What's Making Me Talk: Milton Bradley, Ya Goin' Down! You're a Loose Cannon!

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

What a week it was for the Chicago Cubs.

I've had so many Cubs-related notes that were all big stories that I've had to combine them all into one of my opening statements.

Can we start with this knucklehead Milton Bradley?

It feels like I could just write an entire article on Bradley every week. This guy never stops; is it any wonder he feels like a target? He does so many stupid things that it's impossible not to make him a target.

The latest episode in the hit drama that is Milton Bradley's playing career has the Gameboy getting upset and taking his frustration out on a water cooler.

Now that’s nothing unusual for Bradley if you've seen his gems the past few years. But this was the final straw for manager Lou Piniella, who yanked Bradley from the game and basically sent him home.

Piniella then said after the game that he had enough of something. It was unclear if he was talking about Bradley, or just the abuse taken out on water coolers and Gatorade machines in general.

Either way, the childish antics of the Cubs players, including Bradley of course, of taking their frustration out on inanimate objects multiple times is enough. I'm with Piniella there.

What saddens me is how soft Lou seems to have gotten with his apology that he issued after the fact.

Why apologize for saying what you said Lou? Milton pretty much deserves any of the flack he gets and eventually, enough has to be enough. You can't keep saying and doing stupid things and expect your manager to put up with it.

Maybe Lou is just getting old as he said in one quote. Earlier in the week he defended the positive drug test of catcher Geovany Soto.

Pot was found in Soto's system when he underwent testing for the World Baseball Classic. To me, big deal, but then again, I call Jeremy Jeffress stupid later. However he did it twice, so maybe he deserves it.

But Piniella was rather quick to defend Soto and say that even he experimented with "dope" at one point. I haven't experimented with dope, but I can respect Lou telling it how it is. However, I fail to believe Soto was just experimenting this time around. He isn't a kid—who knows how common this is for him?

I know it's just pot, but in-season, or close to in-season, players should be smart enough to stay away from something like that.

The crazy thing about all this Cubs drama? It took all the attention away from the fact that they were playing the White Sox.

Mark DeRosa headed to the Gateway

The Indians had initiated probably the first big trade of 2008 when they sent CC Sabathia to Milwaukee.

They might have done the same this past week when they traded Mark DeRosa to the St. Louis Cardinals.

DeRosa is going to be a fantastic addition to the St. Louis lineup, clubhouse and defensive alignment.

If Troy Glaus happens to come back, which is a rather unknown at this point, DeRosa can pretty much play anywhere. Although he did make his first Cardinals start in left field, the Cardinals do have a hole at third.

And Cub fans can tell you first hand what a blow it will be to see a guy like DeRosa in the opposing dugout and not theirs. You wonder why it was a big deal they replaced DeRosa with Bradley.

From the Indians' perspective, this deal says they might be waving the white flag, but they did acquire major league talent in a spot that they really need it, so maybe not?

Well, Chris Perez figures to be a big part of the Indians bullpen in the future, not just an aid to the woes they are having this year. So you can take from that what you want. The Indians are 12 games out of first place at this point in the season and as the deficit grows, the season shrinks.

A few weeks ago they were only a few games out of second place, which made things look not difficult at all. Now they are just as far out of second as they were of first a week ago. They've got issues and there pretty much is no more hope left for this team.

Still, that move doesn't signal the end for them. They aren't done competing. They won't be done competing, but Mark Shapiro hasn't waved the white flag quite yet. That won't happen until he actually trades a piece that he expects to contribute this year for pieces that he doesn't.

I think the white flag should be waved rather soon, but for the Indians, they still believe they've got some fight left in them. They haven't shown the promise to say that a comeback is possible, though.

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