MLB GM on whether or not Bradley will find a job: “(Blank) no.”
Posted by Anthony Stalter (05/10/2011 @ 2:30 pm)
Seattle Mariners’ batter Milton Bradley reacts after swinging and missing on a pitch from Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Justin Duchscherer during the second inning of their MLB American League Opening Day baseball game in Seattle, Washington, April 12, 2010. REUTERS/Robert Sorbo (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)
SI.com’s Jon Heyman recently asked four general managers whether or not Milton Bradley (who was released by the Mariners on Monday) would find another job and apparently three of them said no.
The other? According to Heyman via Twitter, the fourth GM said: “(Expletive deleted) no. He was one moody (expletive deleted expletive deleted).”
A simple “no” would have been just fine, but all right…
Even though Bradley currently has a batting line of .218/.313/.356, most observers believe that someone will take a shot on him. But Heyman’s tweets are pretty alarming. It’s not like he talked to the guys who sweep the stadium stands after games for their take on Bradley: He spoke with the people who make decisions on whether or not to sign players.
Granted, Heyman only spoke with four general managers out of the 30 that are currently serving in MLB offices across this fine country. But why would anyone take on this headache when he’s not playing well? There used to be a time when teams were willing to put up with Bradley’s shenanigans because he gave their offense a jolt. But it’s been three years since he hit .321 with the Rangers in 2008 and he hasn’t resembled anything close to a professional hitter since. When you factor in his age (33) and his temperament, I don’t blame any GM for saying “fudge no” when asked whether or not he’ll ever find another job in Major League Baseball.
The Cubs were foolish to give him such an outlandish contract in 2009, but it’s not like he was coming off a bad year (again, he hit .321 with 22 home runs in ’08). And I don’t blame the Mariners for swapping one albatross contract in Carlos Silva for another in Bradley last year.
But I think the end is near: Milton Bradley’s time in Major League Baseball is finally up.
Milton Bradley admits to thoughts about suicide
Posted by Anthony Stalter (05/25/2010 @ 12:00 pm)
Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times writes that troubled Mariners’ outfielder Milton Bradley has pondered suicide following years of stress and frustration stemming from baseball.
The answer was simple. For the last two years, since he first came back from a torn ACL in his knee, suffered late in the 2007 season when he fell while arguing with an umpire, Bradley has been allowing “unpleasant thoughts” into his head. Thoughts about what? Well, sometimes suicide.
“When you start feeling that the only way you can end it is to kill yourself, that’s not a healthy feeling,” Bradley said of the constant negativity and anxiety that surrounded him. “So, I needed to get away, to step back for a bit. There are too many people I care about in this world to let things go down that road.”
Now, obviously that’s an attention-getter right there. It’s what folks will be talking about in the street tomorrow. But it’s only part of what Bradley wanted to convey. This doesn’t mean he was about to end his life. What it does mean is that Bradley, as a man who does an awful lot of thinking and put quite a bit of thought into the answers he gave me this morning, began pondering the merits of suicide. He told his wife that he could understand why people chose to end their lives. Not that he was about to rush out and do it himself. But that he could sympathize with their feelings. And that’s not a good thing. To be so unhappy that suicide begins to look like a reasonable alternative.
Sometimes we all get caught up in the actions of an athlete and forget that they’re all human. I’m guilty of this too; I see a headline and think to myself, “Well, that’s just Milton Bradley – he’s crazy.” But it takes an article like this to really put things into perspective.
Athletes are paid an enormous amount of money to play a game. But with that money comes stress and the pressure to succeed on a consistent basis. In today’s world, the media has access to everything so these athletes’ private lives are often on full display. That only leads to more pressure and stress, and as a human being I only hope that these athletes can deal with these circumstances.
Here’s hoping Bradley gets the serious help he needs.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Cubs sign Milton Bradley
Posted by Anthony Stalter (01/06/2009 @ 10:20 am)
The Chicago Cubs signed outfielder Milton Bradley to a three-year, $30 million contract.
The deal is pending a physical.
In an effort to free up some salary for Bradley, the Cubs are expected on Tuesday to finalize a deal to send Jason Marquis to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for reliever Luis Vizcaino, MLB.com reported Monday.
Adding Bradley was one of the top priorities this offseason for the Cubs, who got swept out of the playoffs for the second straight year after a lineup loaded with right-handers struggled against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
A switch-hitter, Bradley batted .321 with 22 homers for the Texas Rangers while leading the American League with a .436 on-base percentage. He made the All-Star team while serving primarily as the designated hitter.
In Chicago, he’ll fill the Cubs’ need for a left-handed bat in the middle of the order and will be used mostly in right field even though he has played 100 games in the field just once — in 2004 with the Dodgers. The Cubs will likely spell him with Kosuke Fukudome, who will also platoon with Reed Johnson in center. Fukudome was in right field last season.
Over/under on days before Bradley and Carlos Zambrano start throwing punches at each other: 120.
