You tell me I’m not an everyday player, and I just have to laugh at you
While laughing at me for telling Milton he wasn't an everyday player, he torn an ACL and will be out for the year.

Billy just has a way of thinking he’s smarter and better than everyone else.

Milton, Billy is smarter than you, which, of course, isn't saying much.

One somewhat troubling subtext here is that the A's put high-level (Beane personally) pressure on injured players to come back and earn their paychecks. Not just Bradley, but Kielty as well. It's also present in the way they don't DL players they think will be (should be? might be?) able to come back in 14 days or fewer. The obvious point of the article is that Milton seems to have a lot of trouble letting things go.

I just have to laugh at you because there’s not a player they’ve got over there that’s better than me. It’s just a joke

You're trying to tell me that he's better than Shannon Stewart, Mark Kotsay, and Nick Swisher?

Milton might have a legitimate point in that the A's do seem to have a record of leaving players on the 25-man even though they're not really capable of playing. See Chavez, Eric as just one example this year; I seem to remember they did this to Mark Mulder in 2004 as well, and paid the price as with an 8.79 ERA in September/October.

That Bradley isn't happy with something is not breaking news.

But the fact that the players are apparently unhappy with Geren is.

Beane has been successful, but his strategy of hiring puppet managers probably hurts the A's.

he torn an ACL and will be out for the year.

don't make me come over to your house. :)

Milton Bradley is a poor mans Gary Sheffield.

signed Albert Belle.

I think Bradley is thinking of Billy Bean in this situation.

Primey for #9.

Ain't no sunshine when MB's gone.

Bradley hinted to the Oakland Tribune that there were other factors involved in his departure, mentioning that other African American players, such as Terrence Long, Chris Singleton, Jermaine Dye and Frank Thomas also have moved on in recent years.

Perhaps Milton's noticed every player on the A's has moved on in recent years besides Chavez.

I'll take Bradley's side on this one (again), Beane is coasting on his overblown reputation at this point.

The guy seemingly goes out of his way to pick up injury prone players, then encourages them to play through it?

Could this be one of about a thousand reasons why their offense stinks?


MB has proved he's a redass, fine, I happen to like it a bit, but Billy knew this when he picked Milton up.
Furthermore, verything I've ever read about Beane seems to indicate he's an ####### as well, not to mention overly-smug and arrogant (I happen to like him partly because of this as well).

Perhaps Milton's noticed every player on the A's has moved on in recent years besides Chavez.

and Kotsay, and Ellis, and Crosby... all of whom are far inferor players to MB.


I don't think racism is involved here, I think MB was treated badly by someone who's slightly jerky, arrogant and has poor personal skills. I can see why he might interpret it the way he did.

and Kotsay, and Ellis, and Crosby... all of whom are far inferor players to MB.

I hated the DFA, and I think Bradley should be playing CF for Oakland everyday he's healthy enough to. That said, I don't get your point. You don't think racism is involved, but you're taking the side of the guy who is claiming racism is involved? I buy the "they're both jerks" theory, but only one jerk is mouthing off about the other in the press.

My point was that Long and Dye both signed multiyear contracts with the A's and were around as long as anyone besides Chavez. Dye left after 3+ seasons and ~$35M, and Long was traded after 4 seasons--that's much longer than most A's stick around.

And Bradley's not better than Ellis even when he's healthy enough to play.

#13

I dislike Kotsay extremely, and Crosby is crap. I disagree with you about Ellis. Firstly, by whatever measure you want to use, whether UZR, BPro's metrics or fan reports, his defense is superb. UZR has him at +32 runs per 150 games, BPro has him at +13 runs above average. His OPS+ this year is 99, not exactly crap, especially at 2nd. He also doesn't have the injury issues of Milton.

You don't think racism is involved, but you're taking the side of the guy who is claiming racism is involved?

No, he is just saying that he can see how a black guy with Bradley's personality might read race into something like this even if it is not there. The same point was made when Sheffield and Lofton went off on Joe Torre.

I thought the point made in the Sheffield thread was that black players were treated differently by Torre, though Torre was likely unaware of it. Here, I don't see any indication the A's treat black players differently.

I thought the point made in the Sheffield thread was that black players were treated differently by Torre, though Torre was likely unaware of it.

I think more people--me included--speculated that the "true Yankees" are treated differently by Torre, and Lofton and Sheffield read that as racial. Here, I suspect that Bradley may have been treated unfairly in some respects, and Bradley is reading that as Beane's having some racial prejudice when my guess is Beane does not.

and Kotsay, and Ellis, and Crosby... all of whom are far inferor players to MB.

...and two of whom, being middle infielders, are irrelevant comparisons for Bradley. And Ellis is certainly not significantly inferior, and when you adjust for positional difference and that Ellis can actually stay healthy over for consecutive weeks, it's debatable whether Ellis is inferior to Bradley at all.

I read that as Ozzie's Gay Friend is siding with Bradley in the sense that he believes Milton was used up and treated poorly by Beane, though not agreeing with the reasons behind Beane's actions.

Here, I suspect that Bradley may have been treated unfairly in some respects, and Bradley is reading that as Beane's having some racial prejudice when my guess is Beane does not.

He seems to not only be reading his experience that way, but also those of Dye, Long, Thomas, and Singleton (and Stewart, who he mentioned in another interview).

These are just terrible examples of racial bias. Dye and Long are two of the worst mistakes Beane has made--and not because they eventually left. Dye was traded for midseason and then signed a huge 3 year extension before his broken leg was given a chance to heal. Long signed a deal that bought out all of his arbitration years, and they played him everyday long past the point of his sucktitude becoming obvious.

Thomas was signed when no other team would touch him, he left after Toronto offered him an expensive multiyear deal, and he's been very complimentary of Beane. Singleton was signed to a one year deal, put up an OPS+ of 75, and only got 59 more major league at bats after leaving at the end of the year.

This is of topic, but I was wondering.....

Why did the A's DFA Kennedy?

They didn't DFA Kennedy, they put him on waivers so they could trade him this month once he cleared. Arizona claimed him, and since he'd sucked dinosaur #### the last two months, they figured it was worth saving a little cash to be rid of him.

OK, thanks JMM. Kennedy seems to have OK stats in a general sense. An OK ERA anyway. But then again so does Morris. And I know how Morris pitched the last 6 weeks. And I know his peripherals weren't any good when he was getting decent results. I wasn't paying enough/any attention to Kennedy.

Okay in what sense? He has more walks than strikeouts. He allowed 109 hits and 48 walks in 101 innings. Other than the ERA, which reflects a whole lot of luck, I don't see anything at all to like. Watching him pitch is even worse than looking at his stat line. His constant nibbling will drive you nuts. I can't help but wonder if he is pitching through an injury. I don't recall seeing him so afraid to throw the ball near the plate prior to this season.