Bradley Officially Signs: 3/30

[The Sheik]

I love the signing...hopefully he bats fifth

What I expect
2B Miles
LF Soriano
1B Lee
3B Ramirez
RF Bradley
C Soto
CF Johnson/Fukudome
SS Theriot

Ya no. You dont pay Bradley that much money to have him bat 5th. Not with his bat. He is batting 4th.

My guess:
1.
2.
Ramierez
Bradley
Lee
Soto
7.
8.
cant tell you anything else because I just dont know.

[Jo Jo English]

Somewhat excited about the signing. Very happy that his contract appears to have incentives linked to number of games played.

[SportsWorld]

http://chicagocubsonline.com/archives/2 ... 1.php#more

Updated - 9:46pm C.T. - Bruce Levine just reported on XM Radio with Joe Casellano that the third year on Bradley's contract is not guaranteed. The third year is a vesting option based on games played in the first two seasons.

[WEFFPIM]

Nice signing for you and your crazy Cubbies.

Lou Pinella vs. Milton Bradley has the potential to be epic. Screw the quest for a World Series, there's your goal for the season, an Ultimate Fighter Cage Death Match between those two.

[Howling Mad]

The only way D Lee bats second on this team is if Joey Gathright ALWAYS leads off.

There's no way Soriano, MIles, or Theriot beat out all those DPs.

[hermes]

Wittenmeyer:

Bradley’s history of injuries have kept him from playing more than 101 games in all but two of his seven full seasons in the majors, and his new contract is believed to contain language that protects the team on the back end of the deal if Bradley misses significant playing time on the front end.

good to see there are incentives and such and we didn't just throw a pile of money at him

i like the signing, now onto Peavy!

[Posey H8er]

The only way D Lee bats second on this team is if Joey Gathright ALWAYS leads off.

There's no way Soriano, MIles, or Theriot beat out all those DPs.

I hope Gathright never starts. He should be limited to pinch running and late inning defensive replacements.

[The Sheik]

I hope Gathright never starts. He should be limited to pinch running and late inning defensive replacements.

You know he will be when Soriano goes on his yearly sabbatical.

[mattbulls]

I hope Gathright never starts. He should be limited to pinch running and late inning defensive replacements.

You know he will be when Soriano goes on his yearly sabbatical.

October??

[ChicagoTRS]

I hate this signing. Reasons:

1) We can only really count on him to play 2/3 of the season. He has only played over 100 games in a season twice in a 9 year career.

2) No one is mentioning that he is a far better hitter from the right side of the plate. The entire point was to get a right fielder to give us left handed protection in the lineup. Well Bradley is a switch hitter who mashes LHP and is average vs RHP..how does this solve our problems against tough RHP?

3) He has had anger/clubhouse issues at almost every stop of his multi-stop major league career. Prediction...Bradley makes and error in right field with our other resident head case Big Z on the mound = all out dugout brawl.

If by some miracle Bradley can stay healthy for a season or two it has the potential to be a good signing but probably a much better chance we will regret this signing.

If the team can work a deal for Peavy then we should be in good shape. But personally I think it is a longshot. San Diego is going to hold him to the trade deadline...they are asking for teams top couple prospects right now and I do not see us giving up that much. We probably do not have a prospect pitcher that fits what they want.

[GYBE]

Well Bradley is a switch hitter who mashes LHP and is average vs RHP..how does this solve our problems against tough RHP?

A .940 OPS against RHP (which Bradley put up last season) is not average. It's fantastic.

[SportsWorld]

The Cubs are introducing Milton at 3:30 PM today. It will be on Comcast SportsNet.

[SportsWorld]

Bradley is wearing #21

[SportsWorld]

Wrapup someone posted on Pro Sports Daily:

Why do you want to come to Chicago?

I got a good vibe from Chicago. The game is a bunch of dishonesty (Free Agency) but I felt they gave me nothing but honesty about everything. Most teams goal is to compete and try to get to the playoffs, here it's to win.

What about your past?

It's just that, the past. A bunch of cute headlines from people I've never met speaking about me. It's not very fair. I'll never judge somebody on perceptions by the TV and paper.

What do you have to do to stay on the field injury wise?

I've taken a new workout regimine like nothing I've ever done, they can testify to that. They believe this is the right move and the health is not an issue.

Acknowledge the tantrums in the past?

Don't have to, they're in the past. I give everything I have everyday to try and win the ball game.

Before you finalized, did you call any teammates to talk about atmosphere or the city?

Talked to Gaudin and D. Lee, nothing but great things to say. No players have bad things to say about the Cubs around the league.

Difficult transition to play RF when you haven't played the field a lot for a while?

Been an OF his whole life. No concern.

Any pressure being a Cub?

Pressure is putting food on your family's table, this is baseball, this is easy.

Audio cutout...

[IbreakNeckZ101]

love this guys attitude... hopefully he puts this team in it's place when it starts choking in the playoffs again.

[ChicagoTRS]

Well Bradley is a switch hitter who mashes LHP and is average vs RHP..how does this solve our problems against tough RHP?

A .940 OPS against RHP (which Bradley put up last season) is not average. It's fantastic.

He has a career OPS of .799 vs RHP (.890 vs LHP)

It was .929 OPS last year vs RHP (as a left handed hitter...I admit this is still very good)
.937 in 2007
.793 in 2006
Still definitely very good...he is certainly capable against right handed pitching.

His home/away splits in 2008 are a bit concerning: 1.145 at home vs .872 away
Most hitters have an edge at home but he was playing in a very good hitters park last year so I do think his overall numbers are a bit inflated.

Hopefully he finds Wrigley to his liking. Not much of a Wrigley sample in his career, 5 games with a .577 OPS. I do not think that means anything as it is too small a sample.

On a positive note he has hit better during day games and on grass during his career.

I do not absolutely hate the signing but I am not really sold either. He is a huge risk to spend a good portion of the season on the DL...sort of the Rich Harden of hitters. I like him as a player to add at a trade deadline but counting on him for a couple seasons worth of work is a longshot.
Games played:
2001: 77
2002: 98
2003: 101
2004: 141
2005: 75
2006: 96
2007: 61
2008: 126
2009: ?

Just not sold on this move. It was a rough class of players especially to find a player who could hit RHP and field adequately in right field. Funny thing is Dunn, Burrell, Abreu, Ibanez are all better career hitters vs RHP and average over 150 games played per year. I hope he plays 150 games and excels but if I had to bet I would bet against it. Risky acquisition.

[GYBE]

All of them are worse defensively though. Even though Bradley was largely a DH last season, his defensive ratings by most metrics have always been solid. He was slightly above average last year in the outfield. Abreu is below average, Dunn is a little worse. Burrell and Ibanez may have been the two worst defensive outfielders in baseball last year. And even adjusting for his home park, he was a much better hitter than those guys. Sorted by EQA, which takes into account home park and baserunning in addition to raw hitting stats:

Bradley .339
Dunn .300
Burrell .295
Ibanez .295
Abreu .291

That's a pretty huge gap.

Everyone gets a boost playing in Texas of course, but remember that the rest of the division isn't very easy to play in. Seattle and Oakland are huge pitchers parks and the Angels always keep offenses in check. Those teams constitute a lot of the schedule.

The thing with Bradley's injuries are, there's nothing recurring. The ACL injury in San Diego was a freak thing that would happen to anyone in that situation. Maybe I'm naive, but I'd rather take a chance on a guy with multiple unrelated injuries than one nagging one that's always present.

You definitely bring up some good points though. I just think it's worth the risk considering Bradley was clearly ahead of those guys offensively and defensively.

[SportsWorld]

[The Sheik]

Getting this deal finalized lets me settle down a bit about the season and forget about Peavy a little. I think our focus now should be lefty specialist.

[Posey H8er]

From watching the press conference Bradley seems like a positive guy and a great teammate. He repeated the point that he dislikes negativity from the media, which tells me any little thing could get to his head. Hopefully that isn't true and he has a clean season off the field.