Gutless Sports Writing

Here’s a post from Steve Rosenbloom of The Chicago Tribune criticizing the Cubs’ signing of Milton Bradley, two months into the season when he’s playing poorly and the other free agent corner outfielders Raul Ibanez, Adam Dunn and Bobby Abreau from last off-season are playing better.

This strikes me as really gutless sports writing.

Anyone with a brain could see that signing Milton Bradley this off-season for three years and $30 million was a dumb move. Bradley has had only one season in the eight years of his major league career in which he managed to play in 130 games. Aside from that, he is a cancer in the clubhouse, a major distraction and has left a number of teams where he is certainly not welcome back.

The time to criticize the signing was before the season started, not two months in after the entirely predictable Bradley problems (injuries and pop-off-itis) have risen.

And you know what? As gutless as Rosenbloom’s column is, he might have still got it wrong. After hitting .118 with a .627 OPS in April, Bradley hit .268 with a .787 OPS in May. His numbers are rising by the week.

On those relatively rare occasions when Bradley is right, he’s good hitter. I wouldn’t bet on him staying healthy and really helping the Cubs this year, but stranger things have happened. For example, J.D. Drew managed to play consecutive seasons of 140-plus games at ages 30 and 31 (2006 and 2007) after playing in 140-plus games only once in his first seven seasons.

The point is, anything can happen, and if Bradley does somehow end up having a good season in 2009, Rosenbloom will probably write a column in September about what a great move it was for Cubs’ general manager, Jim Hendry, to sign Bradley after all.

And you know what? Rosenbloom will be wrong again. Bradley might have a good 2009, but the odds of him having three good years or even two during the term of the contract are extremely slim. Players over age 30, who have a history of chronic injuries don’t just suddenly get healthy, at least not for more than a season or two.

I’m sticking to the position I took when the Cubs signed Bradley. It was a dumb move, and when the contract has run its course, that will be obvious.