Milton Bradley helps the Cubbies?

What the hell are the Cubbies doing? $30 million over 3-years for Milton Bradley?

Bad move, my friends, bad move.

Not only is the guy a total headcase he's also injury prone and only seems interested in himself.

Hell, there's a reason a guy as gifted a Bradley is has played for 6 teams in parts of 9 Major League seasons. The guy can play all three outfield positions, he hits for average, draws walks, has really good power and can run a little bit too but nobody wants to keep him around...

Hmm, I wonder why that is?

The crazy thing about this move for the Cubbies is that they had to move Mark DeRosa to, allegedly, clear room in the budget to give Bradley $10 million a year.

Let's see, we're gonna move a great clubhouse guy who can play pretty much anywhere on the field while providing pretty good offense so we can fit in a headcase of an outfielder and pay the headcase twice as much as the good clubhouse guy?

Boy, that headcase must be a much more productive player than the good clubhouse guy.

Okay, maybe not...

Over the last three seasons (2006-2008) DeRosa has hit .291 with 44 HR, 233 RBI and posted an .821 OPS while playing 1527 games and providing solid defense at 6 different positions.

In that same time frame Bradley hit .302 with 49 HR, 166 RBI and posted a .923 OPS when he played. Key words: "when he played." Bradley has averaged just 325 at-bats per season from '06-'08 and no better than that during his career.

In fact, Bradley has only one 500 AB season and 2008 marked only the second time he's even reached 400 AB.

Yeah, Bradley is a better/more talented player than DeRosa but is he really "better" when you factor in the 30-40 games he's going to miss? Is he really so much better than DeRosa that he deserves to be paid twice what DeRosa will make?

No and no.

So the Cubs are making this deal - paying this kind of cash - and trading off a durable, reliable all-around player based on the assumption that somehow Bradley will miraculously do in his 30's what he never did in his 20's, which is stay healthy and motivated?

Okie dokie.

Glad it's not my money and glad I'm not a Cubs fan...

KW