Milton Bradley Traded To Mariners For Carlos Silva

[rocket]

Last year he got off to a slow start, and couldn't get out of that rut. Instead of taking responsibility for his poor performance and doing everything he could to help the team win, he became a malcontent, a clubhouse cancer, and a distraction. He blamed umpires for bad calls, Piniella and the coaches for not using him property, his teammates for not being his friends, the fans being racist, the media for being the media, and anyone else he could think of but himself for his poor performance.

 

Milton owned up to the fact that he sucked last year. Numerous times. Quit making crap up that he never took any responsibility for his poor performance.

[Guest]

Milton Bradly could be AL MVP next year with Seattle. It doesn't matter. He wouldn't have done that with the Cubs. Did anyone watch last season? I mean it was pretty miserable, so I wouldn't blame you if you decided not to or to forget it. But, as good as Milton Bradley can be, he proved to me that he is one of the most selfish, least professional, and least mentally tough players out there. Last year he got off to a slow start, and couldn't get out of that rut. Instead of taking responsibility for his poor performance and doing everything he could to help the team win, he became a malcontent, a clubhouse cancer, and a distraction. He blamed umpires for bad calls, Piniella and the coaches for not using him property, his teammates for not being his friends, the fans being racist, the media for being the media, and anyone else he could think of but himself for his poor performance.

 

What evidence has anyone seen that Milton Bradley has learned anything from last season and would be able to apply those lessons to being a productive player in 2010 for the Cubs? Does anyone really think that he could have come back to the Cubs next season and even been remotely successful? Does anyone really think he could have handled the pressure of the intense media scrutiny, the constant booing of the fans, the skepticism of his coaches and fellow players to have a good year? It would have been a disaster from day one of spring training and could only end even worse than it already has, likely with the Cubs waiving him and eating his whole salary.

 

Signing Bradley was a high risk, high reward signing by Hendry that was an absolute failure. The fact that the Cubs got $6 million from Seattle should be considered a win. I don't care about Silva. He's the equivalent of a bag of baseballs (a very large bag of baseballs). I don't care what Bradley does for Seattle next year because he wouldn't have done it with the Cubs.

 

Even if everything you say in your post is true, are you giving Hendry a pass? Hendry created the mess by signing him. He signed him for more money than he was worth and for more years than he should have. There were other players available that were just as talented as Bradley. Hendry didn't even talk to some of those other guys. He said from the start that Bradley was his man. Less than 1 year later, he trades him for pennies on the dollar, which now puts the entire 2010 season in jeopardy after an already failed 2009.

 

Fine. Milton sucks as a human being. But, Milton didn't force that contract. Milton didn't put himself on the Cubs roster. Hendry did. If Milton has to go, so should Hendry.

 

It's time for Hendry to go.

 

Cool. We can agree to disagree that Bradley had to go. I just wanted to be sure you weren't supporting the guy who created this whole mess to begin with.

 

I can't put much stock on the Bradley had to go concept. Even if the teammates stood up and cheered his suspension last year, that doesn't necessarily mean that they could never forgive Milton for his behaviors of 2009. It's still about winning and you want the best team you can possibly put on the field.

 

If I was a teammate and saw Milton self destructing, I'd probably send him little newspaper clippings of guys like Lawrence Phillips and Michael Vick and Carl Everett and John Rocker and Ryan Leif, who say and do stupid crap that ends up eating MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars of their future revenues. Why any player would want to jeopardize their retirement by lashing out at the people responsible for their salaries is beyond me. Lawrence Phillips will be in prison for the next umpteen years. No one helped him understand enough the value of staying out of trouble and he can never get back that feeling of being on top of the world.

 

Milton isn't doing anything to get himself arrested, but he's killed any chance of scoring big money in product endorsements. Now he's jeopardizing future long term contracts. Surely someone could have sat down and helped him through whatever it is that keeps getting in the way of just focusing on baseball.

 

Maybe it wouldn't have helped. Maybe there really is no hope for the guy. I guess that's just all the more reason to take a closer look at Hendry. Why didn't he see this 330 days ago?

[BeerHere]

Milton Bradly could be AL MVP next year with Seattle. It doesn't matter. He wouldn't have done that with the Cubs. Did anyone watch last season? I mean it was pretty miserable, so I wouldn't blame you if you decided not to or to forget it. But, as good as Milton Bradley can be, he proved to me that he is one of the most selfish, least professional, and least mentally tough players out there. Last year he got off to a slow start, and couldn't get out of that rut. Instead of taking responsibility for his poor performance and doing everything he could to help the team win, he became a malcontent, a clubhouse cancer, and a distraction. He blamed umpires for bad calls, Piniella and the coaches for not using him property, his teammates for not being his friends, the fans being racist, the media for being the media, and anyone else he could think of but himself for his poor performance.

 

What evidence has anyone seen that Milton Bradley has learned anything from last season and would be able to apply those lessons to being a productive player in 2010 for the Cubs? Does anyone really think that he could have come back to the Cubs next season and even been remotely successful? Does anyone really think he could have handled the pressure of the intense media scrutiny, the constant booing of the fans, the skepticism of his coaches and fellow players to have a good year? It would have been a disaster from day one of spring training and could only end even worse than it already has, likely with the Cubs waiving him and eating his whole salary.

 

Signing Bradley was a high risk, high reward signing by Hendry that was an absolute failure. The fact that the Cubs got $6 million from Seattle should be considered a win. I don't care about Silva. He's the equivalent of a bag of baseballs (a very large bag of baseballs). I don't care what Bradley does for Seattle next year because he wouldn't have done it with the Cubs.

My sentiments exactly, very well said.

[cubsfan26]

The worst part of this deal is that we now have this garbage bag of a pitcher who WILL be in our rotation so the Cubs can necessitate the amount of $$ he is making. The loss of Bradley hurt, but the gaining of Silva makes it 10x worse. Odds that our rotation sucks next year?

 

 

Why do you assume he will be in the rotation or even on the team if he's pitching bad? Like I said before the Silva part of the trade is very minor and it's silly that fans are freaking out about adding him. He's a guy they will take a look at, and if he can be a respectable back of the rotation starter like he was with the Twins then they will keep him. But if he's getting bombed in spring training, or has a bad game or two in April he will be gone. The whole point of this trade was to get rid of Milton and get the most money back as possible. We never were gonna get equal or decent value in return from trading Milton(the combo of being overpaid, injury prone, and A-hole, and bad PR move killed his value). Ricketts/Hendry decided Bradley could no longer be on the team. They knew going into this thing they would have to eat 10-15m of his contract. Of course they were hoping it would be closer to 10m, but at some point they just had to get a deal done and move on. So this was the deal that got us the most money back in return. Hendry deserves all the blame in the world for signing him in the first place. But Tom Ricketts obviously wants him gone or he wouldn't have agreed to eat so much money.

[flyseye]

Milton Bradly could be AL MVP next year with Seattle. It doesn't matter. He wouldn't have done that with the Cubs. Did anyone watch last season? I mean it was pretty miserable, so I wouldn't blame you if you decided not to or to forget it. But, as good as Milton Bradley can be, he proved to me that he is one of the most selfish, least professional, and least mentally tough players out there. Last year he got off to a slow start, and couldn't get out of that rut. Instead of taking responsibility for his poor performance and doing everything he could to help the team win, he became a malcontent, a clubhouse cancer, and a distraction. He blamed umpires for bad calls, Piniella and the coaches for not using him property, his teammates for not being his friends, the fans being racist, the media for being the media, and anyone else he could think of but himself for his poor performance.

 

What evidence has anyone seen that Milton Bradley has learned anything from last season and would be able to apply those lessons to being a productive player in 2010 for the Cubs? Does anyone really think that he could have come back to the Cubs next season and even been remotely successful? Does anyone really think he could have handled the pressure of the intense media scrutiny, the constant booing of the fans, the skepticism of his coaches and fellow players to have a good year? It would have been a disaster from day one of spring training and could only end even worse than it already has, likely with the Cubs waiving him and eating his whole salary.

 

Signing Bradley was a high risk, high reward signing by Hendry that was an absolute failure. The fact that the Cubs got $6 million from Seattle should be considered a win. I don't care about Silva. He's the equivalent of a bag of baseballs (a very large bag of baseballs). I don't care what Bradley does for Seattle next year because he wouldn't have done it with the Cubs.

 

This post certainly sums the entire situation up. Anyone who can't see this is simply not being realistic.

[Sammy Sofa]

It seems like people talk about Milton's year in Chicago as if he got worse or couldn't perform on-field as things got more "controversial," yet the exact opposite was true. He got better and better with each month until September, and he only played 14 games in September.

 

April/March: .118 .333 .294 .627 (14 games)

May: .268 .348 .439 .787 (24 games)

June: .273 .377 .348 .725 (22 games)

July: .275 .457 .420 .878 (24 games)

August: .308 .427 .484 .911 (26 games)

September/October: .196 .226 .275 .501 (14 games)

 

At Wrigley: .296 .407 .485 .892 (65 games)

 

I don't understand why some people insist he simply would be unable to deal with the fans at Wrigley. He seemed to actually thrive on playing in a hostile environment.

Edited December 19, 2009 by Sammy Sofa

[cubsfan26]

Did anyone hear about Cubs players standing up in applause after Bradley was suspended? It was in the Trib today. Sounded like bull.

 

 

I have heard that a few times from a bunch of different sources. Ryan Theriot was on the radio today and also said how tough Milton made things at times and was very unpleasant to be around. Nobody is making up how awful Milton was to everybody last year. Eating 15m or so isn't a easy thing for any team to do, if Ricketts/Hendry thought there was any way the team/fans could deal with him again, they would have brought him back.

 

I can't put much stock on the Bradley had to go concept. Even if the teammates stood up and cheered his suspension last year, that doesn't necessarily mean that they could never forgive Milton for his behaviors of 2009. It's still about winning and you want the best team you can possibly put on the field.

 

The thing is Milton isn't going to change. Sure the team might forgive him for a short time and even the fans might if he's hitting well for a stretch. But the day the guy has some struggles, or makes a big mistake. We all know Milton will go off again, and this will start over again. Not to mention the media will be egging him on and be waiting for him to snap again. So they can get a good story, like they often were last season. Bringing back Milton would have most likely just repeated last season at some point and things could have actually gotten worse.

Edited December 19, 2009 by cubsfan26

[Sammy Sofa]

This post certainly sums the entire situation up. Anyone who can't see this is simply not being realistic.

 

Except for the key points that are completely wrong, like Milton not owning up to when he performed poorly or not being able to play with the pressure of what was going on.

[cubsfan26]

Except for the key points that are completely wrong, like Milton not owning up to when he performed poorly or not being able to play with the pressure of what was going on.

 

He might have owed up to it when being asked by the media. But he sure as heck didn't like it was all his fault. Basically when Milton was unhappy, he made everybody around him unhappy. Ryan Theriot was next to his locker and thats basically what he said. So even though Milton stats might have gotten better thought the season. He was still struggling in alot of big spots with guys in scoring postion. Which often made him unhappy and act like a idiot afterwards.

[Sammy Sofa]

Except for the key points that are completely wrong, like Milton not owning up to when he performed poorly or not being able to play with the pressure of what was going on.

 

He might have owed up to it when being asked by the media. But he sure as heck didn't like it was all his fault. Basically when Milton was unhappy, he made everybody around him unhappy. Ryan Theriot was next to his locker and thats basically what he said.

 

This still doesn't make any sense, and it makes evern less sense with every story that tries to spin it like everyone else was on the same page except for Milton. If everyone else in the clubhouse gets along, who cares if one guy is in a bad mood? Is everyone else that weak and fragile emotionally and mentally that one guy sulking or being a jerk means everyone else can't get along? If that was the case then shouldn't that place be a wreck every year due to Zambrano alone? Maybe Milton Bradley just didn't want to talk to Ryan-fuckin'-Theriot. It's probably annoying as crap to listen to some hick, Ed Hardy-wearing dwarf acting like he's the isht.

[Rob]

In all honesty, with the way Theriot has reacted compared to the way the rest of the Cubs clubhouse has, I'm starting to wonder if Theriot isn't a pretty big dick.

[GlassCow]

Did anyone think this was going to end well for the Cubs? I didn't, they backed themselves into a corner, there's no way a team was going to give up even a decent player in trade for Bradley. I still believe they would have been better served by keeping Bradley - a 1-2 of Fukedome and Bradley may have worked out pretty well.

 

In all honesty, I knew the Cubs were going to get taken to the cleaners. I sorta figured they could get something better than Carlos Silva in return, but leave it to Jim Hendry to take it to a whole new level of bad.

 

There is one thing that could happen out of this that would make me actually like this trade a little bit, and that would be if Hendry lost his job because of it. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening.

 

It seems like too many people out there support the trading of productive pieces for non productive pieces for the sake of a happier clubhouse.

 

Out of the posts I've read regarding the trade, this is the one I agree with. I expected excrement back for a miserable human being in Bradley. If Hendry gets fired I would rejoice.

[Sammy Sofa]

Theriot's like the Eddie Haskell to the fans'/media's Mrs. Cleaver.

[wvcbxl]

The way I see it, the Cubs traded a player they couldn't use (because he's a head case) for another player they can't use (because he sucks) and saved a couple of million in the process.

They're still stuck with a 24 man roster.

[CliftonHanger]

why is anyone concerned about how many games bradley might or might not cost us by being a jerk when SILVA ABSOLUTELY SUCKS AND WILL COST US GAMES WITH HIS ACTUAL ON FIELD PLAY

 

 

Its not the games Milton would have cost us by being a jerk, it's the games he might have cost us by not playing to his full potential. I am in no way defending the move, or Milton, but you have to take into consideration the fact that he DID NOT want to play in Chicago. He made that abundantly clear.

 

so you're saying you think milton dogged it and didn't try to hit?

 

No, I am saying that it is entirely possible that he would dog it next year because he has unhappy to still be playing here.

[cubsfan26]

In all honesty, with the way Theriot has reacted compared to the way the rest of the Cubs clubhouse has, I'm starting to wonder if Theriot isn't a pretty big dick.

 

Theriot didn't say anything that others didn't say before about Milton. Just most of those other players were off the record when making those comments. Dempster even said Milton needs to look in the mirror after he got suspend. There's a story out there about Reed Johnson getting in Milton face, and telling him to cut the crap out. We all know about Milton/Lou war of worlds that one game as well. People gotta be realistic, teams don't eat that type of money for a player, unless he was really really big issue. So we gotta face facts and know that Milton was an A-hole to everybody around him basically. The comments he said to the meida about the fans/team and how he treated the media was just icing on the cake. So lets not be naive and think oh everything would have been fine lets just give it another shot. The Cubs knew things would get worst before better, and thats why they ate the money they did. Anybody who disagrees with the move, well all I can say is you weren't there and you didn't live it. Of course I didn't either, but I also know teams aren't eating that type of money, unless things were really bad. The fact that the Cubs weren't the first team to really wanna get rid of Milton should tell you something. We just had the unfortune to try to get rid of him while owing him alot of money.

[Sammy Sofa]

Or teams are eating that kind of money because they're really, really dumb.

 

It's amazing how many people can't see the difference between not re-signing a player and trading a productive player in the middle of a contract after they've done everything possible to help torpedo their leverage in moving him. Bringing up Milton's variety of teams is totally glossing over how few times he's actually been traded and how his injury history would obviously weigh on decisions to bring him back. There's the personality issues, but it's not like they're the only reason why he wouldn't be re-signed by a team. It basically amounts to repeatedly screaming "LOOK HOW MANY TEAMS HE'S BEEN ON" as if he's been bounced from every team because of personality issues and hoping that nobody actually looks into that.

[AramFan]

Plenty of valid arguments from both sides on this fiasco. Does anyone on this board really believe we would get two healthy-productive years out of Mr. Bradley playing in right field?

[Guest]

Plenty of valid arguments from both sides on this fiasco. Does anyone on this board really believe we would get two healthy-productive years out of Mr. Bradley playing in right field?

 

Valid question. Couple in the health related issues with the potential for misconduct, and that was a gamble Hendry was still willing to make. He lost that gamble and he should be forced to suffer the consequences of such a horrible decision. If it was his only bad decision, I could see giving him a pass.

 

He screwed this up beyond comprehension. And it's an unfixable mistake at this point because Silva's contract is now completely unmoveable.

[Sammy Sofa]

Plenty of valid arguments from both sides on this fiasco. Does anyone on this board really believe we would get two healthy-productive years out of Mr. Bradley playing in right field?

 

Productive, yes. Fully healthy, no. And I didn't necessarily want Hendry to keep him for both of the remaining years of his contract; I would have preferred for him to try and move Bradley before the deadline or next offseason.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Would you rather pay 2/15 for Carlos Silva, or 2/6 to never have Carlos Silva come near your roster? I'm pretty sure I'd take the latter. That's the choice between this trade and cutting Bradley. Heck, do you think we could've done better than Silva if we had paid all of Bradley's contract except for 2/6? You think anyone would've given us even a low level prospect for that? Of course someone would have.

[cubsfan26]

Would you rather pay 2/15 for Carlos Silva, or 2/6 to never have Carlos Silva come near your roster? I'm pretty sure I'd take the latter. That's the choice between this trade and cutting Bradley. Heck, do you think we could've done better than Silva if we had paid all of Bradley's contract except for 2/6? You think anyone would've given us even a low level prospect for that? Of course someone would have.

 

You would think some teams would be willing to kick in 6m over two years to get Bradley. But I'm really starting to believe teams wouldn't even kick in that much. From everything we heard about the Rays, they weren't willing to kick in any money or very little money for the second year. So any money we would have saved in that deal would have been trading Burrell again and eating most of his contract. Sadly I really do think this was the best deal the Cubs could get when it comes to getting money back in return. The only reason why the Mariners were willing to kick in that much was to get Silva off there hands. Hendry knows Silva is a long shot to do anything productive and is basically talking about him like he's a guy he just signed to a minor league deal. I really believe Bradley value dropped to basically nothing. A few teams were willing to try him out basically for free or for very little money. But nobody was willing to invest more then 3m per season for Bradley.

[rocket]

Plenty of valid arguments from both sides on this fiasco. Does anyone on this board really believe we would get two healthy-productive years out of Mr. Bradley playing in right field?

 

because of bradley's health, committing 3 years and 30 million to bradley was a big gamble that he shouldn't have taken.

[CubColtPacer]

Or teams are eating that kind of money because they're really, really dumb.

 

It's amazing how many people can't see the difference between not re-signing a player and trading a productive player in the middle of a contract after they've done everything possible to help torpedo their leverage in moving him. Bringing up Milton's variety of teams is totally glossing over how few times he's actually been traded and how his injury history would obviously weigh on decisions to bring him back. There's the personality issues, but it's not like they're the only reason why he wouldn't be re-signed by a team. It basically amounts to repeatedly screaming "LOOK HOW MANY TEAMS HE'S BEEN ON" as if he's been bounced from every team because of personality issues and hoping that nobody actually looks into that.

 

We know that Bradley has been knocked off of 4 teams because of personality issues (Cleveland, LA, Oakland, and now the Cubs). It's uncertain if that played into the situations in Montreal or San Diego, and with Texas it's pretty clear that it was a contract issue. So I would agree with you that there are certainly other reasons for Bradley to have changed teams, but the majority of teams have ended up moving him because of his personality.

 

Some other random thoughts from reading the last couple pages:

 

Bradley certainly did own up to his mistakes in the media. The things he said that ended up causing him to get traded were all about how people were affecting him personally. Bradley blamed himself multiple times for his struggles on the field.

 

Silva has an unmovable contract now but if he does have 1 decent year the Cubs probably could save 5-6 million more by trading him and eating some of the salary after 2010. The one thing I am happy about is that Hendry's quotes about the trade pretty clearly show that they consider Silva a rehab project and probably won't stick with him too long if he is struggling.

 

This was a business decision. Although I do agree that the Cubs may have a strong enough brand that Bradley couldn't have put the dent in the fanbase like he could have in a smaller city with less of a following even if everything did go wrong. To try to justify this in baseball terms is futile in my opinion. At the absolute best, Silva will be worth just a little less than Bradley over the next couple years. It's a very bad baseball move. This was strictly PR and trying to avoid the disaster that could have happened if the Cubs struggled again with Bradley in 2010. I'm not sure anymore if it was a good business decision (like I said, the Cubs might have a strong enough fanbase that fans wouldn't have been gone from the Cubs for long) but it certainly wasn't anything but that.

 

As I've said before the Cubs desperation couldn't have caused this. The Mariners got a bargain because the Cubs weren't willing to hold onto Bradley. For every other team in the league, the fact that they weren't willing to offer the Cubs any better of a package then this shows that teams really weren't willing to take a chance on Bradley for more than minimum salary. Any team who was willing to give the Cubs just a little bit more salary relief could have had him and all but the Mariners passed. Bradley's value around the league was low because teams weren't willing to guarantee him enough money that it would be hard to cut him if things went wrong. The Cubs desperation had very little to do with every other team's offer besides the Mariners, and we have no idea if it affected Seattle's offer or not.

[Guancous]

Plenty of valid arguments from both sides on this fiasco. Does anyone on this board really believe we would get two healthy-productive years out of Mr. Bradley playing in right field?

 

Valid question. Couple in the health related issues with the potential for misconduct, and that was a gamble Hendry was still willing to make. He lost that gamble and he should be forced to suffer the consequences of such a horrible decision. If it was his only bad decision, I could see giving him a pass.

 

He screwed this up beyond comprehension. And it's an unfixable mistake at this point because Silva's contract is now completely unmoveable.

 

The best case scenario at this point is that Carlos Silva gets Tommy John surgery next spring and the Cubs recoup the insurance money. come to think of it, that might explain why the Pirates traded for Matt Morris a few years ago.

 

This trade means Jim Hendry threw away $15 million instead of $20 million. That fact is not commendable. The question should be: which general managers are available and who should be next?