September 21, 200916 yr From my Marlins blog, FishGuts. That post title isn’t entirely accurate because sometimes, he says things like “I’m Milton Bradley, you know what I’m saying.� And sometimes he also does really questionable things… But for the Marlins purposes, Bradley makes way too much sense for next season. He’s on his way out in Chicago, as they’ve suspended him for the season. Can’t see any way he won’t be traded, and the Cubs can’t get a ton back for him now that they have no leverage. Why shouldn’t the Marlins make a run at him? I mean, I know he’s a “malcontent� and all that, but I don’t think he’s as bad as his reputation. He obviously doesn’t handle his anger in stressful situations well, as shown with the bottle incident in LA in 2004 and with the ump in 2008 (who reportedly called him a “piece of shit�), but it’s not like he’s going after people for no reason. He’s created a self perpetuating cycle where people know they can get to him easily, so they try to get under his skin. I would guess he takes more sh*t than most players simply because he doesn’t handle it well. But playing in Landshark Stadium mitigates those types of circumstances at least somewhat. Not a lot of pressure here, no media types needling him, and no fans shouting whatever the Cubs fans were shouting (you have to assume there were more than a few racial slurs from everything I’ve heard about the bleachers at Wrigley). I think it makes a lot of sense for the Marlins to make a run at him. My perfect world scenario is bring him in and bring Nick Johnson back. That gives you 4 legitimate .375+ OBP guys in your lineup. In this scenario you are trading Uggla, Cantu and Hermida and getting the Cubs to cover most of his 2010 salary (though none of his 2011 salary, which creates some obvious potential problems down the road). Salary projection for 2010: C John Baker $415,000 (.770 OPS) 1B Nick Johnson $5,500,000 (.840) 2B Emilio Bonifacio $415,000 (.630) 3B Chris Coghlan $405,000 (.780) SS Hanley Ramirez $7,000,000 (.970) LF Milton Bradley $2,000,000 (.850) CF Cameron Maybin $405,000 (.750) RF Cody Ross $4,200,000 (.790) B Gaby Sanchez $415,000 B Wes Helms $950,000 B Ronny Paulino $880,000 B “Veteran 1B/LF Bat� $750,000 B De Aza/Jai/Raynor $405,000 SP Josh Johnson $5,500,000 SP Ricky Nolasco $4,250,000 SP Andrew Miller $2,000,000 SP Chris Volstad $415,000 SP Sean West $415,000 RP Matt Lindstrom $1,600,000 RP Reynel Pinto $850,000 RP Dan Meyer $415,000 RP Rick Vanden Hurk $415,000 RP Brian Sanches $415,000 RP Burke Badenhop $415,000 RP Tim Wood $405,000 $40,800,000 I don’t think any of those projections for the batters are unreasonable at all. That gives you a lineup with one major hole that can, conceivably be replaced in house if they want to take a chance with Gaby at 3rd and shift Coghlan to 2nd (unlikely). Otherwise, that looks like a pretty solid lineup top to bottom. I think you’ve got to expect that Milton and NJ are only going to get about 450 PAs a piece, so you basically need to hope BC can do a decent imitation of a starting major leaguer when Bradley goes down and hope the “Ross Gload� of 2010 can do the same. With one absolute rock (Hanley) and two pretty good players who load up on OBP at premium offensive positions (Bradley and NJ) and a bunch of average or better for their position guys (Bake, CC, Cody), you can take the chance with actually going defense first at 2nd with Boner. It might hurt your offense (Well, it will hurt your offense), but then you’re going to be above average defensively everywhere on the infield except 3rd, where CC is going to be at least average with the bat and with the potential for more of what we’re getting this season rather than the slight step back I expect. I like that team so much that we really don’t need to even worry about treading water next year. That could be a playoff team. And actually, now that I think about it, Logan Morrison is probably ready to be cool against RHP right now at the major league level. So you use him to spell Bradley and NJ 3 times a week against RHP (Bradley doesn’t hit RHP as well). You get his feet wet at this level and hey, if he breaks out and starts bombing people you’ve got fantastic injury insurance if Bradley or NJ goes down for an extended period of time. I’ve said it a couple of times already, but trying to buy low on Bradley and sending them some kind of package of B prospects makes so much sense for the Marlins that I’m going to be sad when he’s playing for, like, Philadelphia next year.
September 21, 200916 yr From my Marlins blog, FishGuts. That post title isn’t entirely accurate because sometimes, he says things like “I’m Milton Bradley, you know what I’m saying.� And sometimes he also does really questionable things… But for the Marlins purposes, Bradley makes way too much sense for next season. He’s on his way out in Chicago, as they’ve suspended him for the season. Can’t see any way he won’t be traded, and the Cubs can’t get a ton back for him now that they have no leverage. Why shouldn’t the Marlins make a run at him? I mean, I know he’s a “malcontent� and all that, but I don’t think he’s as bad as his reputation. He obviously doesn’t handle his anger in stressful situations well, as shown with the bottle incident in LA in 2004 and with the ump in 2008 (who reportedly called him a “piece of shit�), but it’s not like he’s going after people for no reason. He’s created a self perpetuating cycle where people know they can get to him easily, so they try to get under his skin. I would guess he takes more sh*t than most players simply because he doesn’t handle it well. But playing in Landshark Stadium mitigates those types of circumstances at least somewhat. Not a lot of pressure here, no media types needling him, and no fans shouting whatever the Cubs fans were shouting (you have to assume there were more than a few racial slurs from everything I’ve heard about the bleachers at Wrigley). I think it makes a lot of sense for the Marlins to make a run at him. My perfect world scenario is bring him in and bring Nick Johnson back. That gives you 4 legitimate .375+ OBP guys in your lineup. In this scenario you are trading Uggla, Cantu and Hermida and getting the Cubs to cover most of his 2010 salary (though none of his 2011 salary, which creates some obvious potential problems down the road). Salary projection for 2010: C John Baker $415,000 (.770 OPS) 1B Nick Johnson $5,500,000 (.840) 2B Emilio Bonifacio $415,000 (.630) 3B Chris Coghlan $405,000 (.780) SS Hanley Ramirez $7,000,000 (.970) LF Milton Bradley $2,000,000 (.850) CF Cameron Maybin $405,000 (.750) RF Cody Ross $4,200,000 (.790) B Gaby Sanchez $415,000 B Wes Helms $950,000 B Ronny Paulino $880,000 B “Veteran 1B/LF Bat� $750,000 B De Aza/Jai/Raynor $405,000 SP Josh Johnson $5,500,000 SP Ricky Nolasco $4,250,000 SP Andrew Miller $2,000,000 SP Chris Volstad $415,000 SP Sean West $415,000 RP Matt Lindstrom $1,600,000 RP Reynel Pinto $850,000 RP Dan Meyer $415,000 RP Rick Vanden Hurk $415,000 RP Brian Sanches $415,000 RP Burke Badenhop $415,000 RP Tim Wood $405,000 $40,800,000 I don’t think any of those projections for the batters are unreasonable at all. That gives you a lineup with one major hole that can, conceivably be replaced in house if they want to take a chance with Gaby at 3rd and shift Coghlan to 2nd (unlikely). Otherwise, that looks like a pretty solid lineup top to bottom. I think you’ve got to expect that Milton and NJ are only going to get about 450 PAs a piece, so you basically need to hope BC can do a decent imitation of a starting major leaguer when Bradley goes down and hope the “Ross Gload� of 2010 can do the same. With one absolute rock (Hanley) and two pretty good players who load up on OBP at premium offensive positions (Bradley and NJ) and a bunch of average or better for their position guys (Bake, CC, Cody), you can take the chance with actually going defense first at 2nd with Boner. It might hurt your offense (Well, it will hurt your offense), but then you’re going to be above average defensively everywhere on the infield except 3rd, where CC is going to be at least average with the bat and with the potential for more of what we’re getting this season rather than the slight step back I expect. I like that team so much that we really don’t need to even worry about treading water next year. That could be a playoff team. And actually, now that I think about it, Logan Morrison is probably ready to be cool against RHP right now at the major league level. So you use him to spell Bradley and NJ 3 times a week against RHP (Bradley doesn’t hit RHP as well). You get his feet wet at this level and hey, if he breaks out and starts bombing people you’ve got fantastic injury insurance if Bradley or NJ goes down for an extended period of time. I’ve said it a couple of times already, but trying to buy low on Bradley and sending them some kind of package of B prospects makes so much sense for the Marlins that I’m going to be sad when he’s playing for, like, Philadelphia next year. I can't see anyone taking a chance on this guy. But of course some one will pick him up(hopefully not us) and then he'll continue his antics and well... any fan of the game knows the rest.
September 21, 200916 yr Author I can't see anyone taking a chance on this guy. But of course some one will pick him up(hopefully not us) and then he'll continue his antics and well... any fan of the game knows the rest. Everyone always talks about his "antics". Ok, he talked too much sh*t in Chicago, and I'm not going to defend that (even though I don't think anything he said was factually inaccurate). Before that what were his antics? He went up to booth after the game and confronted a PBP guy who compared him to Josh Hamilton in Texas. Not really that big of a deal (certainly no worse than, say, demanding to be traded and saying you hate the ownership, like Hanley). An umpire called him a piece of sh*t in 2008 and he freaked out because, well, what the hell is an umpire doing saying things like that? He had every reason to react like that. Before that he essentially hadn't had an "incident" since 2004. And I think there is a certain amount of bias against him when it comes to the way he is covered, mostly because he keeps putting himself in bad situations. When the tip of his helmet brushed against the umps cap earlier this year, did that deserve a 2 game suspension? Would anyone else have gotten one? Of course not. I'm not defending a lot of the stuff he's done, but it's not like he's just picking fights with random people and getting into it with his teammates.
September 21, 200916 yr cant fight a fan in the stands in our stadium as cant fight what is often not there honestly he has a pretty large salary I believe so we would need to give up something useful in specs to pay off that type of cash most likely
September 21, 200916 yr One thing to keep in mind is we likely lose any draft pick compensation if we trade Jorge and acquire Bradley, since I'm assuming we wouldn't offer him arbitration even if we found a way to keep him for 2010-2011. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here. His lack of power worries me. The .821 career OPS is nothing spectacular for a left fielder, especially if he'd require a significant prospect package and/or significant dollars on a team which has very few. I suppose it's hard to tell exactly what the Cubs would want in return for him with either no salary relief or varying degrees of salary relief. If we could Cousins/Petersen + Tucker + Low minors spec, for example, and get 50% salary relief, then it might be interesting. Obviously his career OPS is 45 points lower than Cantu's, and Bradley had an absolutely monster season in 2008. And Bradley has a ton more OBP, which is good. But Bradley is going to be 32, and possibly on the downside of his career, while Cantu will be 28, and should be in his prime. I also would expect an 800 OPS out of Cantu if he can be healthy for an entire year. If we can get the Cubs to somehow eat a majority of his salary (over both seasons, I guess), then this excites me a lot more.
September 21, 200916 yr Author Cantu in my opinion doesn't have the ceiling Bradley does, and he's nowhere near the defensive player Bradley is. I also just love the dynamic of an offense that can say right off the bat "We're going to throw 4 guys with .375+ OBPs at you". That's so exciting to me (and kind of anti-marlins).
September 21, 200916 yr The users here make me laugh. Anytime some scrub gets cut or some trouble maker is out of a job we come here begging for them to join the Fish. I'd rather take Gary Sheffield's broken down bat and bad attitude over Bradley.
September 21, 200916 yr Author I'd like it if someone, anyone, would respond to my 2nd post about his "antics".
September 21, 200916 yr Cantu in my opinion doesn't have the ceiling Bradley does, and he's nowhere near the defensive player Bradley is. I also just love the dynamic of an offense that can say right off the bat "We're going to throw 4 guys with .375+ OBPs at you". That's so exciting to me (and kind of anti-marlins). are you serious??? cantu has played gold glove caliber defense at first and has played very admirably at third.....there is nothing negative to say about cantu's defense this year. on yop of that hes on pace again for 95 maybe 100 rbi if he has some big games. you can say no thanks to bradley and give that extra 2 million to cantu.....not to mention bradley still has 2 years left on a 30 million dollar contract. bonifacio in the everyday lineup.....we'll just go back to square one.
September 21, 200916 yr Cantu in my opinion doesn't have the ceiling Bradley does, and he's nowhere near the defensive player Bradley is. I also just love the dynamic of an offense that can say right off the bat "We're going to throw 4 guys with .375+ OBPs at you". That's so exciting to me (and kind of anti-marlins). I didn't know Bradley is a good defender, so that's a nice plus. I certainly agree that, all other things being equal, I'd rather have Bradley over Cantu. But obviously it's very dependent on the costs involved.
September 21, 200916 yr Author Cantu in my opinion doesn't have the ceiling Bradley does, and he's nowhere near the defensive player Bradley is. I also just love the dynamic of an offense that can say right off the bat "We're going to throw 4 guys with .375+ OBPs at you". That's so exciting to me (and kind of anti-marlins). are you serious??? cantu has played gold glove caliber defense at first and has played very admirably at third.....there is nothing negative to say about cantu's defense this year. on yop of that hes on pace again for 95 maybe 100 rbi if he has some big games. you can say no thanks to bradley and give that extra 2 million to cantu.....not to mention bradley still has 2 years left on a 30 million dollar contract. bonifacio in the everyday lineup.....we'll just go back to square one. Gold glove caliber first baseman =/= good defensive outfielder As for the rest of your post, you fail so laughably hard at reading comprehension.
September 21, 200916 yr I would take him in a heartbeat, especially if the Marlins could get Chicago to eat a large portion of his contract. He's still pretty young and is guaranteed to get on base. I wanted the Marlins to trade for Elijah Dukes too when he was causing all of that trouble in Tampa. I think many people overestimate or have the false notions of how these "cancers" actually affect teams. I'd also like to see Cantu depart. His bat and defense aren't good enough for his position and isn't worth the money the Marlins would be paying him. However, I'd be a bit concerned about the 2010's team power with Uggla and Cantu gone. The Marlins would be relying almost entirely on Hanley and Ross (assuming he even stays) to be driving in the high OBP guys. If Nick Johnson stays, I'd wonder how the lineup would play out. I would assume Coghlan-Johnson-Ramirez would be at the top of the order but it becomes questionable after that. I'm starting to think that the Marlins need to keep Uggla, possibly at the expense of Ross.
September 21, 200916 yr Author You can afford either Uggla or Johnson and Ross, in my opinion. In that type of scenario, it's a no brainer. Either way, I'm a really, really, really big fan of Nick Johnson being in a Marlins uniform next season. Of all of our arbitration eligible or free agent bats (more than Cantu, Ross, Uggla, or Hermida.), he's the one I want most.
September 21, 200916 yr Oh, believe me, I want Nick Johnson to stay as well. He's definitely my priority to stay as well. I hope it happens because Loria obviously likes him. I suppose another concern with dealing Uggla is that it increases the probability than Bonifacio receives more playing time. The Marlins would be setting themselves up to have Coghlan and Bonifacio playing in the infield. I wish the Marlins could at least be allowing Coghlan to be fielding some games at third this month or perhaps be giving Gaby Sanchez a bunch of ABs to see if he could hit at this level and possibly replace Bonifacio. I really wish the Marlins threw in the towel weeks ago and shut down Josh Johnson (and possibly Nolasco) and went to a rotation of West-Volstad-Miller-Vanden Hurk-Sanchez to test the waters for next year more thoroughly. I think a huge money hog will be paying Miller's contract, which I suppose will be unavoidable.
September 21, 200916 yr You can afford either Uggla or Johnson and Ross, in my opinion. In that type of scenario, it's a no brainer. Either way, I'm a really, really, really big fan of Nick Johnson being in a Marlins uniform next season. Of all of our arbitration eligible or free agent bats (more than Cantu, Ross, Uggla, or Hermida.), he's the one I want most. Value-wise? I'd say Uggla has the most value out of that group. Of course we could probably get more for Uggla via trade, but if we're picking just to keep the best player from the group, his name is Dan Uggla. I'd also keep Cody Ross over Nick Johnson, as well, considering the power he brings + his ability to play all 3 OF positions (although, this is less of a problem, if you're bringing in a Milton Bradley).
September 21, 200916 yr Oh, believe me, I want Nick Johnson to stay as well. He's definitely my priority to stay as well. I hope it happens because Loria obviously likes him. I suppose another concern with dealing Uggla is that it increases the probability than Bonifacio receives more playing time. The Marlins would be setting themselves up to have Coghlan and Bonifacio playing in the infield. I wish the Marlins could at least be allowing Coghlan to be fielding some games at third this month or perhaps be giving Gaby Sanchez a bunch of ABs to see if he could hit at this level and possibly replace Bonifacio. I really wish the Marlins threw in the towel weeks ago and shut down Josh Johnson (and possibly Nolasco) and went to a rotation of West-Volstad-Miller-Vanden Hurk-Sanchez to test the waters for next year more thoroughly. I think a huge money hog will be paying Miller's contract, which I suppose will be unavoidable. I'm thankful that hasn't happened.
September 21, 200916 yr Author You can afford either Uggla or Johnson and Ross, in my opinion. In that type of scenario, it's a no brainer. Either way, I'm a really, really, really big fan of Nick Johnson being in a Marlins uniform next season. Of all of our arbitration eligible or free agent bats (more than Cantu, Ross, Uggla, or Hermida.), he's the one I want most. Value-wise? I'd say Uggla has the most value out of that group. Of course we could probably get more for Uggla via trade, but if we're picking just to keep the best player from the group, his name is Dan Uggla. I'd also keep Cody Ross over Nick Johnson, as well, considering the power he brings + his ability to play all 3 OF positions (although, this is less of a problem, if you're bringing in a Milton Bradley). Nick Johnson's going to make probably 3 million less than Uggla will next season. I like his power for a 2B, obviously, but I think NJ is going to outperform him next year. You want to go with the guy at the defensive position who can hit, unless you're only in house options to replace either the 2nd baseman or the 3rd baseman (assuming the loss of NJ means we keep Cantu, and I think it has to). I'm not sure I'm explaining this well, let me try again. If we keep Uggla and lose NJ and Cantu (keeping Uggla severely limits what we can do): 1B Logan 2B Uggla SS Hanley 3B Boner LF Coghlan CF Cam RF Cody If we keep NJ and lose Cantu and Uggla: 1B NJ 2B Coghlan SS Hanley 3B Boner LF Logan (??) CF Cam RF Cody Since everything will come from in house to replace whoever we lose, you don't really gain anything by keeping Uggla over Johnson. If anything, you lose flexibility with payroll and you lose the potential to improve your infield defense (sticking Cogs at 3rd and Boner at 2nd probably improves the infield quite a bit). I don't see Gaby getting a chance to start next year, so Boner being back in the lineup is almost guaranteed. This is my concern, and why I'm very, very interesting in having a couple of OBP hogs in the lineup. Yeah, you lose the slugging, but I'm less concerned about that than I am about improving our overall production (or at least mitigating what are almost certainly going to be some steps back). We survived the loss of Jake's slugging.
September 21, 200916 yr Maybe he would do good here, because the pressure is about 10x less than Chicago, but I still wouldn't want that guy on my team. He not only has mental and emotional problems but also is the T.O of the MLB
September 21, 200916 yr Author Maybe he would do good here, because the pressure is about 10x less than Chicago, but I still wouldn't want that guy on my team. He not only has mental and emotional problems but also is the T.O of the MLB That's a really lazy comparison. He's black and has had problems before, that's about all him and TO have in common. Pretty vague similarities. TO calls teammates out in public, criticizes coaches regularly (Bradley hasn't ever done this, and really only criticized the fans in Chicago), and is a general clown. Bradley has anger issues. He seems more like a Randy Moss, and nobody mentions Randy Moss' behavior now that he's in an environment that puts him in better situations. I'd say he's the Kanye West of MLB (No filter between his mouth and brain, doesn't think before he acts, but when he is given a chance to think and explain himself generally comes off as a well meaning individual who just can't stop himself from acting on impulse), and I love me some Kanye West.
September 21, 200916 yr The only way the Cubs will be able to get rid of him is if they pay most of that contract. Some of the best managers in baseball haven't been able to fix this guy, so I don't think he's going to change.
September 21, 200916 yr Oh, believe me, I want Nick Johnson to stay as well. He's definitely my priority to stay as well. I hope it happens because Loria obviously likes him. I suppose another concern with dealing Uggla is that it increases the probability than Bonifacio receives more playing time. The Marlins would be setting themselves up to have Coghlan and Bonifacio playing in the infield. I wish the Marlins could at least be allowing Coghlan to be fielding some games at third this month or perhaps be giving Gaby Sanchez a bunch of ABs to see if he could hit at this level and possibly replace Bonifacio. I really wish the Marlins threw in the towel weeks ago and shut down Josh Johnson (and possibly Nolasco) and went to a rotation of West-Volstad-Miller-Vanden Hurk-Sanchez to test the waters for next year more thoroughly. I think a huge money hog will be paying Miller's contract, which I suppose will be unavoidable. I'm thankful that hasn't happened. Why? Johnson has shown signs of tiredness in his last couple of starts and is starting to tail off. If the Marlins are even remotely considering signing him to a long term deal, it is certainly wise to be cautious with his arm. The Marlins have been out of the race for weeks now. Their playoff hopes over that period have been entirely pegged upon 3-4 other teams tanking entirely so that the Marlins could gain ground by playing acceptable baseball. In order to qualify for the playoffs the Marlins would have realistically needed to win 20+ games this month alone. I believe the franchise record for wins in a month is something like 18 or 19 set by the 1997 club.
September 21, 200916 yr I think the hope is that the Marlins could dig up enough cash to pay both Uggla and Johnson. I realize that is highly unlikely but those are the two best players out of the lot containing Cantu, Ross, and Hermida. If the choice must be Uggla vs. Johnson and Ross, I would certainly take the latter option. There's no telling what the front office will do. There's also the problem with the rotation that could keep this team from competing next season. Unless Nolasco, West, Volstad, and Miller are trusted to step up their game, the front office might need to be shopping around for starting pitching. I personally don't have much confidence in Nolasco right now. Paying him and Miller a combined 6 million dollars next season has the potential to be devastating.
September 21, 200916 yr Milton Bradley is a dick. He left the Dodgers because apparently everyone was being racist towards him, and now he's up to his same bulls*** in Chicago. Hell no, this guy is a cancer.
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