Meet Milton in St. Louie?
Milton Bradley went up to Lou's office this morning, and the verdict is that Lou isn't going to play his mercurial right fielder until Bradley and his strained right groin are up to it. Right now, that's not the case, so Micah Hoffpauir will be in right.
Bradley again declined to talk with reporters, but everybody with the Cubs from Lou to Jim Hendry to the media relations staff is encouraging him to do so. It's possible Milton will talk with writers in St. Louis tomorrow.
"I had a conversation with Milton; he's not 100 percent," Lou said. "When he's 100 percent, I'll put him out there to play. Until then, I'll use (Reed) Johnson, and I'll use Hoffpauir in the outfield."
You'd be hard-pressed to find any player who's ever "100 percent," and maybe that's a matter of semantics with Bradley. Although Lou seemed perturbed, he said he was not "over the edge" with Milton.
"Nothing's put me over the edge," Lou said. "I don't play people unless they are totally healthy. It's been my m.o. throughout my managerial career. With Milton, when he's ready to play, put him out there. I told him, basically, I'm going to take him out of the fourth hole when he gets back. I'm going to put him in the sixth hole, where he might be a little more comfortable...When I get him out there, I expect him to run hard and play hard the way he always has."
On talking with the media, Lou had this to say:
"Look, I think you can make it much easier on yourself communicating. That's basically up to the individual, but at the same time, you're in the public limelight, and people want to know what's going on."
Jeff Samardzija is here and ready for bullpen duty. Lou says he'll work the sixth and seventh innings. The Cubs designated reliever Luis Vizcaino for assignment. They'll have until the end of next week to trade or release him. Hendry might have had a few bites on Vizcaino from other teams last night.
The lineup:
Soriano, LF
Theriot, SS
Fukudome, CF
Lee, 1B
Ramirez, 3B
Hoffpauir, RF
Soto, C
Fontenot, 2B
Zambrano, P
What say you? Do you care if a player lets the public know what he's thinking through the media. I find Milton to be an interesting interview when he does talk. But it's up to him.
If Jackie Robinson could have returned and found out this goof Milton Bradley was wearing his number on Jackie Robinson day he would have ripped it off his back and told this punk to stop whinning like a little girl.Lou has to get rid of this boy who has a chip on his sholder before he infects the whole team and Lou looses control.
BUT.....
1. Bradley---well here we go. Pouting, trying too hard, and now breaking down and the season is only a few weeks old. Hendry better PRAY, and I mean PRAY that Reed Johnson doesn't get hurt and Fukudome doesn't morph back into his 2nd half of 08 self, or else this team is in some serious trouble. Can't say I voted against the move, but when your entire payroll was based around this one signing.....it better pan out.
2. Lee---The guy sucks at hitting. IT's that simple. He has lost whatever bat speed he has had, and everyone is all over him including the geniuses at ESPN. Why he continues to bat 3rd? Why? The best hitter on this team is......A-ram. So why not get him up to bat in the first inning? Lee still serves a purpose with his glove, but to expect anything more then .280 and HOPEFULLY 20 hrs is a stretch.
3. Bullpen---Horrible. Cotts is getting hammered, and we have no other lefty. This team could be in some real trouble considering the Cubs will be watching Zambrano and Harden's pitch counts like a hawk so they can maximize their contributions this year.
Not panicking by any stretch, but this team is NOT going to win 93 games. I can't see it. They'll still win the division or BETTER win the division with this payroll, roster, but unless guys VASTLY improve you have to be realistic and understand that this team has SOME serious holes.
Cheers to Fukudome. Before everyone slaps on those headbands and starts bowing to him again....lets wait until June or July and make sure this isn't the same 2-3 month spurt we saw last year. Lets wait to see what adjustments teams make and IF he can readjust back, which last year he showed he couldn't.
Not to insult a beat writer, but I really don't care if Bradley, or any player for that matter talks to the media. It shouldn't be news to any of us that when a player or team plays poorly, they're not happy about it. What do we expect them to say? Mr. Miles is the only Cubs beat writer I read anymore, and he should be complemented for his more even approach to things. The others just stir up stories, sending twitter messages about how many days it's been since Bradley talked to the press. I realize it's part of the job as a professional athlete to have the media in the locker room, and to be expected to talk to them at times, I just think they should have the right to say "I don't want to talk" without it becoming a story.
You make good points. Personally, I don't care if an athlete talks, either, as long as he or she is consistent about it.
Here is what is in MLB's rules and regulations about media relations: "It is very important to our game that ALL (MLB's emphasis, not mine) players are available to the media for reasonable periods, and it is the player's responsibility to cooperate."
If Milton Bradley or anybody else doesn't want to talk, that's fine. I've run across a number of players, even the more accessible ones, who ask for a "day off" and get it. And out of respect to those guys, we never even mentioned that so and so didn't want to talk.
I don't know what's bothering the guy. I'm sure he's upset at how the Sun-Times played that racism story. And I have no idea why he called the mlb.com reporter over for an interview. The Cubs are working to iron out a lot of things. Let's hope they do.
Don't see him on Red's 40 man roster. Saw where Eric Patterson, his brother and another ex Cub, didn't make the grade with Oakland.
Syracuse Chiefs. Batting .172, so likely the end of the road.
Also on that team...Freddie Bynum, Lastings Milledge (.118), Ryan Langerhans, Kip Wells.
http://syracuse.chiefs.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Corey%20Patterson...
to fold in Chi-town...abreu for 5 mil? Wait that would be too smart...we could have had Mitlon on an 3 year 15 million dollar deal last year...plus we wouldn't have 12 million a year tied up in Fuke. If Milton was so GOOD why didn't we try and sign him over Fuke last year!
I for one don't care if he talks to the media.
Be nice if he would take his suspension while he's not playing though...
Hallelujah! Lee out of the 3 hole. Bump him down another slot or 2
I agree! Wish Lou has Ramirez 4th and Lee 5th (of course, I'd rather have Lee 6th also).
......because I just read on the Tribune site that Theriot is going to lead off tonight, with Fukudome 2nd and Soriano batting 3rd ahead of Ramirez and Lee and Fontenot. Lou has decided to go with a defensive unit with Johnson in CF and Fukudome in RF. I don't agree with benching Hoffpauir after one poor game in the field, because he certainly hasn't been the only player who has struggled recently with the glove, but it looks like Lou at least recognizes that if he's going to take Hoffpauir's bat out of the lineup, he's going to need another power bat in the middle, so he's moving Soriano down.