Posted by David Wade on Monday, September 21, 2009 at 3:06 pm

Chicago Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry suspended Milton Bradley for the rest of the season this past weekend for remarks he made to the Daily Herald’s Bruce Miles in a short interview while the Cubs were continuing to stumble through their 2009 campaign at a series in St. Louis.  As upsetting as Bradley’s attitude in that piece was to Cubs management, the suspension was probably more due to a culmination of events than just this latest flareup.  Bradley has already argued with his manager and criticized fans earlier in the season, so this latest episode appears to have just been the tipping point in an already precariously balanced bucket of gasoline.  This latest incident all but guarantees the Cubs will go into 2010 without Bradley.

Of course, controversy has always surrounded the easily ignitable Bradley, much in the way that smoke always surrounds fire.  Perhaps that is why Bradley’s manager and teammates basically stopped covering for him after management announced his suspension.  When your peers, more understanding by far of the pressures and scrutiny of your profession than anyone, cannot come to your defense it is a pretty harsh indictment.   

From what I have heard and read, Cubs fans are somewhat divided in their reaction to Bradley’s suspension.  Many despise the perceived malcontent and are all too eager to place the burden of an underachieving season on his shoulders.  However, some realize that this latest dust-up only lowers Bradley’s already plummeting trade value and puts the Cubs even further away from solving their offensive problems heading into 2010.  For, while Bradley did not set the world afire in 2009, it appears that his looming departure will leave a void in the middle of the lineup for an organization that has given no clear indication that there will be money to spend this off-season and that holds several bad contracts already.

Personally, I can’t say for sure all the blame for the Cubs’ disappointing season is on Bradley.  I also can’t say for sure that he hasn’t heard some god-awful things emanating from the bleachers.  But, I can say that many people questioned his signing when it happened almost a year ago.  I (as well as nearly everyone else that’s ever watched baseball for about the past ten years) felt Bradley would likely never play an entire season due to his injury history.  I did tend to gloss over his troubled past, although I was certainly aware of it.  That admission aside, the clear vision provided by hindsight means we can safely say now that it was a horrible decision by Hendry and the Cubs to sign Bradley following his career year in Texas and placing his erratic disposition right in the middle of a ballclub with such high expectations. 

The ‘lovable loser’ label has long since worn off the Cubs’ jerseys.  Fans at Wrigley have turned into demanding customers now that Chicago enters every season with a legitimate chance at a playoff berth.  No longer will they drink their way through losing season after losing season to wait for a once-in-20-year run at the playoffs.  They have gotten a taste of winning and with the next fix slow to come, they are turning nasty. 

Of course, all that means is that Cub fans act just like the majority of fans for the majority of professional sports teams.  Consequently, they’ll boo a player.  Especially if he appears disinterested during at-bats, throws balls into the stands with a runner on after recording only the second out of an inning, or throws the entire organization and its fans under the bus for his own unimpressive season when no one asks him about it in the first place.

How did Chicago paint itself in this corner?

Quite simply, Jim Hendry overreacted to the season-ending sweep at the hands of the Dodgers last October.  In a vacuum, the Mark DeRosa trade doesn’t look horrible, given his decline from his past couple of seasons.  However, the lust for a left-handed hitter and what now clearly seems a knee-jerk reaction to 2008’s playoff debacle, led to the front office hoping against hope that Milton Bradley would somehow not be what he has been his whole career and instead be a healthy offensive force for three years that would tow the company line.  

They didn’t really play the odds on that one. 

In the past, some teams have enjoyed his above-average bat for a while, but he has never had sustained success.  Whether it’s injuries or suspensions, he has not been on the field consistently.  What he has done consistently is get in fights, wreck clubhouses, and pout when things don’t go his way.

Hendry may have felt forced to suspend Bradley, but this is not an end to the problem by any means.    Frighteningly, he once again heads into the 2009 off-season in search of a left-handed-hitting right fielder- this time with potentially very little money to spend.  Think of past off-seasons when the Cubs were flush with money- those spawned Jeromy Burnitz and Jacque Jones.  This winter, the uncertainty surrounding the payroll could mean Garrret Anderson in 2010. 

If that doesn’t scare Cub fans, nothing will.