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The Chicago Media Is Not Excited to See Milton Bradley

I will grant you that Milton Bradley has had his share of behavioral problems in the Major Leagues. Arguing otherwise would be futile and it would be stupid. Still, the reaction to the Cubs signing Bradley has been a bit excessive. Care to guess how many stories there are in the Chicago papers this morning that extensively discuss Bradley's problems before briefly (if at all) mentioning his career numbers? It's four in the Sun-Times (one, two, three, four), one in the Tribune, plus a blog comment section full of complaining readers and TWO (one, two) recaps of his "incidents."

OK, so there are plenty of people telling everyone what's bad about signing Milton Bradley, actually excessively so. But shouldn't someone be mentioning that since 2003, his worst OPS+ is 108? That while his last two seasons were injury-shortened, his OBP was above .400 in both years? That he's a pretty good fielding outfielder, especially in right field where the Cubs will use him? That holy effing crap, Kosuke Fukudome had a .649 OPS after June 15th and even if Bradley only plays 120 games, he improves a ton on that? I mean, that kind of thing is at least worth mentioning beyond a passing blurb about his career stats and maybe a mention that he made the All-Star team last year, right?

I understand that Bradley's not exactly a popular figure with the media (he chased down an opposing broadcaster last year and called an LA writer an "Uncle Tom" when he was with the Dodgers) but I know Cubs' fans aren't actually as upset about this as the coverage would lead you to believe (both our own Matt Snyder and Bleed Cubbie Blue offer various degrees of enthusiasm about the news. Would it kill the Sun-Times to mention that while he's a little crazy, he certainly knows how to hit a baseball and is a good fit for the Cubs?

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