The Cubs and Milton Bradley

A quick comment on the Milton Bradley situation; i.e., Milton getting removed from the game yesterday and told, by Lou Piniella, to go home early when he knocked over a water cooler, threw his helmet, etc., after flying out to left in the sixth inning: Phil Rogers in today’s Chicago Tribune has perhaps the best comment on the situation:

"The numbers Bradley generated in Texas came in a relatively pressure-free environment when he was mentored by a manager (Ron Washington), challenged and encouraged by a hitting coach (Rudy Jaramillo) and embraced by teammates (Josh Hamilton, Michael Young and Ian Kinsler). None of that appears, at least on the surface, to have carried over here.

Bradley was disappointed at the firing of hitting coach Gerald Perry -- ordered by Hendry -- and does not appear to have strong friends in the clubhouse. If he was feeling isolated, the last thing he needed was a spanking from Piniella.

… How is he not going to feel Piniella singled him out for public embarrassment, especially given the tolerance of Zambrano's childish antics?

Bradley is upset about his poor production (.237, 5 homers, 16 RBIs), which has contributed to the [Cubs’] 35-35 start. That's why he was steamed when Jose Contreras got him out for the third time.

The Cubs aren't going to release him. They can't trade him. They have to fix him.

Piniella and Hendry know Bradley a lot better than the rest of us. Maybe tough love is the best recipe. But from here it looks like kicking a guy when he's down."

I think Rogers has hit the nail on the head – with one possible exception. I am not at all sure that "Piniella and Hendry know Bradley a lot better than the rest of us."

A lot of people will say that this is a bunch of hooey. Bradley makes $10,000,000 a year. He needs to shut up and hit. He does make a lot of money, but he is still like everybody else. He wants to fit in. He wants to work with friends. And the pressure that has, in recent years, come with playing on the north side of Chicago, is not easy to deal with.

In fact, Milton Bradley is reminding me, in one way, of Sammy Sosa. Maybe Milton Bradley does better when he is loved. Sammy needed to be, and thrived on being, loved. When he was handled right, he was a fantastic baseball player. Andy MacPhail, when he was general manager of the Cubs, understood Sammy. Most guys do well in their contract years, i.e., the year before they become a free agent. The chance to get a big contract makes them do better. Then, once they got the contract, there is a bit of a let up. Sammy was the opposite. Twice MacPhail signed Sammy to four-year contracts before the last year of Sammy’s then-current deal. And Sammy’s two best years were the years right after he signed those new contracts.

What with recent press reports of secret drug tests, some will say that Sammy’s performance started to drop once MLB instituted drug testing. As I have commented before, you can also see a drop when Jeff Pentland, the hitting coach who worked so well with Sammy from 1998 through 2002, was let go. The fact that Bradley really liked Gerald Perry is not encouraging.

It looks like the Cubs should not have signed Milton Bradley. It is not working for us or for him. But we did sign him, and if we want to make the best of it, we need to treat him the way that will get the most out of him. Like Phil Rogers, I doubt that what Lou Piniella did yesterday was the way.

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Update (6/27/09 2:50 p.m.):  Added links I forgot to include.

Comments

[Jennie]

If you had named me Milton Bradley, I would have a bad attitude too.

love, Jennie