who cares about this season?

2. Maybe Colvin and Snyder can get chances to prove themselves

[cubstitlelives]

Chicago media sucks. But hey, at least they got their "Milton Bradley is a headcase" story they've been pining for since the season started. They should be embarrassed.

 

Actually, Milton should be.

[Wilson A2000]

Chicago media sucks. But hey, at least they got their "Milton Bradley is a headcase" story they've been pining for since the season started. They should be embarrassed.

 

No, Bradley should be because he is the definition of a headcase

[Rob]

Well, it looks like Bradley gets to be the scapegoat this season. It's a shame, there are plenty better options...

 

Hell, from a baseball standpoint, we'd be better served to make DLee the scapegoat and run him out of town. We have no legitimate options for RF right now... so we're gonna have to pay Bradley's contract, plus a FA contract. Or we can run Fox out there and watch him cost us 25 runs on defense. This is a disaster, and the fans and media are to blame just as much as Bradley.

 

I doubt Bradley is much better at defense

 

Bradley is pretty much spot-on average in RF.

 

Some people have problems separating their personal feelings about a player from their professional ones. Here are the facts. Bradley has been an average RF this season... both in terms of offensive production and defense. He's been worth a few million less than his contract's annual value, but that's not nearly enough to make him worthy of the complaints he's been subjected to regarding his production. Most fans simply came into the season with unrealistic expectations for Bradley's power production.

[OleMissCub]

Bradley has been an average RF this season... both in terms of offensive production and defense.

 

VORP of 9.1 is 24th amongst RFers.

[cubstitlelives]

Well, it looks like Bradley gets to be the scapegoat this season. It's a shame, there are plenty better options...

 

Hell, from a baseball standpoint, we'd be better served to make DLee the scapegoat and run him out of town. We have no legitimate options for RF right now... so we're gonna have to pay Bradley's contract, plus a FA contract. Or we can run Fox out there and watch him cost us 25 runs on defense. This is a disaster, and the fans and media are to blame just as much as Bradley.

 

I doubt Bradley is much better at defense

 

Bradley is pretty much spot-on average in RF.

 

Some people have problems separating their personal feelings about a player from their professional ones. Here are the facts. Bradley has been an average RF this season... both in terms of offensive production and defense. He's been worth a few million less than his contract's annual value, but that's not nearly enough to make him worthy of the complaints he's been subjected to regarding his production. Most fans simply came into the season with unrealistic expectations for Bradley's power production.

 

 

Sooooo, he's not permormed to what he's getting paid and blames the fans and media at every turn. Yes, lets keep him!!

[NonProfitCow]

Chicago media sucks. But hey, at least they got their "Milton Bradley is a headcase" story they've been pining for since the season started. They should be embarrassed.

 

No, Bradley should be because he is the definition of a headcase

Because he got off to a slow start? It's pretty easy to see that he wouldn't be getting booed for no reason if the media wasn't constantly fueling it. All year long they've used loaded questions and tried to make headline stories out of nothing. Can you blame the guy for finally getting fed up with it?

[NonProfitCow]

Well, it looks like Bradley gets to be the scapegoat this season. It's a shame, there are plenty better options...

 

Hell, from a baseball standpoint, we'd be better served to make DLee the scapegoat and run him out of town. We have no legitimate options for RF right now... so we're gonna have to pay Bradley's contract, plus a FA contract. Or we can run Fox out there and watch him cost us 25 runs on defense. This is a disaster, and the fans and media are to blame just as much as Bradley.

 

I doubt Bradley is much better at defense

 

Bradley is pretty much spot-on average in RF.

 

Some people have problems separating their personal feelings about a player from their professional ones. Here are the facts. Bradley has been an average RF this season... both in terms of offensive production and defense. He's been worth a few million less than his contract's annual value, but that's not nearly enough to make him worthy of the complaints he's been subjected to regarding his production. Most fans simply came into the season with unrealistic expectations for Bradley's power production.

 

 

Sooooo, he's not permormed to what he's getting paid and blames the fans and media at every turn. Yes, lets keep him!!

I didn't know he had blamed the fans or media for his underperforming this year.

[CubColtPacer]

This seems likely as the Cubs finally making a business decision. While railroading Bradley out of town is a bad baseball decision (by destroying any trade value he has) it is an excellent business decision, and that's probably what it came down to when the decision was made at the executive meetings.

 

As soon as Bradley continued to go after the fans it painted the Cubs business wise into a corner and when push comes to shove they (along with almost every club) will choose business over baseball.

 

I'm not sure I buy this as a business decision. Are people really going to stay away from Wrigley if Bradley is on the team next year?

 

Attendance probably won't drop (even if lots of people stay home purely for Bradley other people will likely take their place), but TV ratings might. And the risk of that could hurt the Cubs in the yearly negotiation for advertising dollars. The Cubs have essentially sent the message that they are going to do everything they can to get rid of Bradley which should help them in those negotiations.

 

It would hurt the Cubs most during the 2010 season if they had a mediocre season. If there are players that fans hate it becomes much easier to become lethargic about a decent team. If they lose big people will be lethargic anyway, and if they win big people will come regardless of Bradley.

 

It's for that reason I think this is a good business decision even though a suspension at this point of the season does all bad for the baseball side of the equation.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Why does anyone care whether Bradley blames himself, his teammates, the fans, the media, or dinosaurs for what happens? It doesn't matter, and he's been one of the most vocal guys blaming himself for his own shortcomings. His problem came when he started hitting and people still came after him at every turn. But because he's crazy he communicates frustration at that in the worst way possible and people hate him still. Bradley got off to a horrible start, and straightened himself out to have an okay season. That's all that matters. But because Paul Sullivan and a bunch of fans can't come off the "Bradley is a crazy headcase who molests collies" angle, that is apparently irrelevant.

[TruffleShuffle]

Sooooo, he's not permormed to what he's getting paid and blames the fans and media at every turn. Yes, lets keep him!!

 

enjoy watching your team of nice guys lose 85-90 games next year. but hey at least we'll get to watch sam fuld smile and grit his way to a .670 OPS.

[Rob]

Bradley has been an average RF this season... both in terms of offensive production and defense.

 

VORP of 9.1 is 24th amongst RFers.

 

Average RF EqA is about .275.

 

Bradley is at .271

[Geech]

Ratings are going to be way more dependent on whether or not the team is winning than on whether Bradley mans RF. If moving Bradley hurts the team, and I think there's a really good chance that it will, then the overall effect on ratings is going to be slightly negative.

[Derwood]

the smug in here is growing thick in here

[CubColtPacer]

I would say blaming the media is a short-sighted explanation to the whole problem.

 

When Bradley signed, there were a lot of casual fans essentially saying "I really don't like him and can't believe we signed him since he has the biggest list of offenses in the entire league and really is a laughingstock. However, if he hits like he did in Texas, I guess I'll be fine with him"

 

So when Bradley started to show that he wasn't going to be that player this year (and he never should have been expected to be that player) the fans understandably went back to their first instinct and went back to hating him. And even when he produced, his best production was in his huge number of walks which we know most fans of baseball undervalue to a criminal degree. And then you add in the frustration from the change in the team between last year and this year, and Bradley (who was both the biggest change and also hated) was an easy scapegoat.

 

Now the media has also done nothing to help the situation and have gone to Bradley's locker for quotes more often than what really should be done to try to grab a story, but even without the media influence Bradley would have been hated by this point. The media coverage over the course of the year and Bradley's unfortunate series of comments over the last month have simply exacerbated a much bigger situation and not caused it.

[Rob]

Sooooo, he's not permormed to what he's getting paid and blames the fans and media at every turn. Yes, lets keep him!!

 

I couldn't give a good [expletive] if he's blaming babies for his troubles and flipping off boxes of kittens.

 

This isn't hard folks... let's look at the situation.

 

1.) We do not have the money to sign Holliday or Bay.

 

2.) Milton's production actually is an extremely good bet to be better than Vlad or Abreu once defense is taken into account.

 

3.) Likewise, his production is an extremely good bet to be better than Fox or Hoff once defense is taken into account.

 

So... not only is our team likely to get worse in RF next season, if we try to sign a replacement, we'd be hamstringing our payroll even more... which hurts our team where we could have spent that money. This is a bad baseball decision. And since revenues are extremely dependent upon winning, it's a bad business decision.

 

I hear a lot of people saying they support this decision, but I haven't seen a single one suggesting a viable way this makes our team any better.

Edited September 20, 2009 by Rob

[Outshined_One]

The biggest problem in my mind is that the Cubs just created a gaping hole in the OF for next season. What should they do, move Fukudome back to RF and have Sam Fuld out in CF full-time? Go through the scrap heap in a mediocre FA market? Put Tyler Colvin out there and pray to God he plays decently?

[Larry Horse]

And the biggest problem in all this?

 

Jim Hendry will be responsible for cleaning this mess up.

[CubbieBum]

I don't see how people can blame anyone but Bradley on this. Have the fans been a little unfair to Bradley with the booing. Yes. But I find it hard to cheer for a guy who is all about himself and never takes the blame for his actions. He called out the fans. When you do that, no matter what fanbase, you are unlikely to ever get cheered for again. He has now once again gone off on the city of Chicago as well as criticizing the team in general. A guy like that doesn't belong in a dugout. Has anyone ever tried to do what Philly did with T.O. I don't agree with it but the court did decide in favor of Philly.

[Rob]

Pretty much the only scenario I can come up with to fix this involves acquiring BJ Upton... who is essentially Milton Bradley. Attitude problems and coming off a down year in production. And he'll cost us a nice chunk of our farm system.