Suppan for Bradley?

[Weirdos19]

Just a crazy idea. Thinking the Cubs would jump at saving a little dough. Bradley would definitley be motivated to make the Cubs and their fans eat crow. A switch hitter behind Prince next year would be great too. We could get a great hitter for our lineup, cheap!

[dadofandrew]

I've seen a lot of dumber ideas. Probably not an option because they will not talk to each other, but it makes some sense on paper...if Hart can play CF, or Cameron is kept and Hart is shopped, of course.

[JoeHova]

Jeff Suppan has about $17.5 million left on his contract. Bradley has about $22 million left on his. Suppan is a sunk cost at this point, being replacement level at best. Bradley for 2 years and only $4.5 million would be a steal. For that same reason, I doubt the Cubs would got for it, but it would be worth a try. Bradley's having a down year, but he's still been about average overall. Even if he doesn't rebound to his 2007-2008 level he would be a great fit in Milwaukee and give them another big on-base guy to go with Prince.

[Weirdos19]

He hates it in Chicago, saying recently that he roots for 9 inning games so he can go home. He would be extra motivated to perform well here in Milwaukee. The essential "buy low" example.

[craigharmann]

So....the unknown about Soup is when he's actually going to have a good outing.....the unknown about Meltdown is when he will go Meltdown.....worth the gamble, in my eyes.

[paul253]

How soon before he turns on the fans in Milwaukee though?

[jackalope02ca]

I never understand why guys like Bradley are even signed by major league teams at his stage of his career. He is a cancer and not worth the effort. Sure he has talent but it's not like he's had just one meltdown over his career. This would be a terrible move. He'd be whining and disrupting the team within a week.

[Never Outhustled]

This is a very intriguing idea Wierdos. With Harden's impending free agency, the Cubs could use an extra starter. I would think they would do just about anything at this point to get Bradley of the books. It makes sense for both teams, and Melvin isn't averse to that silliness that says you can't trade within your division. If a trade helps your club, how can you turn that down?

 

I think Macha is OK with Bradley. He managed him parts of 2 years in Oakland, and I don't remember him having any major incidents their.

[Invader3K]

At least Prince and others would probably put Bradley in line pretty quickly if he became disruptive at all.

 

I do not like Bradley, but it's hard to think he wouldn't contribute more to the Brewers than Suppan at this point.

[dlk9s]

I want Milton Bradley on the Brewers almost as much as I wanted Michael Vick on the Packers.

 

http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/6564/imagesdonotwant741689ci1.jpg

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

Just don't see how Bradley and Vick are even remotely analogous. Check the "controversies" section at the bottom of his wikipedia page. There's the thing with the umpire when he was with San Diego (which led to MLB disciplinary action against the umpire) and an attempted confrontation with a Kansas City TV announcer. My reaction was "That's it? What fiendishly heinous and vile acts am I missing that make this guy the devil?"

 

Nothing he's said this year about Cub fans in the bleachers or the Chicago sports media struck me as out of line, at least in the sense that it seems plausible enough that all of it is true. He might be professionally unwise for saying it, but I doubt he's making any of that stuff up.

 

He's got a temper and a chip on his shoulder. So does Prince. Only differences between the two of them are that Bradley makes the media aware of his disdain for them (to his credit, I have no idea how Prince feels about the media) and the chip on Bradley's shoulder is large enough that it might actually qualify as a full-blown persecution complex. If I'm honest, the former difference just makes me a Bradley fan, the latter just makes him a sorta interesting and sad character study.

 

Besides, I think I'm willing to live with the aforementioned quirks for a guy who has a RoS ZiPS projected line of .276 / .394 / .471 and defense at least in the neighborhood of average in RF.

[dadofandrew]

Joe, Soup is owed $14.5M, and Bradley $21M, that's after this year.

[mothershipconnection]

Suppan is a sunk cost at this point, being replacement level at best. Bradley for 2 years and only $4.5 million would be a steal

 

While he is a sunk cost, he's still probably worth $4MM of that. If he were a free agent, that's the most I'd be OK with the Brewers paying him to be a #5, and that's what they may need to pay to replace him this winter if he were traded. As Suppan is owed $12.5MM and a $2MM buyout, I'd say there's $10.5MM of wasted money there.

 

Bradley is owed $9MM in '10 and $12MM in '11, so if we deduct the "wasted" money for Suppan, that'd be $11MM for two years of Bradley. In a vacuum, I'd be glad to pay this for his performance level, but we have to consider his injury risk and propensity to create chaos wherever he goes. If we got the 2008 Bradley, that a good move. If we get the 75, 96, or 61 games he managed to play the previous 3 years, he doesn't look so attractive.

[Oldcity]

While he is a sunk cost, he's still probably worth $4MM of that.

 

I understand the reasoning, but what evidence is there that Suppan is likely to be worth 4 mil next year? He's had negative value each of the last two seasons.

[RockCoCougars]

I'd trade Suppan for pretty much anybody who's contract is up next year. That said, I don't think anyone would be foolish enough to trade for him.

[craigharmann]

Hey, St. Louis took a flyer on Smoltz, who looked to be completely washed up. Some genius pitching coach will look at Soup and think they can make something out of him....

[trwi7]

I'd take this trade in a second. Even in his "terrible" year this year, he's been better than Hart and like Stevo said, Suppan has been below replacement level the past two years.

[JoeHova]

Joe, Soup is owed $14.5M, and Bradley $21M, that's after this year.

I was including the rest of this year.