. . . because it seems they’ve taken clubhouse cancer Milton Bradley off of the Chicago Cubs in return for washed-up right-handed reliever Carlos Silva. the Cubs were desperate to trade this jerk, and so this is nothing but good for the Cubs, but I don’t understand why the Mariners or anyone else would want a player who cannot remember how many outs there are, who blames umpires and team-mates for everything, who was called a “piece of shit” and sent home early from a game against the White Sox by his own manager, and who was suspended for the final two weeks of the 2009 season for being such an asshole. He also attributed boos sent his way by bleachers fan to racism, despite the fact that these same bleacher fans worshiped Sammy Sosa, Andre Dawson, Shawon Dunston and other African-American players who put up some fucking numbers and played like they cared. Late in the season, after a run of extra-inning games, he even said he didn’t care if the team won or lost, he just wanted the game over in 9 innings so he could go home, the kind of statement that brings the integrity of the game—you know, play to win?—into question.
This does make the fourth week of June, when the Cubs will visit Safeco, much more interesting. . . However much of Bradley’s contract the Cubs pick up, the Mariners will regret this move.
Note: The Heckler, to which I link, is sort of a local Chicago-sports version of The Onion. Their take on the trade here: “the eighth time is the charm.”
Normally I’m a big fan of “clubhouse cancers”, but I wonder if this might be a repeat of the Carl Everett fiasco. I’m gonna give Jack Z the benefit of the doubt for now, because he’s proven in a short time that he’s the best GM in baseball. One Cliff Lee makes up for a hell of a lot of Bradleys.
And I find it hard to believe you could be a bigger clubhouse cancer than Silva, who, whatever he was like personally, SUCKED on the mound. Put him in a hitter’s park like Wrigley, with a crap defense behind him (unlike the Mariners, whose defense last year was one of the greatest in history) and he’s going to blow up an ERA in double digits.
Another point: if the M’s just released Bradley outright tomorrow, they still win this trade, because they don’t have to pay Silva anymore.
And Bradley is a genuinely good player, whatever he’s like as a person.
I’m’n’a go out and get a jersey!
I think Bradley’s troubles in Chicago were as much a result of working under Lou Piniella as they were his own doing. He had actually kept his nose clean for a few seasons before he landed there.
they’re offering a shot at redemption – if it works out it makes people happy and rich and if it doesn’t – baseball sucks so no one cares
Im gonna have to agree Fnarf… SIlva was a cancer in his own right…At least Bradley has the chance to contribute. Silva is a fat worthless piece of shit. Gooood riddance! I also believe in Griffey’s Clubhouse, Bradley will be okay…
@2 that is a possibility; they might also use him as trade bait in the near future.
Sammy Sosa is not African-American. If you want to undermine claims of racism here…
Why does slog have a “Chicago fan” as the main sports poster? No offense, Chicago is a great town and it’s fun to get outsiders perspective. But other than the sounders, slog sports coverage leaves much to be desired. The M’s, dawgs, and currently woeful hawks all have far larger fan bases than the sounders and deserve decent coverage.
@2 FTW — as someone pointed out on USS Mariner, a trade of Silva for a hot nacho cheese dispenser would be a massive upgrade, so this one is even better
If M’s fans are worried about a possible bad lockerroom situation, check out Cliff Lee being unhappy about going to Seattle:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap…
It’s probably just a knee-jerk reaction and he’ll be over it by the time spring training begins, but it can’t be good that he’s talking to the press about this.
@8 There are plenty of great blogs that cover the M’s, Huskies and Seahawks (and the Sounders too). My point is, when I want to read about Seattle sports, Slog is not the place I turn to.
With regard to the Bradley trade, we got the better deal. Silva is a clubhouse cancer who is also a worthless pile of shit as a ballplayer. Bradley is a clubhouse cancer who actually has talent, and who has had the occasional quiet, productive season. I don’t see Lou Piniella as a manager capable of reigning those types in, since he’s never shown much of restraint himself. Wakamatsu might stand a better chance.
Sorry Bill, Silva will cost your Cubs some wins this year. No getting around that. With us and Bradley, the worst that can happen is that we bench/suspend/cut him and still save money over continuing to pay Silva. Cubs got the short end of this deal, hands down.
Like it’s already been said in various forms, the M’s could’ve traded Silva for the bag of donuts he so desperately craves and the trade would still be a win. Jack Z. for Prez. The man is a messiah.
And its kind of like a freebie, if he acts up they can just cut him. No harm no foul. But if he keeps quiet and produces, well, there’s that.
Milton Bradley is only in trouble because he fell in with the Parker Brothers. Bad eggs, those boys.
(sorry, I was compelled)
“…jerk…” “…piece of shit…” “…asshole…” You’d think Bradley would’ve fit right in at Wrigley.
@10, I read that as Lee throwing a bone to his soon-to-be-former hometown fans as a PR effort, like a less tone-deaf version of A-Rod attempting to assert that his leaving for Texas “wasn’t about the money” despite his crippling of the Mariners’ efforts to trade him all year at every turn, and his leaving us with nothing but a seething hatred to span the decades.
@15. You cad. Bradley is a dip. Good luck with that. As for Silva, he is a terrible pitcher and will never make the team. This was just the Cubs getting rid of a shithead.
He’ll hit about .245 with 17 homers. A duplicate Griffey but with a better average.
Sorry Chicago Fan, but as a Cubs fan until this offseaon I am going to call you out for toeing the mudslinging Chicago sports media party line. Milton Bradley got run out of town by ignoramuses who are upset that Bradley was an angry black man instead of a friendly black man and don’t know jack shit about OBP but are hung up over team dependent stats like RBI. You pretend that racism doesn’t exist when other black outfielders who’ve been recipients of slurs have publicly stated they will not play for the Cubs. If you didn’t have your head so far down in the sand you’d have heard about Dusty Baker actually showing some of the racist hate mail he received – confirmed by the unassailable Kerry Wood (he’s white, so you can believe what he says). Fuck the Cubs and the majority of their self-absorbed, entitled fans who can’t tell the difference between a good ballplayer with talent from a shitty but “scrappy” average one without who incidentally gets his jersey dirty and reminds them of themselves (white).
Silva for a nacho cheese dispenser? That is priceless.
I’m also awed by Z’s ability to simply get rid of Silva. Getting something in return is unreal. I would also agree that Wak will have the best chance of getting something out of Bradley, where other hotheaded managers have failed.
@18. You’re an idiot. Stop talking. Bradley sucks. He was extremely non-productive and a clog in the middle of the lineup.
Well, if your mom named you Milton Bradley, wouldn’t you usually be pissed off too?
What’s hard to believe is that millions of people, myself included, put so much effort into watching such complete failures at their trade. Failures, I might add, who live in nicer homes than any of us will ever see.
@20 Tell that to the 2008 rangers… oh yeah… Wak was on that team. Great move by the Ms. They will acquire a first basement and then proceed to contend for a World Series. Jack Z is the best GM in baseball.
18 = Winner. 20 = uninformed. Check out his stats from ’08… http://www.baseball-reference.com/player…
For the record, Cub fans, away from each other, can possibly be passed for decent humans. But in a group, especially at the Hellmouth of chumpiness that is wrigley field, they are a grade of asshole on par with (so I hear) Yankee fans. One of the guys I work with told me a couple of minutes ago about how he got some really nice tickets to wrigley as a gift and was regaled with taunts of (insert N-bomb here). Cub fans are jerks of the highest magnitude, even to people who aren’t black. But if you are, it sure doesn’t help. I’m the farthest thing from a Milton Bradley guy. I remember when Paul LoDuca wanted to kick his ass. But ask Juan Pierre what he thinks of the wrigley fans. Or Dusty Baker. The vitriol there was palpable. They love gamer white guys who suck (Theriot). So when Bradley turns it around playing with Ichiro-san and Junior, you’ll eat your words. cub fans suck.
@18. Some guy you work with says it so it must be true. Some guy I work with tells me that Wrigley is the coolest park in baseball. So where does that leave us. You wrong and me right. That’s where. And would you expect an usher at Wrigley to tell you to sit down in a playoff game during a fucking rally against the Cardinals? No, neither would I, but that happened to me at Safeco in 2001 against the Yankees. This is the worst town in the world for baseball.
I honestly don’t care if Bradley is a lunatic. WE GOT RID OF CARLOS SILVA!!! Christmas has come early to Seattle!
Don’t understand those who say that if they don’t like Bradley they can just dump him. Fine, but they’re still stuck with his salary, which is in the same league as Silva’s.
Oh, Chicago fan forgot to mention the time Milton threw a beer bottle at a fan. That would go over well at Safeco.
@ 25, if you were the only one standing, then the usher was right.
@17, Bradley’s OBP last year was .378; Griffey’s was .324. Bradley’s a good defensive player; Griffey is at this point arguably the worst defensive player in the history of baseball. Bradley is no superstar but he’s ten times the player Griffey is now; he’s worth a win or two, while Griffey is essentially replacement value, equivalent to roughly 1,000 crap minor leaguers.
@28
No, I wasn’t the only one. It was a playoff game. Against the Yankees. And a rally. Now that I think of it, I’m surprised I wasn’t the only one standing in that godforsaken park. Haven’t been back since.
@27, even if they dump him it’s like finding $3 million dollars under a rock. Silva is VALUELESS. His salary was a sunk cost, meaning they have to pay him whether he starts every game or whether he sits on the bench. He adds more value to the club if he does the latter, because every time he steps onto the field, the team is worse. They got rid of $3 mil of that obligation with Bradley — even if Bradley never gets an at bat. Win.
Bradley’s a pretty useful player, so it’s a win-win. Every time Jack Z walks into his office, the team gets better.
@31…Griffey doesn’t play the field so the quality of his glove doesn’t matter. His bat is way past it’s prime too. My point is they’re both pretty useless players. Plus you’ve really liked some stinkers in the past. See below.
hah. Bedard’s winning the Cy Young this year.
Posted by Fnarf on April 14, 2009 at 10:57 AM
@32, well, your prediction record is perfect, right? and Bedard was injured, which doesn’t make him a “stinker”, exactly.
Not perfect but I certainly knew that yahoo wouldn’t be pitching in August.
@27: Uh, no. From the story: “After taking both players’ contracts into account, the Cubs will receive $6 million from the Mariners in addition to Silva.”
Fnarf, Carl Everett wasn’t a fiasco because he was a “clubhouse cancer.” He was a fiasco because he sucked.
The Mariners needed Bradley. Beltre is gone, and the Ichiro/Figgins combo will lead the majors in “singles by a duo”.
Somebody has to knock em in. Assuming Lee or Hernandez can’t start every game, the M’s will occasionally need to score some runs.
I look forward to Milton Bradley getting SCHOOLED by Junior in the dugout this season. I am also super grateful we were able to unload Silva’s $25M contract! here’s to 2010!
p.s. Carl Everett doesn’t believe in dinosaurs.
Chicago Fan, you’re awesome, but your Cubbie dislike of Bradley is blinding you to the fact that your team sent my team a very good baseball player even up for a very bad baseball player plus the difference in salaries. And our former very bad baseball player is a bit of a clubhouse cancer himself.
Oh – we’re getting the Cubs for cross-league play this year? Good – we could use some easy wins.
@40 – Not exactly even up … It was Bradley for Silva and $9 million.
Still a good deal though.
@37, you don’t need to KNOCK them in if you never make an out. They’ll just roll on in of their own accord. That’s why getting on base is the most important skill a player can have.
@37, @43, And Bradley got on base 38 percent of the time last year, a tick above his career number, and around the same percentage as Ichiro (39) and Figgins (40) last year. This is going to be fun.
@ 30, I don’t care about the circumstances of the game. If you and everyone around you were standing, then it’s fucked. If you were the only one standing, you need to sit your ass down. And if a lot of people were standing but not everyone was, well, did you do anything to attract attention to yourself? Because I was never asked to sit down at any game I’ve been to, and I saw a fair number of them at Safeco.
@17 – Absolutely correct. This trade was all about dumping that douchebag Milton Bradley. Silva will be throwing BP at AAA Iowa next year. The year after that he’ll be chasing cars down Lakeshore Drive with a squeegee.
As a Cub fan living in Seattle, this trade was a master stroke for Chicago. Bradley is pure concentrated shit, and now you own him. June 22-23-24 the Cubs play the M’s at Safeco. If Bradley hasn’t been benched or released outright you can all watch him suck against his former teammates as well.
MFD @45,
Thanks — I was gonna point out the inherent deficiencies in his point about standing during that game, but you seem to have pretty much nailed it. If he wasn’t the only one standing, but WAS the only one singled out for it, then there was obviously some other issue he needs to consider. I don’t think Seattle’s a bad baseball town — I doubt if Safeco could really compare to Wrigley, but then I doubt if there’s three stadium’s in all baseball that could.
I’m leery of the trade. Bradley’s not even a crazy kind of fun like Ron Artest or Chad 8-5 style, but just seems like kind of an asshole. And with so much attributed to the “great chemistry” the team had last year, I’d be reluctant to introduce a potentially volatile element to the clubhouse.
Hopefully Cliff Lee decides the northwest is pretty cool too. He seems like a pretty laid back dude (witness the lackadaisical playoff catch) and still hasn’t said anything overtly negative about the area, as others have suggested — just that he was shocked and caught off-guard by the move.
Allright — I’m done rambling. Thanks for the sports post too — was a fun diversion from the health care and political stuff that’s generally on here…