I'd rather have Bradley play CF than Kotsay.

lots of good relievers:
Linebrink
Meredith
Bell
Cameron

while trying to preserve trade value.

I don't see how DFA-ing him is conducive to making the best deal.

"an emotional guy who has had a lot of blowups.  Olney felt like Beane probably didn't want him on the team in the case where he isn't playing everyday or has to share playing time.  In other words, heading trouble off before it starts."

I was more right than I thought.
http://www.athleticsnation.com/comme...
Got rid of him to play Dan Johnson? Don't think so.

It was the bats of Milton Bradley and Frank Thomas that carried the A's into the postseason last year... and it was pretty much only the bat of Milton Bradley that made an appearance in the ALCS...

I'll preface this by saying that Milton Bradley was probably my favorite player on the team... Bradley, Kotsay and Swisher... and although I understand the overload of outfielders... It doesn't make sense to get rid of your best one (which he is when healthy)

Also... Just because he was on the DL 3 times... doesn't mean he will continue to get hurt all season... by this logic... Bobby Crosby should have been released last year.. and Rich Harden earlier this year...

And I know Bradley has a long history of injuries.. but I believe last year he played only about half of the first half of the season... and went onto playing a very key role down the stretch....

I hope it doesnt... but I honestly fear this moving coming back to haunt the A's in late August/September when the pitching is still strong and the A's are losing games 4-2... While Bradley is playing well for another team...

(and yes... that was my first post this entire season.... I'm slightly flustured that right when the hitters start to come back.... they are setback by the orginization (first Piazza... no Bradley)

... had anything to do with the Bradley DFA?

Perhaps the Bradley DFA (or a trade) has been in the works for a little while, and the Piazza story was floated to buy time to consummate whatever Bradley deal was underway.

<dies>

and AN to garner massive posts and hits on site during off day and jostle AN'ers out of interleague doldroms.

I think that is what was intended in this move. Bradley was going to be a FA, wasn't he? So why not look out for the future in Buck and Johnson.

Bradley doesn't deserve the type of writeup that appears on MLB.com (written by -- surprise, surprise, Urban)....and I would argue with Olney's assertion that Bradley was sure to be a problem down the line if he didn't play all the time.

There's been no problem with his attitude in Oakland, but with his health...and considering that he's certainly not the only player on the team that can't seem to stay healthy, I might also question the trades for talented players with health issues .. and then being surprised when they get hurt...as well as some of the training and medical assessments.

I'm sorry to see him go. He was THE MAN for the A's in the ALCS, and was important to the team both when he was playing as well as in the dugout.

I'm out of the country for a while, so haven't been following AN much (though my friends keep me up on some of the games).

Billy couldn't depend on Milton to keep himself healthy, and to be able to play every day.  What good is a sweet Porsche if it doesn't have any tires?

the only ANer who reads the CC Times, because if someone else does then I'm mystified why they didn't bring up today's article. In the 'notes' section of the paper it talked about how Bradley stormed out of the clubhouse and threw a couple plastic chairs around as he walked out. At first the article seemed to pin the outburst on a controversial call by the home plate umpire in yesterday's game but then goes on to say that Bradley and Beane had a "private" meeting before Bradley left.

Now, hearing this news of the DFA it's obvious that Bradley either threw the tantrum after he had the meeting and possibly heard the news that he would be DFAed, or could he have thrown the tantrum before the meeting, necessitating Beane to talk to him and ultimately tipping the scales towards Beane needing to take action. Is it possible that Bradley has been throwing fits behind closed doors all season?

I'm sure what happened in the clubhouse is directly related to the DFA and it'll be interesting to eventually learn the whole truth when it does come out.

I think it's obvious that it's not playing time that lead to Bradley being DFA'd.

1)The idea that you play DJ over Bradley is ludicrous.
2)Bradley blew up yesterday after talking to Beane.
3)Bradley loved Oakland and would have been a relatively easy resign next year.
4)Bradley carried the team in the playoffs last year.
5)Billy Beane is known for dumping players that piss him off.

The idea that Bradley was DFA's for reasons of playing time is imposable; in fact, the only reason that does make sense is that Bradley somehow pissed off Beane.

Now Beane will deny this until the cows come home because if he admits to this it lowers Bradley's trade value, so all Beane can do it try to sell the story that Bradley was DFA'd for personnel reasons and hope someone bites and throws a decent prospect/reliever his way.

It's probably little consolation, but if there is any GM in baseball that can come out ahead in a situation like this it's Billy.

I thought he made us a better team but the guy has rarely played and it's just business. Hopefully we get sothing decent for him as we all know he will go somewhere and be healthy and tear it up.

He's a talented player when he wants to be.

had Milton Bradley and Coco Crisp in the outfield?  Ah, those were days of innocence when funny names and 17 pints of beer were the only thing you needed to get through the day.  Those were the days...<falls off bar stool>

the meeting yesterday was about dfa-ing him.

The A's designated the outfielder for assignment on Thursday morning, a day after general manager Billy Beane met with Bradley to let him know that the transaction was coming. Bradley left the clubhouse upset, and he also had expressed dissatisfaction on Tuesday after not being activated when he felt he was ready to return from a calf injury.

link.

that a stewart and buck in the hand is worth more than a crabby, big mouth, potential blow-up in the bush.. or whatever.

but I was wondering why Bradley wasn't activated immediately on monday like he was last time, and why he was in the dugout on tuesday..  but I never expected this!

Bradley had a place in mye green and gold heart.

There was a good chance of more discontent in the future, with an increasingly crowded outfield in the offing. Chris Snelling is likely coming off the disabled list soon and he is out of options, while Bobby Kielty is also expected to be available by the end of the month. Bradley, who will be a free agent after this season, would have seen a decrease in playing time, according to a source, largely because most of the rest of the outfielders are part of the team's future, while Bradley was not.

Sounds to me like a down-the-road move at the expense of the current season.

i kinda want to go back and read the diaries posted when hudson and mulder were gone in the span of 72 hours!

I think he's after a salary and needed to dump some of his. (This would be a fast way to do that).

For the money MB is a commodity. Unlike Kotsay, Ken-doll, and the hoarde of other overpaids on our current roster.

A trade involving either MB or just a big name target for a run this year seems probable.

Just a thought, but I wonder if Beane could use the money saved to give signing bonuses to players like Gary Brown and Seth Blair to convince them to sign with the team.

is talking to someone named Jeffery Ma, and he says he know someone in the A's brass who was really frusterated with bradly a month a go.  

Before he went on the DL and was day to day, and they wanted to get him on the DL, but he would say, no, just needs a couple of days, and the a couple of days would go by and he wasn't ready to play..

ChiSox need a good character to re-vamp their team. Why not begin with someone who will have a fist fight with Ozzie Guillen?

Send us back Jermaine Dye... PLEASE BILLY!

We will even throw in a player to be named Jairo Garcia after we take someone from the DR and rename him.

but might this be the beginning of a "oh sh*t" trade? (croz? DJ? dare i say chavez?)

it doesn't add up............

even with MB maybe flippin' out BB, it just doesn't seem to be a "i'll show you who is boss" thing. i mean we are this close, so why would we be ditching a commodity like MB (even with the injuries) when we are getting close to being in the hunt?

also, the DJ > MB thing makes NO sense at all.......

I thought, "Uh oh.  Honeymoon's over."

But I didn't think the marriage would end so quickly.

Seems to me this could be the start of a big trade, with this episode being the reason to make parting with Bradley all the more easier.  But until I know more details of what's transpired, I dunno...this is a stunner.

That means one of two things:

1. He had to be removed from the team, like, NOW,

or

2. There was nobody else to remove from the 40-man roster to make space for Melillo. (I would have nominated Halsey, myself.)

the guy you get before he even finishes his deal?This just makes no sense at all. When the A's traded Andre Either to get MB they knew 4 things.

1. He is a talented player

2. He has a history of injuries

3. He can be a problem in the club house

4. His deal is up after 2008

MB has been true to form with #1 & #2 and # 4 was a given. But with #3 the A's have got more than they could have ever hoped for. So just what changed that makes them throw MB on the scrap pile 1/2 way through season 2? Saying he's not part of the future makes no sense. You knew you only had him under contract for two years when you made the deal. The crowded outfield argument is foolish as well. While Buck seems to be a future star and Cust has show he can get hot, neither are close to the player MB is RIGHT NOW. Bradley has proven to be a 290-300 type hitter who can man up when the pressue is on. Aren't we trying to win now? If not, why didn't we just hold on the Either in the first place?

I'm just really pissed at this move right now. It makes no sense to move your best offensive prospect for a guy that has pretty much given you everything (and more) you could have asked for out of him. If they wanted to trade him, then do that. But they way they have gone about this is straight bullshit. I really think this could be the turning point in our season. Sounds like Beane has been reading too many of his own press clippings.

Waiting is the hardest part.

I'm near-wetting myself to figure out who (or what) they may get out of a deal.  As soon as I saw the headline, my first thought was "they're gonna eat his salary, 'cuz who would deal for a guy who will likely be available after the deadline?"  But then the realization that probably everyone else had right away came to me:

"This isn't Jay Witasick we're talking about."

There's a halfway decent chance that someone will want to deal for Bradley's kind of talent before he hits the open market.  Again, obvious to everyone else.  I don't care if they get a Low-A 1st baseman for the guy (and with Billy behind the helm, I don't think they will), anything at this point will be better than the black hole he has been for the A's, excepting his admittedly galvanizing performance in the playoffs last season.

Hurry up, Billy.  I need to update my MLB 2K7 roster.

hello all... im a commenter at red reporter, and this story could very well not affect me at all. Or it could very much.

I'm floating around a theory and wanted to get a take on it. When I heard Piazza was being shifted back to catcher, i wondered if beane wasnt making a play at a full-time first baseman. after the bradley dfa and reading your comments, it seems the likely scenario.

i wonder if he doesnt have his eye on adam dunn. he's a TTO guy who likely would make beane salivate, and he would be a much better fit at first base than left field, given his defensive weaknesses. This could allow cust to DH most of the time, keeping swisher in left and kotsay and center. obviously i dont know as much about your team as you do, but it seems to me this would be a much better offensive team and slightly better defensively. Also, with several guys available to DH and play 1st, the lineup would be incredibly versatile.

My thoughts are that Bradley could be a half-year replacement for dunn in cincinnati, similar to royce clayton in the reds' worst trade of the decade last year.

Krivsky and Narron love them some catchers, and ours generally suck, so I would imagine kurt suzuki and a minor league relief arm or two would be involved as well.

A deal for dunn would likely involve restructuring his contract, too, since he's essentially in a walk year if he's traded. My theory is bradley's dfa gives beane time to hammer out a deal with dunn.

Like i said, i realize that most moves dont concern the reds at all, but i wondered about this a few days ago and now the pieces appear to be falling into place. Don't go too hard on me if i got something terribly wrong, though. Im pretty unfamiliar with you guys.

Also, great site. I cant believe how many comments you guys have posted today. This seems like a great baseball community.