On the Other Hand…

Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus criticises Cubs GM Jim Hendry’s decision to suspend Milton Bradley for the last two weeks of the 2009 season.

Sheehan says the decision to suspend Bradley for the remarks he made (see my last post on this subject for the link) in the press constitute “blatently pandering to the [Cubs] disgruntled fan base” and wouldn’t have happened if the Cubs were still in contention or Bradley was playing better than he has.  In short, Sheehan sees this as an attempt by Hendry to put the blame on Bradley for the Cubs disappointing 2009 performance.

I agree that Hendry probably would not have suspended Bradley if the Cubs were still in contention or if Bradley had played better this year.  Ultimately, Hendry has to take the blame for the Cubs’ poor performance this year, in large part because of his dumb-ass decision to sign Bradley for big bucks in the first place.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only commentator who thought giving Bradley any contract, let alone one for more than one season, was a big mistake for any team with serious play-off aspirations. I also suspect that Cubs fans won’t forget who brought Miltie to the North Side of Chicago no matter how fast Hendry now rides him out of town on a rail.

However, Bradley has not played well, the Cubs have long since been out of contention, and Miltie has been a pill all year long.  Maybe the last interview wasn’t all that bad, but I tend to think it was the straw that broke the Cubs’ back.

One of the reasons I’ve written about Miltie so much this year is that he’s kept up the dumb statements and dumb conduct all year long.  Since my first post on Miltie back on April 18, Miltie has done something stupid enough every few weeks to merit further comment from the national baseball media.

As for Hendry’s pandering to the fan base, isn’t that the single most important thing for a team to do, aside from winning?  Professional baseball is entertainment — no more, no less.  If you don’t give the public what you think it wants, how can you expect to put cans in the seats?

For example, the Mariners’ decision to bring back Junior Griffey was basically pandering to the team’s fan base.  Griffey didn’t have much left when they signed him, and while he’s hit a few homeruns this year, he’s hitting only .219 with a .733 OPS, pretty awful numbers for a DH who’s had more than 400 plate appearances.

Nevertheless, the Mariners are reportedly willing to bring Griffey back for another season if Griffey is willing to take a pay cut and serve mostly as a pinch hitter.  If that’s not pandering to the fan base, I don’t know what is.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.  If I were a Mariners fan, I’d want to see Griffey have a last hurrah for the M’s (although after his 2009 season, I’d say Griff and the fans have had that last hurrah, and it’s time to move on and try to put together a team that can make the play-offs).  As a Giants fan, I certainly enjoyed the Gints bringing in Randy Johnson this year, if only so we could get to watch a Bay Area-born Hall-of-Famer win his 300th game wearing the orange and black.

If Cubs’ fans have had enough of Miltie, there’s no reason to keep him around annoying everyone, unless he’s helping you win a whole lot of ballgames.  Of course, then the fans wouldn’t hate him so much.  Nothing succeeds like sucess.

Miltie isn’t helping the Cubs win (at least not enough for them to be in contention this September), so if the fans hate him, why keep him around one minute more than you have to?