By Ray Flowers
November 12, 2009 3:33pm CST

Bradley on Way Out of Town
Milton Bradley is inching closer and closer to finding himself in another uniform, and in fact, it's being viewed as a foregone conclusion that his three-year deal with the Cubs will end after one mere campaign. Where will he end up? Reports vary, but early returns are mentioning teams like the Rays, Rangers and Sing Sing as possible destinations (OK, the last one is a prison, but you never know with this guy do you?).

Bradley has talent, but that baggage is so voluminous at this point that if anyone rosters him and is left with a mess, it serves them right. I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but consider the following.

1- Bradley has racked up 420 at-bats only once in his career (2004).
2- Bradley has hit more than 20 homers only one time (22 in 2008).
3- Bradley has drive in more than 70 runs only once (77 in '08).
4- Bradley has scored more than 75 runs only once (78 in '08).
5- Bradley has stolen six or fewer bases in four of the last five years.

Face it, the guy is a major headache and one that all fantasy owners should do nothing other than pay lip service to until really late in the draft.


Uggla to be Moved?
The Marlins, in their never ending desire to build up a contending team only to systematically dismantle it once that talent matures, appear to be on the brink of moving Dan Uggla to anyone willing to trade them young talent. Why are the Marlins looking to move their second most powerful bat on offense? Money of course. Uggla is set to break the bank in arbitration, something the Marlins are unwilling to be on the hook for. Shameful. Regardless, Uggla can rake, and if you want to read just how historic, and I'm not using that term lightly, his work has been with a bat in hands, give Player Movement Thoughtsa read.


Royals Make Another Bold Move
After shocking the baseball world by sending out Mark Teahen in order to pull in Chris Getz and Josh Fields (you can read more about the deal at Royals With Cheese), the Royals continued to cause a virtual orgy of excitement as they signed Wilson Betemit to a minor league deal. Betemit hit .200 last season with three RBI in 45 at-bats with the White Sox, and in his career of 1,143 ABs he has hit .258 with 42 homers, 154 RBI, 147 runs scored and a .756 OPS. Once upon a time he was considered a potential big league bat, but that thought is pretty much non-existent at this point. Apparently the Royals didn't learn from the great moves that brought in the likes of Mike Jacobs, Yuniesky Betancourt, Willie Bloomquist and Kyle Farnsworth last season. Being frugal is great, but if you want to win you also have to bring in talent.


Hudson Signs Three-Year Deal with Braves
Tim Hudson is smiling after signing a three3-year deal for $28 million to remain with the Braves (he also has a $9 million club option with a $1 million buyout for 2013). The 34-year-old Hudson, who grew up in Alabama, spurned a $12 million option for the 2010 season to sign the longer deal with the club.

This is quite an investment for a guy who had Tommy John surgery and pitched in only seven games last season. "I did all I could do to get healthy and show them they could have confidence in me," said Hudson. "They came to me with an opening offer than was more than fair. They showed me they really wanted to get something done, as did I."

Will the deal work out for both sides? Well, according to the numbers in his abbreviated 2009 season, there is little reason to worry. Here is a look at his performance in 2009 compared to his career work.

2009: 3.61 ERA, 6.38 K/9, 2.76 BB/9, 0.85 HR/9
Career: 3.49 ERA, 6.13 K/9, 2.76 BB/9, 0.72 HR/9

Hudson will need to cut down on the hits allowed as his career 8.56 H/9 mark was greatly overshot last season with a 10.42, though at least part of the season for that was a career worst .335 BABIP (career .289). A larger sample size should fix that problem in 2010. As for his fantasy outlook, he is a nice target on draft day. With his injury last season he will certainly come cheaper than he should on draft day. Don't forget that Hudson owns a .655 winning percentage, the 23rd best mark in baseball history for a pitcher with at least 1,000-innings on the bump, and pitchers coming off Tommy J. surgery often excel without anyone batting an eye any more.


Super Two Players
If you're like me this whole "Super Two" business is something akin to Sudoku. You kind of know what it is but you aren't sure. Here is a description of what a Super Two Player is (the following is taken directly from the MLB Players Association Page).

"A player with three or more years of service, but less than six years, may file for salary arbitration. In addition, a player can be classified as a "Super Two" and be eligible for arbitration with less than three years of service. A player with at least two but less than three years of Major League service shall be eligible for salary arbitration if he has accumulated at least 86 days of service during the immediately preceding season and he ranks in the top 17 percent in total service in the class of Players who have at least two but less than three years of Major League service, however accumulated, but with at least 86 days of service accumulated during the immediately preceding season."

Basically what all that gobblygook is saying is that there are certain players who are granted arbitration eligibility before playing three full seasons, and that is obviously a huge boost to those players who have the chance to see their wallets fatten considerably. This year, the players who qualified for "Super Two" status include: Tim Lincecum, Matt Garza, Alex Gordon, Hunter Pence, Carlos Gomez, Jeff Karstens, Dustin Nippert, Matt Albers, Tom Gorzelanny and Mike Fontenot. What this means is that Mark Reynolds, who blew up last season, will not be able to hit the arbitration ranks. How close was he to qualifying? He has two years and 138 days of service time, a mere 24 hours less than Fontenot. Reynolds should be upset, but how would you feel if you were Adam Jones or Micah Owings who tied Fontenot exactly for service time but lost out on a tiebreaker?


Top Closers for 2010?
Mike Sheets gave his top 10 closers for the 2010 season in a recent write up. Just how spotty is that list (that isn't a dig at Mike at all - I mean how spotty are the pitchers on the list)?

1-5: Joe Nathan, Mariano Rivera, Jonathan Broxton, Jonathan Papelbon and Joakim Soria.

The top four are locks who have been there and done that, and though Soria struggled a bit with health in 2009, you have to think that in a year or two he will cement his status as one of the best in the game.

However, the next five guys are where it gets dicey.

6-10: Heath Bell, David Aardsma, Francisco Rodriguez, Andrew Bailey and Huston Street.

Bell performed well in his first year and should be fine moving forward.

Aardsma simply cannot repeat what he did. Way too many fly balls and far too few homers. I wouldn't be shocked if that ERA went up at least a full run - at least.

K-Rod continues to slip, and dip, year after year. He won't be any better than he was in 2009.

Bailey was never really successful in the minors. Heck, he was a starting pitcher.

Street should be fine, but I'm telling you, sooner or later he's gonna blow that arm out thanks to that motion where he "pushes" the ball putting a ton of strain on that shoulder.


(The views expressed in this piece are solely those of the author, so if they end up being atrocious calls, don't hold it against the entire Fanball staff.)