Milton Bradley Gets in Trouble... AGAIN

To those who don't know, this man is MIlton Bradley, probably the currently least valuable baseball player in the entirety of the MLB. Bradley has been on 8 teams in his 11 year career which generally means either one of two things: He's not very good and is getting his contract passed around to whoever thinks will make him into a star, or he's a huge asshole and no one likes him. In Milton Bradley's case, it's both. Let's start with this guy's unbelievably hilarious backstory.

Bradley made his major league debut in 2000 with the Montreal Expos, 4 years after being drafted by them. The particular play that caught their attention was his Game 5 walk-off grand slam home run to win the Double-A Eastern League Championship in 1999. Another thing that made Bradley somewhat valuable was his ability to switch-hit. After having an incredibly mediocre major league start, the Expos traded Bradley to the Cleveland Indians in 2001. Bradley managed to improve as a player in Cleveland and it looked like he had found his calling, reaching a batting average of .321. However, Bradley got into an altercation (allegedly a fist fight) with his manager during 2004 Spring Training and was immediately traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. For the Dodgers, Bradley was a regular member of the starting rotation, but his numbers never returned to the levels they were at with the Indians.. After the 2005 season, Bradley was traded to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for one of the best players in recent Dodgers history, Andre Ethier.

Surprisingly enough, Bradley just kept getting better as a player and looked to be approaching a .300 batting average again. In the 2006 ALCS, Bradley became the 3rd player to score two home runs in the same game from both sides of the plate, joining Bernie Williams and Chipper Jones. By this point it appeared that despite Bradley's anger issues, he was a batter who was only getting better every year. The A's didn't see this however, and traded him to the San Diego Padres for cash considerations and a player that Bradley had already been traded for in the past, Andrew Brown. Bradley was a consistent hitter for the Padres, but decided to join the Texas Rangers after the 2007 season with a one-year contract.

Milton Bradley seemed like a completely new person, scoring a batting average of .321 for the first time since playing for the Indians, the third best BA in the major leagues. Bradley was selected to his first All-Star Game as the starting DH after David Ortiz was out with an injury. Truly, it looked like Bradley had returned to form and would become known as one of the best hitters in the league. And then, Bradley got into an incident where he attempted to talk to Kansas City Royals television announcer Ryan Lefebvre in the middle of a game because he felt his comments on-air about him were inappropriate. Bradley insisted he wouldn't be violent with him and just wanted to talk, but most were very wary about that.

Bradley decided not to re-sign with the Rangers and instead signed a 3-year contract with the Chicago Cubs in 2009, taking Sammy Sosa's position and number. His time in Chicago was marred with controversy, first getting suspended for two games for allegedly making contact with an umpire following a strike call, then throwing a ball into the stands after mistakenly believing it was the third out when it was the second. Later in the month, manager Lou Pinella told Bradley to leave the dugout and go home after he threw a tirade for flying out against the White Sox. In the locker room, they confronted again, but Pinella later apologized and re-inserted Bradley to the starting lineup the next game. In September, Bradley was suspended by the Cubs for the rest of the season for making disparaging comments about the Cubs organization and the city of Chicago. After the season, Bradley was traded to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for the struggling Carlos Silva, mostly just to get rid of Bradley.

Bradley had his worst season ever with the Mariners, scoring an unbelievably unimpressive batting average of .205. On May 4, Bradley removed himself from a game and left the stadium. He asked the Mariners for help with a "personal problem" and the organization helped him out. He returned May 18 after undisclosed treatment, which many believed to be suicidal behavior.


Yesterday, Milton Bradley was arrested at his home in Encino for allegedly making felony threats against a woman. He was released on $500,000 bail and the Mariners are looking at this issue very seriously. Earlier in the 2010 season, Bradley embraced his role as a bad guy, calling himself the Kanye West of baseball. I'm really not sure what this guy's problem is, but to me it looks like his career is finally over at this point.