Bradley Suspended for the Rest of the Season

[Guest]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1792749,CST-SPT-cubnt27.article

 

"The Cubs are 20-10 when Bradley doesn't play."

 

The Cubs are 14-8 since Soriano was shut down also but hey, lets just put all the focus on Milton Bradley.

[Larry Horse]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1792749,CST-SPT-cubnt27.article

 

"The Cubs are 20-10 when Bradley doesn't play."

 

The Cubs are 14-8 since Soriano was shut down also but hey, lets just put all the focus on Milton Bradley.

 

And if Soriano was sent packing that would not break my heart.

[Larry Horse]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1792749,CST-SPT-cubnt27.article

 

"The Cubs are 20-10 when Bradley doesn't play."

 

just like a bear to honey...

 

As is your defense of Bradley on the other side of the fence..........

[Rob]

The Cubs went 16-10 in the starts with Koyie Hill behind the dish when Geovany Soto went down in July.

 

Koyie hit .194/.262/.258 and did nothing to help the team...

 

(interesting side note - soriano hit .337/.412/.558 during that span and actually did carry the team)

 

Moral of the story, there are too many people on the team to make any "record with in or out of the lineup" comparisons almost completely useless.

[TruffleShuffle]

The Cubs went 16-10 in the starts with Koyie Hill behind the dish when Geovany Soto went down in July.

 

Koyie hit .194/.262/.258 and did nothing to help the team...

 

(interesting side note - soriano hit .337/.412/.558 during that span and actually did carry the team)

 

Moral of the story, there are too many people on the team to make any "record with in or out of the lineup" comparisons almost completely useless.

 

unless that player is completely destroying team morale!!!

[Flames24Rulz]

6-1 since he was suspended? Addition by subtraction? Coincidence? Change in team chemistry? Small sample size?

 

Baseball ended a little more than a month ago, as far as I'm concerned. If this is seriously reasoning for getting rid of Bradley, management is somehow more inept than I originally thought.

[MSG T]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1792749,CST-SPT-cubnt27.article

 

"The Cubs are 20-10 when Bradley doesn't play."

 

 

Actually, the Cubs are 10,102 - 9,533 without Bradley in the lineup.

[Clem Fandango]

Didn't see this posted anywhere...

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=4515343

 

Piniella: Cubs will try to replace Bradley

 

"Our general manager Jim Hendry had to do a tough task of sending him home [on Sept. 20], and I'm sure it wasn't very pleasant for him," Piniella said on the "Waddle & Silvy" show on ESPN 1000. "The big thing with Milton this year was the fact he drove in 40 runs.

 

"We needed a big bat to put in the middle part of our lineup, and we thought Milton would be the one. And it just didn't work out, for whatever reason. So we move forward from there and now we try to find somebody else. And I know Jim will work very hard at it."

 

There's audio of it on the link

[SouthSideRyan]

The quote looks like they'll try to find somebody else to bat 5th, not necessarily replace Bradley. I mean, they will replace Bradley, but that quote isn't really saying that.

 

And this obsession lineup [expletive] is really [expletive] dumb.

[Sammy Sofa]

Can someone please point me to the reasoning as to why Soriano HAS to bat 6th? Why not just slide him up to 5th and bat Soto 6th? If either aren't having a repeat of the Year of Assiness it seems like it should work.

[CUBZ99]

Can someone please point me to the reasoning as to why Soriano HAS to bat 6th? Why not just slide him up to 5th and bat Soto 6th? If either aren't having a repeat of the Year of Assiness it seems like it should work.

 

He is right handed? :banghead:

[Derwood]

you HAVE to have a lefty to protect Lee and Ramirez

 

I mean, just look how awful their rate stats were this year without it....

[Wheelimus]

So, I was trying to think of ways that the Cubs could further devalue Milton Bradley on the trade market. The best I could come up with is "float a rumor that he's also a pedophile and/or serial killer". Anyone have any better ideas? :banghead:

[Flames24Rulz]

Nothing like openly saying you're going to trade a player before the season ends.

 

I guess Lou and Hendry don't know what the word leverage means.

[CubColtPacer]

Nothing like openly saying you're going to trade a player before the season ends.

 

I guess Lou and Hendry don't know what the word leverage means.

 

I don't see that devaluing Bradley any further. Hendry bluffing that he wasn't ready to deal Bradley during the offseason wasn't very likely to work anyway.

 

The leverage the Cubs are going to have is pitting teams against each other for Bradley's services. That's where they are going to get a little more value out for him..not from the threat that they might keep him.

 

The fact that the Cubs are 100% going to trade him rather than 80% of a couple weeks ago is going to be less significant than the fact that 5 other teams are making offers for him. None of those offers will be great (because Bradley's remaining contract was about the limit of what other teams were willing to go after his great season last year and his value has gone down since then), but the competition will drive his trade value up near what other teams perceive to be his value to their ballclub and not the value that they think they can force on a desperate team.

 

So essentially, the fact that the Cubs have to trade Bradley hurts because they can't keep him and use his value to the ballclub. It likely won't hurt his trade value though because enough other clubs still want to take a risk on him.

[NCCubFan]

One would think Hendry would have learned his lesson about advertising that a player must be traded after the Sosa fiasco. Nope.

[Outshined_One]

One would think Hendry would have learned his lesson about advertising that a player must be traded after the Sosa fiasco. Nope.

 

We DID get Mike Fontenot and Jerry Hairston out of that deal!

 

...plus a minor league pitcher who immediately retired upon being traded.

[CP_414]

Lou keeps talking about getting an RBI guy and Theo says this (speaking about JD Drew)...

 

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/10/03/theo/

 

 

“That’s not true. With RBIs, yes. Based on his skill set, he’s always going to have underwhelming RBI totals. I couldn’t care less. When you’re putting together a winning team, that honestly doesn’t matter. When you have a player who takes a ton of walks, who doesn’t put the ball in play at an above average rate, and is a certain type of hitter, he’s not going to drive in a lot of runs. Runs scored, you couldn’t be more wrong. If you look at a rate basis, J.D. scores a ton of runs.

 

“And the reason he scores a ton of runs is because he does the single most important thing you can do in baseball as an offensive player. And that’s NOT MAKE OUTS. He doesn’t make outs. He’s always among our team leaders in on-base percentage, usually among the league leaders in on-base percentage. And he’s a really good base runner. So when he doesn’t make outs, and he gets himself on base, he scores runs — and he has some good hitters hitting behind him. Look at his runs scored on a rate basis with the Red Sox or throughout his career. It’s outstanding.

 

“You guys can talk about RBIs if you want, I just … we ignore them in the front office … and I think we’ve built some pretty good offensive clubs. If you want to talk about RBIs at all, talk about it as a percentage of opportunity but it’s just simply not a way or something we use to evaluate offensive players.”

 

 

Maybe I shouldn't have put this in the Bradley conversation because this isn't even about him, but I was just catching up here and saw yet again Lou was talking about wanting a "RBI guy."

[Backtobanks]

Lou keeps talking about getting an RBI guy and Theo says this (speaking about JD Drew)...

 

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/10/03/theo/

 

 

“That’s not true. With RBIs, yes. Based on his skill set, he’s always going to have underwhelming RBI totals. I couldn’t care less. When you’re putting together a winning team, that honestly doesn’t matter. When you have a player who takes a ton of walks, who doesn’t put the ball in play at an above average rate, and is a certain type of hitter, he’s not going to drive in a lot of runs. Runs scored, you couldn’t be more wrong. If you look at a rate basis, J.D. scores a ton of runs.

 

“And the reason he scores a ton of runs is because he does the single most important thing you can do in baseball as an offensive player. And that’s NOT MAKE OUTS. He doesn’t make outs. He’s always among our team leaders in on-base percentage, usually among the league leaders in on-base percentage. And he’s a really good base runner. So when he doesn’t make outs, and he gets himself on base, he scores runs — and he has some good hitters hitting behind him. Look at his runs scored on a rate basis with the Red Sox or throughout his career. It’s outstanding.

 

“You guys can talk about RBIs if you want, I just … we ignore them in the front office … and I think we’ve built some pretty good offensive clubs. If you want to talk about RBIs at all, talk about it as a percentage of opportunity but it’s just simply not a way or something we use to evaluate offensive players.”

 

 

Maybe I shouldn't have put this in the Bradley conversation because this isn't even about him, but I was just catching up here and saw yet again Lou was talking about wanting a "RBI guy."

 

I think a lot of the "RBI" talk is based on the fact that Bradley will be traded. I'm sure Lou would learn to love Bradley and his OBP if Bradley wouldn't be such a jerk. I guarantee that if Drew acted like Bradley (dissing the city, the front office, the fans, teammates, and the manager), Theo would trade him in a second.

[17 Seconds]

The point is that Lou is worried about meaningless things like RBIs while Epstein knows how to look at the stats that actually matter.

[illiniguy]

The hell with making any moves this offseason, just offer Theo $10 million a year.

[Halman]

The hell with making any moves this offseason, just offer Theo $10 million a year.

 

Theo is a idiot though. He gave away David Aardsma for practically nothing!

[Andy]

The hell with making any moves this offseason, just offer Theo $10 million a year.

 

Theo is a idiot though. He gave away David Aardsma for practically nothing!

That's more than we got for him...

[CUBZ99]

Lou keeps talking about getting an RBI guy and Theo says this (speaking about JD Drew)...

 

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/10/03/theo/

 

 

“That’s not true. With RBIs, yes. Based on his skill set, he’s always going to have underwhelming RBI totals. I couldn’t care less. When you’re putting together a winning team, that honestly doesn’t matter. When you have a player who takes a ton of walks, who doesn’t put the ball in play at an above average rate, and is a certain type of hitter, he’s not going to drive in a lot of runs. Runs scored, you couldn’t be more wrong. If you look at a rate basis, J.D. scores a ton of runs.

 

“And the reason he scores a ton of runs is because he does the single most important thing you can do in baseball as an offensive player. And that’s NOT MAKE OUTS. He doesn’t make outs. He’s always among our team leaders in on-base percentage, usually among the league leaders in on-base percentage. And he’s a really good base runner. So when he doesn’t make outs, and he gets himself on base, he scores runs — and he has some good hitters hitting behind him. Look at his runs scored on a rate basis with the Red Sox or throughout his career. It’s outstanding.

 

“You guys can talk about RBIs if you want, I just … we ignore them in the front office … and I think we’ve built some pretty good offensive clubs. If you want to talk about RBIs at all, talk about it as a percentage of opportunity but it’s just simply not a way or something we use to evaluate offensive players.”

 

 

Maybe I shouldn't have put this in the Bradley conversation because this isn't even about him, but I was just catching up here and saw yet again Lou was talking about wanting a "RBI guy."

 

I think a lot of the "RBI" talk is based on the fact that Bradley will be traded. I'm sure Lou would learn to love Bradley and his OBP if Bradley wouldn't be such a jerk. I guarantee that if Drew acted like Bradley (dissing the city, the front office, the fans, teammates, and the manager), Theo would trade him in a second.

 

I wonder what Theo would do if he had someone much better than Bradley, like a Manny Ramirez type?

[SouthSideRyan]

Lou keeps talking about getting an RBI guy and Theo says this (speaking about JD Drew)...

 

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/10/03/theo/

 

 

“That’s not true. With RBIs, yes. Based on his skill set, he’s always going to have underwhelming RBI totals. I couldn’t care less. When you’re putting together a winning team, that honestly doesn’t matter. When you have a player who takes a ton of walks, who doesn’t put the ball in play at an above average rate, and is a certain type of hitter, he’s not going to drive in a lot of runs. Runs scored, you couldn’t be more wrong. If you look at a rate basis, J.D. scores a ton of runs.

 

“And the reason he scores a ton of runs is because he does the single most important thing you can do in baseball as an offensive player. And that’s NOT MAKE OUTS. He doesn’t make outs. He’s always among our team leaders in on-base percentage, usually among the league leaders in on-base percentage. And he’s a really good base runner. So when he doesn’t make outs, and he gets himself on base, he scores runs — and he has some good hitters hitting behind him. Look at his runs scored on a rate basis with the Red Sox or throughout his career. It’s outstanding.

 

“You guys can talk about RBIs if you want, I just … we ignore them in the front office … and I think we’ve built some pretty good offensive clubs. If you want to talk about RBIs at all, talk about it as a percentage of opportunity but it’s just simply not a way or something we use to evaluate offensive players.”

 

 

Maybe I shouldn't have put this in the Bradley conversation because this isn't even about him, but I was just catching up here and saw yet again Lou was talking about wanting a "RBI guy."

 

I think a lot of the "RBI" talk is based on the fact that Bradley will be traded. I'm sure Lou would learn to love Bradley and his OBP if Bradley wouldn't be such a jerk. I guarantee that if Drew acted like Bradley (dissing the city, the front office, the fans, teammates, and the manager), Theo would trade him in a second.

 

I wonder what Theo would do if he had someone much better than Bradley, like a Manny Ramirez type?

 

He'd trade him for a comparable player who made less money and was signed for more years?