Chicago Cubs Playing Dangerous Game Signing Milton Bradley

Not that it really matters anyway because we all went James Joyce and experienced the epiphany that the Chicago Cubs will never win the World Series years ago, but general manager Jim Hendry's moves/missed moves this offseason have made it all the more unlikely (if an event can become more unlikely than never?), and I really think it's time he BUGGERS OFF already, but I don't think he will because he recently got a contract extension, and the thought of it all resulted in the longest run-on sentence in Kornheiser's Cartel history.

The already bitter Cubs winter sent another chill up my spine with the news that the rumored Milton Bradley-to-the-Cubs deal was rumor no more. It's being reported across the Internet as a done deal at three years, $30 million.

I don't get it...

The Cubs have been looking to add a left-handed power-hitter for years, and Bradley is a switch-hitter coming off a monster year in Texas when he hit .322 with 22 HR's and posted a .999 OPS. On the surface, the signing makes sense.

Dig a little deeper, though, and there is reason to worry.

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington is known as a hitter's heaven, and Bradley's home/away split stats suggest he lived in bliss in 2008. Of those 22 home runs, just six came on the road. Bradley hit .358 at home and just .298 on the road. In the last four seasons (the best of his career), Bradley's OPS has trended more towards .800 than 1.000.

Intangibles matter in baseball, too; Derek Jeter made more than $21 million in 2008 for a reason. Bradley is one of baseball's bad guys and seems to find trouble in every clubhouse he walks through. He's torn an ACL in an argument with an umpire. He was traded by Cleveland following a dust-up with manager Eric Wedge. He accused Jeff Kent of being racist (Kent does kind of look racist, but it's not something you go public with), and he tried to fight the Kansas City Royals television announcer last summer. He's a ticking time bomb that will surely bring the most negative attention Wrigley has seen since the Sammy Sosa bat corking incident in the next three years. In fact, it's highly unlikely he'll see out the three years in Chicago.

To sign Bradley, the Cubs cleared payroll by trading starter Jason Marquis and valuable utility-man Mark DeRosa. Marquis and DeRosa were the two big league Cubbies rumored to be involved in any move for Jake Peavy. It's easy to say the Cubs would be better off with Jake Peavy than Marquis and DeRosa. It's harder to make that case for Bradley.

For one thing, is Bradley even better than DeRosa? They've similar statistics, but DeRosa also offered incredible versatility. Add in the rotation depth offered by Marquis and the aforementioned problems that accompany Bradley into the clubhouse, and it may not have been worth the effort.

A smarter move may have been to sign Pat Burrell, who is not left-handed, but is a better hitter and cheaper at $16 million/2 years; Bobby Abreu, a durable, patient hitter who excelled in his last National League stint; or Adam Dunn, who has holes in his game, but was a Cubs trade target for a half-decade.

Outfield issues would be moot had Hendry acquired Peavy instead. A rotation of Peavy, Carlos Zambrano, Rich Harden, Ryan Dempster, and Ted Lilly would've been baseball's best hands down, if not enough to finally end the franchise's century-long search for another World Series.

Instead, Cubs fans are left with Sean Marshall every five days and Bradley every day.

That is, until, Bradley's next inevitable meltdown (in June, sparked when he sees Mike Fontenot and Kosuke Fukudome playing the Parker Brothers' classic Monopoly... Milton Bradley board games or bust) reveals this signing and roster reshuffle to be a spectacular disaster.

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