Milton Bradley

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

DFAed by the A's (he had a clubhouse thingy recently but not a bad one, peeps say).

Details:
http://tinyurl.com/336dc5

[Gwreck]

Acquire him NOW!!!

IIRC, it typically takes Bradley a little while in a new place before he goes completely nuts. Decent chance to take for the rest of the year.

On the crazy scale, I think he is somewhere crazier than Jose Guillen but not quite as crazy as Carl Everett.

[Guest Edgy DC]

If they move him for a catcher, they can try and pass Cust off in left and keep Piazza on the bench.

[metsmarathon]

i'd make a play for him.

[Guest Edgy DC]

What's your play?

Send 'em Castro and pitcher?

[metirish]

I'd do it,good bat and decent glove....didn't he play for the Omar in Montreal?

[metirish]

His wiki page needs updating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Bradley

[Guest sharpie]

Omar traded him away.

[metsmarathon]

well, im not sure what their needs are over in oakland. i'd be mostly interested in putting in a waiver claim on him, and if that doesn't work out, then oh well.

i'm not sure that castro is what oakland needs, seeing as they have kendall and piazza there already. perhaps an outfielder, but i don't think i'd send a good one. heh, maybe ledee...

castro + unnamed pitcher sounds high for me, unless said pitcher was scott scheoneweiss

on the whole, i don't know if we have a good match on what to send back, only that i'd entertain discussion on the matter.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Jason Kendall has been filling no needs this summer, and, if you think about where the A's are when they're ready to change the plan in asking Mike Piazza to come back from the DL and strap his equipment back on, I think catching is a need.

[metsmarathon]

good points. still, the plus a pitcher is a bit steep, i think.

[seawolf17]

metirish wrote: His wiki page needs updating. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Bradley

Considering that page says he died in 1911, I don't think he's a fit for the Mets right now. Sure, he's still younger than Julio Franco, but I don't see how he helps us otherwise.

[Guest vtmet]

seawolf17 wrote: ="metirish"]His wiki page needs updating. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Bradley Considering that page says he died in 1911, I don't think he's a fit for the Mets right now. Sure, he's still younger than Julio Franco, but I don't see how he helps us otherwise.

They used the wrong Milton Bradley link at wikipedia, that's the game maker, the ballplayer's link is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Bradley_%28baseball_player%29

[metirish]

Dude like thanks man....

[Guest cleonjones11]

We already have Milton Bradley...his name is Lastings Milledge.

If Castro is traded do you really want Mike Defelice up?

[Guest vtmet]

cleonjones11 wrote: We already have Milton Bradley...his name is Lastings Milledge. If Castro is traded do you really want Mike Defelice up?

I'd trade LoDuca long before I traded Castro...I'm not real crazy about LoDuca's pitch calling, and not real crazy about a singles hitter that can't run, walk, score or drive in runs...being able to "move Reyes over" is not that great of an accomplishment, IMO...a catcher's main purpose is to handle the pitching staff, and I haven't exactly been impressed lately...

Kendall is under achieving this season in his walk year...Schoeneweiss is not doing so well...Rumor has it that Beane likes Heilman...Mets pitchers are doing lousy, despite Loduca's hitting...A's pitchers are doing well, despite Kendall's hitting...WATP: LoDuca; Heilman and Schoeneweiss for Bradley, Kendall and a pitcher (don't know enough about the A's non-top pitchers to come up with a name)...

[Guest Edgy DC]

A lot of things here.

1. I'm not advocating trading Castro. I'm trying to suss out what those who want to acquire Bradley are willing to offer and what they think it'll take.
2. If, by trade or injury, Castro became unavailable, I'd hope the team would call up Sandy Alomar, Jr., and not Mike DiFelice.
3. I don't think it's accurate to describe Paul Lo Duca as a singles hitter.
4. The notion that Lo Duca "can't run, walk, score or drive in runs" is
   1. mostly untrue,
   2. partially redundant, and
   3. to the extent that it is slightly true, in no way distinguishing him from Castro.
5. not being impressed "lately" by the pitching staff is hardly a fair way to judge Lo Duca's performance.

[Guest vtmet]

"Singles" hitter is an exageration, but is their a more accurate term for a guy that hits almost .300 but has a slugging percentage of .370? And how is Castro different? His slugging percentage is .459, which is .113 points higher than his batting average...and he's got 13 RBI in only 61 at bats, vs LoDuca only having 19 RBI in 227 at bats...

And in leau(?) of the Marty Barrett trade, why isn't a catcher accountable for a total breakdown of his pitching staff at the same time?

[Guest Edgy DC]

vtmet wrote: "Singles" hitter is an exageration, but is their a more accurate term for a guy that hits almost .300 but has a slugging percentage of .370?

Yes, particularly since he had 39 doubles in only 124 games last year.

vtmet wrote: And how is Castro different? His slugging percentage is .459, which is .113 points higher than his batting average...and he's got 13 RBI in only 61 at bats, vs Lo Duca only having 19 RBI in 227 at bats...

I'm familiar with those numbers. I'm referring to the notion that Lo Duca "can't run, walk, score or drive in runs" when he is clearly better than Castro at running and walking.

vtmet wrote: And in leau(?) of the Marty Barrett trade, why isn't a catcher accountable for a total breakdown of his pitching staff at the same time?

Nothing has "totally broken down" and any blame that reflects on him for the last three or four weeks should be taken with the credit reflected on him for the season up until then.

Both offensively and defensively, you're working with an unfairly narrow data set. I've argued and will likely argue again for a wider role for Castro, but give Lo Duca a break.

[Guest iramets]

Edgy DC wrote: any blame that reflects on him for the last three or four weeks should be taken with the credit reflected on him for the season up until then.

Here's the true crux of this endless dispute:

1) Who gets the credit for a pitching staff performing well above (or well below) average? The pitchers themselves? The pitching coach/resident genius, for teaching them how to pitch? The manager, for slotting them into games and/or roles with consummate intelligence? The GM, for assembling the staff? The starting catcher, for calling brilliant pitches? The backup catcher, for bring down the ERA of the staff despite that dumbass starting catcher? Jesus Christ? (I just always wanted to thank Him for something.) The point is that any of these figures, including Jesus, could be doing a piss-poor job, but in the context of the others doing above average jobs (or even one doing a great job if that one is actually the one responsible, which we don't know) Mr. Piss-poor will get the credit from some observers for causing a great performance.

and to lesser degree,

2) What constitutes a meaningful sample? When samples get beyond meaningful, they're often no longer relevant. I.e., if you were trying to argue that A's should make Mike Piazza their starting catcher today, his BA and his percentage of runners thrown out in 1997 are as relevant as his bride's cup-size, so there's such a thing as "True, but irrelevant" or "actually destructive to a logical discussion." (This goes back to my earlier point about the arbitrariness of deciding cutoff points for "relevance" and "irrelevance." If you're arguing for victory, and not in open-minded pursuit of the truth, then your decision to label certain facts "irrelevant" may suit your argument's convenience rather than logic or reason.) So you could easily have stats cherrypicked to demonstrate that LoDuca now sucks (the Mets' W-L record and ERA over the last two weeks) or that he's a fabulous catcher (same stats for last year). Is last season going far enough back? If we look at Lo Duca's staff ERAs for three or four years running, or his whole career, does that tell us more relevant information or less relevant information about his catching abilities this morning?

[metirish]

Instead of Bradley I'd like to see Omar trade for Nady,Pirates are going nowhere,and we know he's a good fit.

Nady is a FA after the season.

[Guest iramets]

metirish wrote: Instead of Bradley I'd like to see Omar trade for Nady,Pirates are going nowhere,and we know he's a good fit. Nady is a FA after the season.

You giving them back Perez and a reliever? Or do you want them to admit publicly that they're taking it up the ass?

[Guest Edgy DC]

All that is pretty much true, but, in (1), there is a logical nail to hang your coat on. I don't know who among your suspects gets the blame for the staff's struggles in recent weeks. We can all blame the person we're predisposed to blame. The truth remains that the blame must be apportioned among the suspects (including Jesus), but even then our prejudices will influence the ratios of the portions.

but

It remains that if a guy argues that Lo Duca's got the recent failures of the staff hanging over him --- whether I agree with it or not --- the guy's got to logically credit Lo Duca for the staff's longer success.

On (2), I don't know what constitutes a meaningful sample. Obviously, there is a lot of relativism between relevant and irrelevant, where most arguments occur. But I know that last year is more meaningful than 1997*, and that four weeks doesn't unmake a decade-long career's body of work --- especially regarding something as sublimated (and controversial right down to it's very existence) as the effect of a catcher on his pitching staff.

*Although, even that can be deceptive. Clearly, last year (2005) didn't matter much to Jose Valentin in 2006 because he was injured in 2005. But it did matter in a hard-to-measure way regarding his likeliness to be injured again.

[metirish]

I'd give them Heilman straight up,then he can be a starting pitcher again.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

I really hate the thought of considering it, but if we're talking stopgaps, Bernie Williams really didn't have a bad season last year.

[duan]

I'm not going to condone any of Milton's actions, having said that, if you could get to talk to him, sit him down (and I get the sense that Willie & Carlos Delgado are the kinda guys who are good at this stuff) and say
Listen here fella, this is a hell of a career that you're prepared to throw away. New York's the biggest stage in the world and if you're prepared to come here, keep your nose out of trouble and work hard you'll be great, if you don't the media will make your life hell - are you up for the challenge?

I'd have him over Green/Chavez in a heartbeat.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Something's wrong. Paul Lo Duca just drove in a run.

[Elster88]

Can we please just keep that asshole off our team? I like the guys on our team. Except Mota.

[seawolf17]

And Milton Bradley is now a Royal, so I s'pose this is all for nothing.

[Gwreck]

Not so fast. Bradley-to-Royals deal Voided