...to be either confirmed or blown out of the water as details come forth... is that this has everything to do with Bradley's injuries and realistic playing time and nothing to do with Chavez or any other players.

I'm wondering if his little tirade yesterday helped himself out the door?

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...

"A's outfielder Milton Bradley had a mini outburst after Tuesday's batting practice.
On his way from the field to the clubhouse, he emphatically proclaimed his injured calf completely healed and showed frustration that he still isn't playing."

a trade couldn't be consummated without the DFA.

Too bad....move on.  Next.

knew there was something strange about geren quickly responding that swisher would not be spending more time at first base, now know why

the human resources gal in the A's front office.  
She has not had one break from the players' paperwork all season! I don't remember her name, she was on one of Robert Buan's preseason shows.

I hope she has a strong constitution, cause I'm sure her inbox will be overloaded in the next month or so. Not to mention the clubhouse manager Vusivich (sp?), his head must be spinning.  

What will my bobblehead be worth now? It isn't that badly damaged and shakes it's head at least once a month.....

Like Nico, I trust Billy ... just really sad to see Bradley go -- I thought the team was considerably better with him in the lineup.  I guess that's the thing though -- just couldn't stay in the lineup.
It'll be interesting to see what the "real reason" was.

I think Bradley did something very "anti-team" beyond just throwing the chairs.

Beane had a "private" conversation with him.  Then they DFA'ed him.  Throwing chairs is what you do when you cannot help your situation.

Beane never reveals all.  And won't, ten years later.   Nonetheless, someone will talk a little.  Then someone else, and a picture will emerge.

For right now, we just trust in Beane.  After all, do we know the operator on the rollercoaster before we get in? No but his "track record" says we trust him anyway.

A's vice president and general manager Billy Beane were to discuss the Bradley move in a conference call with reporters at 1 p.m. PT.

link

It's a little surprising, but I can't say I disagree.

And when it drops, we'll better understand.  

Intrigue abounds in this situation with pennant races sharpening toward the trading deadline, our suddenly over-crowded roster, the speedy development of several prospects, etc.  I suspect that MB went-off in some unfortunate direction that precip'd this move, but I bet it was coming, anyway.  

Time to sit back and chant the AN Motto as a mantra.

When he's healthy he's on of our best players.  So you're eating his contract when he's hurt but if you can't trade him you're going to have to eat it without the 30 games he might have helped the A's during the remainder of the season.

... and quadruple his salary.  Or give us Randy Winn so he can be closer to home in Dandyville.  

Personally, I thing Milton went Latrell Sprewell on someone.  Anger issues are a tough thing to harness for some people.  

Bradley went 0 for 3 with a walk. He took a called third strike in his final at-bat and appeared to have some heated words for home plate umpire Tim Timmons until Geren came out to pick up the discussion.

Bradley was still upset about something as he left the A's clubhouse after the game. As he climbed the stairs just outside the clubhouse, Bradley threw a couple of plastic chairs down the stairs and shouted expletives General Manager Billy Beane said he and Bradley had a discussion but described it as a "private thing."

"He wasn't that upset when he left (the meeting)," Beane said. "You just never know. We'll check on him (today)."

"Asked Tuesday how he was feeling, Bradley curtly responded, "I'm healthy and on the bench." Bradley was activated from the DL the following day and went 0-for-3 with a walk."

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/...

Just a little more from the usually hours-behind Oakland Tribune.

That teaches me to have a doctor's appointment on A's off days from now on.  

This is wild, wild news.  But at the same time, after ruminating on it for a while, I kind of disagree with Nico.  I'm guessing that this became something that Billy Beane couldn't have in the clubhouse anymore.  I would not be surprised if it all stemmed from the fact that Bradley felt ready to go a day earlier than the A's were going to put him in there.  I'm not sure how much behind the scenes stuff we're going to hear about it, but I would bet that it had a lot to do with the fact that Bradley felt he was ready and the A's didn't put him in.

Although I wouldn't call it a rash decision just because you have to protect the atmosphere in the clubhouse.  The A's have proven that they can win without Bradley.  Are they a better team with him on the field?  Definitely.  But the problem is that he's proven time and time again that he just can't stay healthy.  I mean ultimately the best scenario would've been to get him back into the lineup, have him prove that he can stay healthy and hit and then trade him, but it appears like they were past the point of no return.  That's what you do when you DFA someone.  You just need that problem gone and gone now.

That being said, I feel similarly in that I trust Billy.  He makes the right decisions for this franchise time in and time out and I have no doubts that getting rid of Milton will be the right thing.  I still like Snelling a lot and Cust is proving that he can make adjustments when major league pitchers try and pitch him differently.

What's in store for Bradley?  You have to wonder if anyone is willing to take a risk on a chronically injured guy who has serious anger issues.  I honestly felt like this was Milton's last chance.  But then again, I thought Baltimore was Sosa's last chance two years ago.  Bradley did give us quite a few good memories for his short time here, the biggest one being the home run off BJ Ryan last season.  But he was also unbelievably frustrating in the fact that he couldn't stay healthy (in a Rich Harden kind of way).

I suppose the one person feeling rather vindicated today would be Mychael Urban.

If it looks like the decision is personal and unfair, and Billy let his ego get the better of his judgment in order to DFA a guy who pissed him off personally, that's a plus in terms of trading him.

If Billy's move is purely rational, it means Bradley, in spite of his good numbers when he plays, is a net negative for the Athletics -- and that in turn suggests that he probably wouldn't be any good for another team either. On the other hand, if Billy is acting irrationally for personal reason, some other GM might reasonably think Bradley is worth picking up, and thus might make a decent deal for him.

Although Beane excels at evasion and misdirection, one rarely if ever sees him engage in outright deceit, so I don't think he's going to pretend an incident just to trick other GMs.  On the other hand, if rumor gets out that Beane is just being an egotistical ass about Bradley, he's probably not going to go out of his way to defend his name either, at least not for the next ten days.

I'm really surprised that ESPN isn't all over this.  They love guys who are perceived troublemakers like Pacman Jones, Rickey Williams and Ron Artest.  Milton would seem to fit right in there.  Yet yesterday they have splash all over the place about frickin' Curt Schilling on the DL.  

Milton was DFA-ed to make room for Jason Kendall in the outfield.

LF Kendall
C Piazza/Suzuki

I might require expensive therapy if that were ever our lineup for more than one game.

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.

"He wasn't going to be happy playing a couple of times a week," a team source said.

link

Other than injury problems Milton has never received criticism around AN.  Everyone was eager to comment about how he was a model citizen until today.  I can't believe how quickly everyone changes their mind about a guy plus chalk up BB's decision as a great one.  Totally unbelievable.

Where were all these statements before the DFA?

being GM in Oakland than in Boston.  Exhibit A.

now, this isn't the best measure of value, but he was owned in only 0.3% of MLB leagues in ESPN fantasy baseball.  That shows that either:
a) the vast majority don't believe he'll ever be healthy enough to play a lot of games and/or
b) nobody thinks he's good enough to waste a roster spot waiting for him to heal.  

Just another point of view.

I was waiting til he gets hot and then put them on ebay.  Oh well.