The initial reaction to the suspension of Milton Bradley was overwhelmingly supportive of Jim Hendry. Writers and pundits expressed opinions that almost universally derided Bradley’s behavior and supported Hendry’s suspension of Bradley for said behavior. The one lone voice criticizing Hendry (and Lou Piniella) was Dave Kaplan in his blog on ChicagoNow.com which I referenced in yesterday’s post.
Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times is also critical of Hendry. Primarily, Hayes chastises Hendry for signing Bradley in the first place. Hayes writes:
When I heard the Cubs were considering signing Bradley, I called a colleague who had spent a lot of time around the troubled outfielder in the past. I was told that Bradley is bright, sincere and passionate. I also learned that he could be moody and sour and that the black cloud that often hovers over him can produce lightning strikes, hurricane warnings and, in extreme cases, nuclear winters.
He continues:
It takes a unique player to excel in one of baseball’s most unique environments, and a cursory examination of Bradley’s history would have revealed that he was not that type of player, not by a long shot. I learned that after checking one reference. One.
As I’ve stated previously, signing Milton Bradley was a disaster waiting to happen. His suspension is hopefully the end of the disaster.
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Not so fast there, partner. Bradley’s suspension may not be the end of the disaster afterall. As I reported previously, the MLBPA may be filing a grievance against the Cubs on Bradley’s behalf. If they do, Bradley could return to the team before the end of the season. Paul Sullivan of the Trib writes about the possibilities of Bradley returning before the close of the season:
With a decided lack of support in the Cubs clubhouse, Bradley’s return could make for some awkward moments during in the final week of the season. The relationship seems unretrievably broken, and all the apologies in the world aren’t going to heal these self-inflicted wounds.
But, just for a second, imagine the possibilities of a Bradley comeback for the last week of the season:
If Ryan Dempster handed Bradley a mirror, would he laugh?
Would Lou Piniella even dare write Bradley’s name in the lineup? And if not, what if hitting coach Von Joshua asked him to pinch hit again?
How would Bradley deal with the media crush that would greet his arrival, making for another potential You Tube moment, like his “What else ya got?” performance last week.
And if Bradley was playing in right field in Wrigley Field in the final homestand, would it lead to a very ugly and perhaps dangerous atmosphere?
That last question really bothers me. Bradley is a baseball player, not some sort of enemy military figure. True, he’s a jerk of near epic proportions, but the man does not deserve to fear for his safety from a bunch of ill-mannered fans. It’s a shame that the question even needs to be asked.
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The aforemention Dave Kaplan has some additional thoughts on Hendry’s future with the Cubs. He thinks Hendry is the man who can turn around the team in 2010. But first, he wants to describe some of his mistakes:
Taking two guys like (Kerry) Wood and (Mark) DeRosa who thrived in that environment and replacing them with a guy like Milton Bradley, who was extremely uncomfortable in that situation, was one of the biggest mistakes that Hendry and his staff made in their off season evaluations. Add in the fact that, as one player told me on Monday, Milton Bradley brought tension to the locker room from the first day he joined the team in spring training. No one felt comfortable around him and everyone tried unbelievably hard to make him feel welcome and accepted on the team.
Kaplan also chastises Hendry for bringing in Aaron Miles on a two-year deal when the Cubs already had Andres Blanco in the pipeline. But in the end, Kaplan throws his support behind Hendry:
Barry Meister is another well known agent who has negotiated with Hendry for several of his clients, and he too likes working with the Cubs GM. “If indeed the Cubs are in recovery mode this off season and they are trying to fix their club then I believe that Jim Hendry is as good as it gets trying to fix a team on the fly,” Meister said.
Add in the fact that Hendry’s work ethic is legendary, and you have a guy who should be extremely motivated to turn around a team that had just about everything go wrong for it in 2009. Teams always want players in their contract year because their performance tends to improve. How about an executive who had a bad season and has new ownership coming in? Sounds to me like the perfect recipe for turning around the Chicago Cubs in 2010.
Hendry has done a lot of good things over the years. I’ve been a supporter. But I have to admit that this past off season was horrible for Hendry and the Cubs. Do we really want the guy that screwed up a team that made it to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons be the guy who also fixes it? At the moment, I have mixed emotions. I still think that Hendry can get the job done, but he screwed up big time last year.
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The Astros fired manager Cecil Cooper. Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle wrote about it here.
I’m not saying that Cooper didn’t deserve to be fired, but what did it accomplish firing him with just 14 games left in the season? It seems the horse was out of the barn at that point. Why not just let him stay until the end of the season and then give him the bad news. Nothing was gained by firing him just before the season ended.
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I was going to write a post about why I hate ESPN Insider, and then I decided just to include it in this post, and then changed my mind once again. For now, I’ll just say that I hate ESPN Insider and one of these days I’ll tell you why.
