Cubs Win, Gatorade Cooler Loses Again..Bradley Sent Home.
I'll make this brief, but wanted a place to discuss the latest in "As Milton's World Turns". First though, the Cubs won, they hit a 2-run home run and a 3-run home run. It's nice to know those haven't gone extinct. Jake Fox and Geovany Soto did the damage and no truth to the rumor that Soto was promised White Castle if he hit one out today.
Randy Wells got his second win on the year, two solo shots being the only marks against him. After 98 pitches and 7 innings, the increasingly baffling Lou went to Carlos Marmol and he predictably walked two of the first three hitters, gave up a couple of hits with some assistance from Soriano losing a ball in the sun (which I admittedly didn't see) and was mercifully pulled for Sean Marshall who got out of the jam by inducing the 3-2-3 double play by A.J. Pierzynski with the bases juiced.
The big story though will unfortunately be Milton Bradley. He struck out his first two times and then flew out to left and then apparently took out some frustration on a Gatorade cooler. Details are a bit sketchy now, but either Lou was already rethinking his change of mind of playing Bradley on Friday or Lou took exception to Bradley's freak out and the two exchanged words and Bradley was replaced by Ryan Freel in right field. Why Bradley freaking out is any different than Z or Dempster or any other player is beyond me, but I'm guessing there was some tension before this moment between the two. Or maybe Lou is standing up for the rights of Gatorade machines and coolers everywhere to dispense thirst-quenching beverages to athletes. Then to complicate matters, Bradley was spotted in street clothes leaving the game. It seems Lou told him to go home after the Gatorade thrashing, so at least he didn't walk out on his own, because we all know what Cubs fans think about that.
Hopefully this is much ado about nothing and Lou seems to have already decided to put in the past, suggesting Bradley could still play tomorrow(lefty happens to be on the mound). I do know that trouble seems to follow Bradley and some of that is his own doing and some of it is unfairly going after someone with a checkered past. As I mentioned, Z can punch out a catcher and take out a Gatorade machine and Lou gets the catcher traded and laughs at Z's freak out. Soriano is hitting worse over a 2-month period than anyone I've ever seen wear a Cub uniform, but Bradley is threatened with a benching. Then of course, Bradley can't buy an extra base hit when it counts to save his life and thinks the entire world is out to get him, when all they really want him to do is hit over .250 with a little pop.
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#1 Cubs sale update
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-cubs-sa...
Sources familiar with the matter said the parties have made "good
progress" recently in what have become protracted extended negotiations
to reach a definitive agreement on the sale of the Cubs, Wrigley Field
and Tribune Co.'s 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago. Talks
had hit a snag more than a month ago when the two sides could not agree
on some issues, including how to value the broadcast rights to the Cubs.
"We're closing the gap," said one source, who asked not to be
identified because the sales process is ongoing. "The attitudes are
much more positive."
A second source said, "I don't want to speculate why but momentum has picked up."
#2 Re: Cubs Win, Gatorade Cooler Loses Again..Bradley Sent ...
The game would have been even cooler had Lee proceeded to knock out Pierznisky as he headed towards first in the bottom of the 8th. Other than that, and the pitching of Marmol, it was pretty good. Our useless closer even managed a one-run save!
#3 Re: Quote...
"I told him to take his uniform off," Lou said. "He threw his helmet and smashed a water cooler, water flying all over. I just told him to take his uniform off and go home. I followed him up into the clubhouse, and we exchanged some words."
ruins my headline if it's a water cooler...
http://blogs.dailyherald.com/blog/18
Miles also repeats that good chance Bradley will start tomorrow.
#8 Re: Quote...
should have hit the "read more" link...
Apparently, the Cubs feel that Bradley is acting selfishly. GM Jim
Hendry talked with us in the runway after the game and said he wanted
players to be "all in."
I pressed him on that, and he said that "all in" means all for the
team. Some of Bradley's teammates also are beginning to wonder.
#10 Re: Quote...
That stuff flows both ways, though. Why is it that the team is 100% behind Soriano being the leagues worst regular, but not Bradley? No one likes to be treated unfairly at work. If Lou would come clean with Soriano, that would probably go some of the way towards getting Bradley back in line.
#11 Re: Quote...
my assumption is that the "selfishness" doesn't have much to do with slumps or how anyone is hitting, since all players go through them. I mean, you have to figure players are pretty sensitive to that.
I would guess there's more to this story that we can only theorize at the moment.
And I'm not sure what your cutoffs are for worst regular (and trust me, Soriano is a waste of space right now), but there are a dozen or so regulars with worst numbers in June, Fukudome would be one of them. A lot more if we want to go the full season. Maybe most overpaid...or biggest discprepancy between expected and actual results.
#12 Re: Quote...
Can my cutoff be last two months?
#13 Re: Quote...
Jimmy Rollins is gonna take him.
#15 Re: Quote...
Jimmy Rollins, former MVP award winner, got benched.
#17 Re: Quote...
further solidifying him as the worst regular over the last 2 months...
Francouer and Bonifacio also with worst OPS numbers since May 1st, no real easy way to search and I'm sure Soriano is near the bottom and probably giving the worst value of any player.
#19 Re: Quote...
Use Baseball Musing's Day by Day Database.
#20 Re: Quote...
Ok... looked it up. Unfortunately the database doesn't have OPS, but you can sort by OBP and SLUG individually.
Soriano hasn't been close to the worst regular since May 1st. Ok... maybe close, but there have been several who have been worse (minimum 100 plate appearances, which may have been too low of a cutoff). Starting with Jordan Schafer, Bill Hall, and Austin Kearns.
#22 Re: Quote...
well those last 3 aren't regulars, 200 PA's over 2 months would probably be the cutoff.
#24 Re: Quote...
Fair enough... 200 plate appearances wouldn't include many people though.
And Schafer was a regular for the entire month of May, before getting sent down.
Here is the list of players with 200+ plate appearances, sorted by SLUG.
Soriano has the 6th lowest SLUG and the 2nd lowest OBP.
#26 Re: Quote...
well yes, it wouldn't include a lot of players since anyone who's hit like Soriano over the last 2 months would normally have gotten benched long ago...with a few minor exceptions.
#36 Re: Quote...
Amen - I was told by MikeC a couple of weeks ago to crawl back under my rock for talking about how bad Soriano has been, and how big of a factor that has played in the struggles of the Cubs. I think MikeC has a man-crush on Soriano, because he has been stoutly defending his honor since then.
I would argue that no player has been more detrimental to his team than Soriano since Ramirez went down, factoring in both offense and defense. Jordan Schafer, Bill Hall and Kearns? Not much is expected of those turds...
#29 Re: Quote...
Yes, Rollins has been hitting like shit, but I expect he is still WAY more valuable than Soriano because of his glove.
#31 Re: Quote...
Except, of course, that Soriano's glove is also valuable.
#32 Re: Quote...
Rollins has what looks to be really bad BABIP luck in his 'favor'. Soriano just sucks.
#27 Re: Quote...
While poor performance might not be "selfish", I would say his lack of enthuism for playing defense is. You can count on him once a game totally misreading a fly ball or walking to pick up a ball that is in the gap.
#4 Re: Cubs Win, Gatorade Cooler Loses Again..Bradley Sent ...
It's just a shame that Michael Jackson isn't going to be around to take full advantage of the I-touch devices.
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=2...
#7 Re: Iphone app
think Cubnut posted that about a week ago...
I did notice that YES network is allowing people with a certain cable subscription to now watch in-market games on their computer which is nice if you're away from your TV. I assume that trend will catch on. Sucks if you have DirecTV though.
#5 Re: Cubs Win, Gatorade Cooler Loses Again..Bradley Sent ...
"Lou seems to have already decided to put in the past, suggesting Bradley could still play tomorrow"
good.
bradley is explosive, but tends to calm and collect himself "after the storm"...this is something lou should already know and be familiar with.
#6 Re: Cubs Win, Gatorade Cooler Loses Again..Bradley Sent ...
Hmm... this one kinda' sounds like it was on Lou. Not Bradley.
Don't get me wrong - Bradley got angry. Again. But lots of players get angry when they struggle. I actually like that Bradley gets angry when he struggles. It shows that he cares.
But Lou got pissed that Bradley got angry, got into a verbal altercation with him.
Like I said in parachat, Lou wouldn't have done anything (and never does do anything) when Zambrano does the same thing. Hell - when Lee was struggling in April, we say more than one emotional outburst after a strikeout or a pop-up.
And does anyone else find it incredibly ironic that Lou is complaining about players' temper tantrums?
#9 Re: Cubs Win, Gatorade Cooler Loses Again..Bradley Sent ...
Lou wouldn't clarify in the post game whether he was cracking down on Bradley's tantrums or team-wide tantrums. Hopefully he meant and does both.
#40 why Bradley?
The difference is that Bradley is a prick which makes his actions that much more amplified.
#14 Soriano piles on...
Alfonso Soriano said he'd never seen a player and manager fight the way Piniella and Bradley did.
"I hope he comes back and he can help the team to win," Soriano said of Bradley. "If he's not that way, we don't need him. We have 25 players, we have to be on the same page. If he's not 100 percent to help the team to win, we don't need him. If he's 100 percent and he comes and wants to play, he's more than welcome."
anyone else find it amusing that Soriano is calling someone out for not being a team player?
#16 Re: Soriano piles on...
That's a total joke. He needs to do a round with Zambrano and another round with a self perception therapist.
#43 Re: Soriano piles on...
Yes I thought that was an interesting comment as well. Maybe this puts a little pressure on Soriano to turn his 'mall walk' into (at least) a canter for the next ball in the corner.
Soriano v Bradley in a cage match. Hmmm. I would have to say that Bradley has the edge in this one ...
#18 Re: Cubs Win, Gatorade Cooler Loses Again..Bradley Sent ...
"We're closing the gap," said one source
---
how will this impact Banana Republic?
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