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.
Cubs release Carlos Silva after awful spring
Posted by Anthony Stalter (03/27/2011 @ 2:58 pm)
Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Silva delivers a pitch to Houston Astros batter Angel Sanchez in the first inning of their MLB National League baseball game in Houston July 26, 2010. REUTERS/Richard Carson (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)
The Cubs can finally awake from the nightmare that is Carlos Silva, who was released on Sunday after posting a 10.90 ERA while surrendering 32 hits over 17 1/3 innings this spring.
In December of 2009, Chicago traded one past mistake in Milton Bradley to acquire a future mistake in Silva, who told the club on Friday that there’s “no chance” he’d report to the minors if the Cubs couldn’t trade him. He also took a couple of shots at pitching coach Mark Riggins, saying he was “not straight” with him about the team’s plans and that Riggins “had to learn he’s in the big leagues now.” After the team dumped him on Sunday, maybe Riggins can return the favor by telling Silva that he better learn that he’s in the unemployment line now. (Zing! I know, not my best but it played.)
Granted, Silva (9-3, 3.45 ERA, 1.14 WHIP) was effective last year before a heart issue derailed his season. But unfortunately for the Cubs, they’re still on the hook for the $11.5 million owed to him this year so the term “value” doesn’t come to mind here, even when you factor in Silva’s numbers from last season. I guess this is the price you pay when you hand Milton freaking Bradley a three-year, $30 million contract and think you can unload him on the Marines by taking on their contract albatross. But in the end, everybody losses.
On a related note, Andrew Cashner was named the Cubs’ fifth starter after the release of Silva.
Milton Bradley throws glass coffee table at wife
Posted by Anthony Stalter (03/04/2011 @ 12:00 pm)
According to a report by RadarOnline, Milton Bradley threw a glass coffee table at his wife during an argument on New Year’s Eve while the picture perfect couple was in New York City.
Monique requested a restraining order against Milton on January 24th and states that while they were in New York City for New Year’s Eve: “Milton cursed and yelled at me for approximately five minutes and then he grabbed a glass from off the coffee table and threw it directly at my head from across the room.
“The glass shattered on my head and I started to bleed. As soon as Milton saw me bleeding, he started crying and begging me to forgive him. He stated that he lost it and that he would kill himself if I left him. I did not know what to do.”
Apparently hotel security knocked on the door while Monique was in the bathroom trying to stop the bleeding, but Milton sent them away. Monique is requesting that she be given legal and physical custody of their two boys.
According to RadarOnline, the couple has been married for five years. I don’t know why it took five years and some glass to be chucked at her head for Monique to figure out that Milton Bradley has some mental issues but hey, love is blind sometimes.
Milton and Elijah Dukes should be cellmates when they both inevitably wind up in jail.
End of the line for Milton Bradley?
Posted by Anthony Stalter (01/19/2011 @ 10:00 am)
As a member of the Cleveland Indians, he once wore a T-shirt that said “(expletive) Eric Wedge” on it.
As a member of the Chicago Cubs, he was suspended for the final weeks of the 2009 season after he criticized general manager Jim Hendry and manager Lou Piniella.
Most recently, he left the Mariners after being replaced mid-game by then-manager Don Wakamatsu, only to ask for and receive a reinstatement after the club provided anger management training.
Now Milton Bradley is at it again. He was arrested Tuesday morning in California and booked on felony charges for making criminal threats to a woman. Reports state that he was held on $50,000 bail before being released at roughly 5:40PM.
Considering he hit a dismal .205 with just eight home runs and 29 RBIs in 73 games last season, one would assume the M’s brass is pouring over his contract hoping to find a clause that will allow them to release the troubled outfielder. Why not cut ties with Bradley and save $12 million (which is what he’s owed in 2011) in the process?
Of course, that’s easier said than done. Unless Hendry was smart enough to write a clause into Bradley’s contract that would protect the team in the event he were arrested, the Mariners are probably on the hook for that $12 million. If they tried to void his deal, the player’s union would likely file a grievance and it could be months before Bradley sees the inside of a courtroom. During that time, he would be out on bail and he could claim that he’s not being convicted of anything (and therefore, could be “working” during that time).
There’s a good chance that the Mariners will cut him anyway, even if they have to fork over the $12 million that’s still owed on his contract. That would be a grave injustice if he is guilty of a crime (remember, he hasn’t been convicted of anything yet), but at least Seattle would be rid of him. This guy is a ticking time bomb and it’s not a matter of “if” but “when” he’s going to explode again.
But maybe this time there won’t be another club ready to assume the risk.
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
