Bradley Era is Over in Chicago

Milton Bradley has his bags packed for Seattle ending a turbulent year in Chicago with the Cubs while Carlos Silva is coming to the Cubs as a possible starter in the trade.

The Chicago Cubs have traded outfielder Milton Bradley to the Mariners for pitcher Carlos Silva. He is moving 1,733 miles from Wrigley Field and will play the Cubs in interleague play but the games will be in Seattle. The Bradley era in Chicago has finally come to an end and his name will not be mentioned as much in the Tribune and the Sun-Times so that is a good thing.

Jim Hendry the Cubs GM can finally breathe a sigh of relief after unloading Bradley who neither hit well or behaved well during the 2009 season. The departure of Bradley was an early Christmas present for Cubs fans.

Maybe playing with Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro Suzuki will be a positive influence on Bradley.

The Cubs received Carlos Silva who will be 31 in April in exchange for Bradley. Silva is 29-47 in his last four seasons with two of those seasons with the Twins and the last two with Seattle.

Silva is not a strikeout pitcher but has excellent control. He walked only 9 batters in 188 innings in 2005 which averaged out to 0.4 walks per nine innings that season.

In 2006 he gave up 246 hits in only 180 innings and led the AL in most homers allowed with 38. Silva has not done well in his two seasons with a combined record of 5-18 but his bank account did very well with him crying all the way to the bank to deposit $20.5 million for a total of five wins or $4 million a win.

Silva is an excellent fielding pitcher with only one error since 2004. He may compete to fill Ted Lilly’s spot in the rotation until he returns from an injury.