By Ray Flowers
January 6, 2009 4:30pm CST

Milton Bradley has parlayed the best season of his career into a huge three-year, $30 million deal with the Cubs. Only time will tell if those dollars were well spent on the enigmatic star, especially when a guy like Pat Burrell picked up only $16 million on a two-year deal (you can read about it here). Regardless of the dollars, just what can we look forward to from Bradley in his return to the National League?


2008 REVIEW
We're going to take a bit different tact than normal with this piece and start out with a review of 2008 before looking at what led up to it. Here are the facts.

First off, Bradley led the American League in OBP (.436) while playing for the Rangers in '08. In addition, Bradley posted a .563 SLG, fourth best in the junior circuit, and overall his OPS of .999 left him as the most prolific bat in the American League. Oh yeah, he also hit .321, the fourth best mark in the league.

However, it wasn't all roses for Bradley as injuries, a career long bugaboo, limited him to just 126 games and 414 AB. As a result, his counting numbers weren't as strong as they could have been with 22 home runs, 77 RBI and 78 runs scored. Those numbers are far from what you would expect for a player who posted such scintillating ratios, but alas, that's what happens when you are held to less than 415 AB.

As for his skills, well as you might expect, they were pretty damn good last season. Consider the following data points.

(1) Bradley posted a career best total of 80 walks thanks to a 16.2 BB%, the highest rate of his career (11.9% for his career).

(2) Though Bradley struck out in more than 27% of all his official at-bats, because of his growth in the walks category he produced a third straight BB/K mark above 0.70 as he finished at 0.71. Milton owns a career 0.63 mark with a high of 0.88 back in 2003 when he was with the Indians.

(3) Bradley produced the best OBP at .436, SLG at .563, and OPS at .999 of his career (his career numbers are .370/.457/.827). His batting average of .321 also matched his mark from the 2003 season as a career best.

(4) Bradley produced a BABIP mark of .396, by far and away a career best (previously .378) and a mark that dwarfed his career mark of .326. Oh, his .396 mark was the best in baseball last season. It is unreasonable to expect a repeat here.

(5) Bradley produced a HR/F rate of over 21% last year, the highest mark of his career and a huge leap over his career 16% mark.

So what's not to like, right?

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS, or is it LOWLIGHTS?
This section could arguably be about 3,000 words if we had the time and wanted to break down everything into the minutiae of his career, but we can probably be much more succinct with our analysis and still get our point across. Let's start with the obvious.

First off, Bradley set career-highs in batting average, home runs, RBI, runs, OBP, SLG, OPS and HR/F. Common sense tells you that a 30-year-old with almost 3,000 career at-bats, who has been in the league for nine years, and who just set career-highs in every major category is likely coming off of a career year. This is logical, though an unscientific approach to take with Bradley.

Second, Bradley is a total mess off the field. The guy has had more run-ins with fans and media than almost anyone not named Dennis Rodman, and as a result he is almost as likely to hit a grand slam as he is to go postal on someone. Most of his teammates swear that he is a great guy, but that temper of his often causes him to see red and act, well, childishly and totally unbecoming of an adult. Again, this is a logical though unscientific approach with Bradley.

Third, and more germane to the discussion, is that fact that Bradley is almost as volatile on the field as he is off it. That volatility is easily seen in his playing time totals. Just take a look at his games played marks in is career: 42, 77, 98, 101, 141, 75, 96, 61 and 126. As a result, and here is what everyone reading this article should burn into their brains, Bradley has been able to accrue 420 AB in a season just one time in his big league career. That's right, only once in his nine seasons has he truly been an everyday player, and that was in 2004 when he played with the Dodgers (not coincidentally, this was the only time in his career that he appeared in 100 games in the field). Why any team would give $30 million to a guy with a track record as poor as this is a mystery no matter how much talent he possesses. From a fantasy perspective, you'll have to think long and hard about whether or not it makes sense to roster a guy with such a spotty track record of health.

Some other facts to consider.

(1) Bradley owns a career .280 batting average.
(2) Bradley has hit 20 home runs only once (last season).
(3) Bradley has never produced 80 RBI in a season.
(4) Bradley has never scored 80 runs in a season.
(5) Bradley has failed to steal more than six bases in a season in three of the past four years despite stealing 32 bases in 2003-04.

Those aren't bench marks of a great player as a .280-15-75-75-5 season wouldn't due too much to excite most (Lyle Overbay anyone?). However, that's basically what history says you'll get if Bradley produces an "average" (actually above average) season in 2009.


2009 PREVIEW
Bradley joins a Cubs club that scored 855 runs last season, the most in the National League. However, the club was outscored 20-6 in the playoffs which led to the pressure to add another bat this offseason. In addition, the team's big power bats, those of Aramis Ramirez and Derek Lee, are right-handed, so the switch hitting Bradley will bring a nice boost from the left side of the plate. Bradley also hammered lefty pitchers in 2008, posting a 1.127 OPS which was the best mark in the American League. That would seem to make him a perfect fit for the Cubs offense especially when you consider his combined numbers over the past two seasons: .316-35-114-115-10 with a .982 OPS. You might think to yourself whoopee doo, but when you realize that he has only picked up 623 AB the past two years, the heights to which he has climbed are pretty damn impressive.

Unfortunately, things are rarely that straight forward. With his production last year, in addition to his new uniform, Bradley will certainly be a hot source of keen interest on draft day. As can be seen from his work the past two years, when this man is healthy, he can make even the best pitchers pay a heavy price. However, his staccato record of health precludes any kind of possible projection as to his playing time (remember he has but one season of more than 420 AB in his career and he will not have the ability to fill the DH role this season when his body is barking).

Bradley may end up justifying the Cubs faith in him, but if you are looking to build a stable fantasy squad in 2009 you would be much better off letting someone else roster Bradley and let them micromanage their club once the inevitable injuries strike.