The Cubs enter the final week of the season playing the best baseball they have played all year. They are 6-9 during the month of September and are now 5.5 games behind Colorado in the NL Wildcard race. (On a more somber note, the Cardinals clinched the NL Central yesterday with their win over the Rockies.)
Of course, the problem for the Cubs is that they are running out of time. The team only has eight games remaining this season, so even if they win out, it will still take a miracle to win the Wildcard.
The Cubs play their final road game of the season today in San Francisco. Randy Wells (11-9) goes up against the impressive Matt Cain (13-7).
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The Tribune’s Paul Sullivan, who must just hate Milton Bradley, continues piling on him by pointing out that the Cubs are now 6-1 since the Bradley suspension and 20-10 for the season in games when Bradley does not play. He uses this exchange with Jake Fox to prove his point:
Is it just a coincidence, or has the removal of Bradley from the picture improved the team’s chance of success?
“It might be,” Jake Fox said with a laugh. “That’s a funny point to bring up because I didn’t even think about it. I guess it could be, but guys are playing relaxed, and guys are playing fun.
“It’s a learning experience because it shows you if you just play that way every day, regardless of what kind of pressure is on you, regardless of what people may be saying or not saying about you, [it] shows you a lot about what we can do as a team.”
I’m no professional journalist, but it seems to me that Fox is just trying to deflect Sullivan’s question by being polite and giving a PC answer. In fact, it seems to me like he is saying that the team is playing well because they are loose and having fun. He doesn’t link that play back to Bradley; Sullivan does.
I believe that Bradley deserved all of the criticism he received for his poor play and bad behavior. I didn’t think suspending him was a smart thing, but I was satisfied with it if it led to the Cubs trading him in the off season. But the lengths that some members of the media have gone to continue the “Bradley Bashing” festival is too much. It’s time to move on.
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In my post yesterday, I mentioned that the Royals had been suggested as a team that might have interest in acquiring Bradley. You can cross them off the list. Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star writes that Royals officials (Why are they unnamed?) dismissed the reports linking KC to Bradley and called the people perpetuating such rumors (I’m looking at you Paul Sullivan) as “idiots.”
This news from Kansas City is just fine with me. I didn’t think the Royals matched up well for a Bradley trade anyway unless the Cubs just wanted to dump Bradley somewhere and continue paying most of his salary.
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The Royals may no longer be on the list of teams with an interest in Bradley, but the Mets, Padres, Giants, and Rangers are. That according to Ken Rosenthal on his weekly video report (the bit about the Cubs and Bradley starts around the 1:45 mark). Rosenthal says that all four teams have already contacted Jim Hendry about a possible trade.
Rosenthal adds that the Cubs are confident they can work out a deal for Bradley that does not involve them picking up his salary. According to Rosenthal, the more salary the Cubs pick up, the better player(s) they’ll get in return.
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Whoever the Cubs get in return for Milton Bradley, manager Lou Piniella would like it to be a middle-of-the-order run producer. You may recall that after the Cubs quick exit from the playoffs last year, the Cubs decided that what they were missing was a left-handed, middle-of-the-order bat. Remember? It was in all of the papers.
I said it then and I’ll say it again: The Cubs don’t need to get more left-handed. They just need more players who can hit, regardless of the side of the plate they hit from (Are you tired of hearing me say that yet?) It appears that Piniella is coming around to my way of thinking:
”You ask me, the biggest thing we need here is an RBI bat,” Piniella said. “We need an RBI bat to sit in the middle of the lineup with [Aramis] Ramirez and Derrek Lee.”
Does Piniella’s dream hitter have to bat left-handed?
“I don’t care if he hits between his legs, how’s that?” Piniella said. “Right-handed, left-handed, doesn’t really matter.”
Exactly!
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Somewhere along the line, someone must have told Rick Morrisey of the Chicago Tribune that he is funny. That person lied and did a great disservice to people all over the world who are capable of reading Morrisey’s column.
In a recent column, Morrisey thought it would be funny to re-write Bradley’s apology as if Bradley himself had actually written it. First, it doesn’t sound like Bradley wrote it. Second, it’s not funny. That’s a bad combination.
I’ve never been a fan of Morrisey, so this column just reinforces my opinion. How many columnists does the Trib Sports Dept. have anyway? No wonder they’re going through bankruptcy.
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I recently received a comment to a previous post that read “I’m in love with you, my adonis.” I deleted the comment as spam, but then I got to thinking, what if it was legit? Maybe someone out there likes this blog so much that they felt compelled to send in that comment. Yeah, that’s probably it. Until I’m proven wrong, I’m running with that theory.
