Tuesday, August 30, 2005 |
Pickoff Moves, Lunchtime Edition
The End Of Milton Bradley
Once upon a time, I really thought Milton Bradley was on his way to reform. Now it only looks he's on his way to reform school, with the recent news that he has had several domestic violence calls to his Redondo Beach house:Police have responded to the Redondo Beach home of Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley three times this summer on domestic violence calls, including one instance in which he allegedly choked his pregnant wife, bloodied her lip and hurled a cellular telephone into a wall.Right. I share Jon's dismay and disgust over the matter; whatever happens now, Milton, you're on your own. Could this be what reader Rick meant when he said that "Tracy and the coaching staff have done a masterful job of covering other "incidents" before this one. It was only a matter of time that the lid blew off."?...
Bradley's wife, who was four months pregnant at the time, told officers she and her husband had argued about "relationship issues." Bradley, she said, grabbed her right hand and pushed it against her mouth, causing her to hit herself. The inside of her lip began to bleed, the crime report said.
Hat tip to Matt for bringing this up in the comments.
Almost-but-not-quite-forgotten coda: There's been a lot of talk about this Ken Rosenthal article. I'd say it's practically immaterial now that Bradley will, with 99.9999% certainty, not be offered a contract with the Dodgers, but Rosenthal's comment that Tommy Lasorda is badmouthing Paul DePodesta is certainly interesting, doubly so in light of Lasorda's appearance on the Cubs' broadcast. He was openly critical of former Dodger Todd Hollandsworth, something he would never do on a home broadcast. While I still put all this in the category of "tempest in a teapot", I hold out the possibility that there's perhaps something to it.
Dodgers 9, Cubs 6
So here we are, playing out the string, the Dodgers pretending to be in it, trailing the Padres by four and a half games. The Cubs have already thrown in the towel, sending Kerry Wood to the DL, trading just-traded-for Matt Lawton to the Yankees, and moving Todd Hollandsworth to the Braves. Idiotically, they let Wood pitch last night; Mariners fans, if you thought your club was stupid with its pitchers, you ain't seen nothin' yet.Last night's game was an exercise in what's typically wrong and right with Houlton. As Jon pointed out, Houlton threw strikes, which is what you do when you have a big lead. Unfortunately, as I suggested in the pregame comments at Bleed Cubbie Blue, this played to some degree into the Cubs' offensive hands, and he surrendered four solo home runs. Like the rest of the Dodger staff, Houlton has been plagued by the longball all year. Wrigley is not kind to a man with a 0.79 G/F ratio.
However, as I also mentioned, if Houlton played to the Cubs' strength, Dusty Baker predictably negated it by failing to assemble a lineup with high-OBP guys up top. Having underplayed and then traded the promising young outfielder Jason Dubois and then Matt Murton, Baker continues to trot out K-K-Korey Patterson, who simply doesn't have a pitch he can drive. After being sent down to the minors, he returned on August 9 and has since accumulated a .175/.217/.364 line. This isn't a leadoff player; it's not even, really, a major league player anymore. Peel off a "those whom the gods would destroy, they first label 'promising'" sticker, and slap it across his forehead. With nobody in front of each of those solo shots, the Cubs predictably went down.
So the Dodgers won an essentially meaningless contest. Sure, they conceivably could take the division, but it would take a run they have not been able to produce so far this year to do it. With Jose Valentin considering retirement after the season -- and admitting that his duct-taped-and-braced leg is holding him back at the plate -- the 51's take the field. Stumbling into the long offseason, the Dodgers fate echoes that of the Cubs', over whose corpse Al Yellon plays taps.
Khalil Greene Returns From DL
No other news in either division, so this tidbit: Padres SS Khalil Greene has returned from the DL.
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