FanHouse Milton Bradley

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.

Considering the Cubs were probably the most disappointing team in baseball in 2009, they definitely have their work cut out for them this offseason in order to return to being a legitimate contender. I guess Cubs fans should take solace in the fact that a winning season was considered a colossal failure -- after all, they have had a winning record in three consecutive seasons for the first time since the Nixon administration now. It's simply a sign that the bar has been raised in Wrigleyville. No longer content to play "lovable losers," Lou Piniella's Cubs are determined to win it all. New owner and lifelong Cubs fan Tom Ricketts has guaranteed the Cubs will win a World Series under his watch.

After altering the best Cubs team since 1945, general manager Jim Hendry has to find a way to get some of that magic back in 2010. He'll have to start by unloading one of the biggest mistakes of his career.

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Year in and year out the Texas Rangers are one of the best offenses in baseball, routinely finishing among the league leaders in runs scored and home runs. While the players have come and gone through the door, the one constant has always been hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo.

Jaramillo has spent the last 15 seasons with the Rangers and helped mold young players into batting champions and MVPs, but after a down season for the Rangers offensively, it seems both Jaramillo and the Rangers have decided to make a change. After receiving a one-year offer from the Rangers to return in 2010, Jaramillo has decided he's going to end his time in Arlington and test the open market.

While we're far from trading season -- the Red Sox and Angels haven't even started their ALDS -- winds are swirling in the Windy City because of the presence of resident albatross Milton Bradley. Bradley signed a three-year contract worth $30 million this past offseason with the Cubs and did everything he could during the regular season to make general manager Jim Hendry realize the signing was the biggest mistake of his tenure. Thus, the Cubs aren't exactly being secretive about their desire to trade him as soon as is humanly possible.

Might they look to another outfielder who has quickly fallen out of favor with his team after signing a lucrative deal? The Tampa Bay Rays have shown interest in Bradley in the past, and they could look to deal Pat Burrell after his disastrous 2009 season.

Earlier this season the Chicago Cubs offense was struggling and Milton Bradley was not getting along with hitting coach Gerald Perry. So after considering that Bradley was making a significantly larger chunk of cash than Perry was, the team decided to relieve Perry of his duties and called up Von Joshua from their Triple-A affiliate in Iowa to replace him.

Now Joshua didn't do much to salvage Bradley's season in Chicago, but after taking over the job the Cubs did improve from 14th in batting average to sixth in the Majors, and also went from 15th to sixth in runs scored. So as a way of thanking Joshua for the improvements the team announced on Monday they won't be bringing him back next season.

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's weekly look at some aspect of America's pastime.

Instead of handing our hardware to Joe Girardi, Joe Torre, Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, Zack Greinke and Chris Carpenter (yes, those would be my votes), I thought we'd mix it up a bit. Plus, being a Cubs fan, I'm plenty filled with negativity at this time of the year -- which, really, is normal. So these are the Bizarro World Awards. The Suck Awards, if you will. The envelopes, please ...

The Milton Bradley saga in Chicago seems to be over. On Wednesday afternoon it was announced that the two sides had struck a deal. Bradley will serve his suspension for the rest of the season, but the Cubs have to pay him the remainder of his 2009 salary and try to trade him this offseason. Still, that doesn't settle all the scores in Chicago. There's still the issue of the millions of Cubs fans who are angry with Bradley for his performance there both on and off the field.

So, in a rather surprising move, Bradley attempted to extend an olive branch to the Bleacher Bums he's been so critical of this season, and who have been just as critical of him. Through his agents Bradley released an apology to Cubs fans everywhere on Wednesday.

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Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

On the day Milton Bradley began serving a team-mandated, season-ending suspension, former Cubs fan favorite Mark DeRosa suited up for the Cubs rival. He's been doing so since coming over in a trade from Cleveland. This past offseason, the Cubs moved DeRosa to the Indians as part of a concerted effort to free up payroll. The target: Bradley.

Thus, it was only fitting the chain of decisions were further cemented as awful when DeRosa hit two home runs and drove in four runs Monday night.

Everyone is out to get Milton Bradley. First it was the umpires, then it was Lou Piniella (or was it Lou, then the umpires? I can't remember). Now, the Chicago Cubs have sent Milton home for the rest of the season just for going to the media and talking about how much he hates the Chicago Cubs, people who like the Chicago Cubs, Chicago, bears, and humanity. When is this guy going to catch a break?

Tonight's Dugout gives you a sneak peek at what to expect when Bradley takes this issue to a higher power than Steve Bartman and his Mystery Goat, or whoever is in charge in Chicago.

OAKLAND -- There may be only one manager whose time with Milton Bradley started and ended on a happy note, and he'd take him back.

Rangers manager Ron Washington endorsed Bradley, even in the wake of his latest problems.

"I wouldn't hesitate to get him," Washington said.

Bradley's tenure with the Cubs is likely over after the team suspended him for the final two weeks of the season because of a pattern of problems with the fans and the media.

CHICAGO -- The simplest approach would be to dismiss Milton Bradley as a worthless, miserable, psychotic, no-good jerk who somehow would sour the happy vibes at a Boy Scouts meeting, all of which is inarguably true. But the bigger problem in Cubdom, which is experiencing a more acute depression than usual in its 101st consecutive season without a World Series title, is the brainiac who signed him last winter.

That would be Jim Hendry, the general manager. Once so driven by his job that he signed pitcher Ted Lilly to a $40 million contract while in his hospital bed following a heart procedure, Hendry overthought himself on Bradley to the point of wrecking a potentially historic team. He gambled that Bradley could be the offensive threat to push the Cubs past the first round of the postseason, ignoring the long, poisonous pattern of Bradley distracting or downright disrupting every team that has employed him. Rather than savor a healthy clubhouse chemistry mix, Hendry dumped the popular and versatile Mark DeRosa and replaced him with Bradley, the antithesis of good vibes, selflessness and 162-game peace.

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