Heaven I Need A Hug

When the Mariners swindled the Cubs this past December into taking Fats Silva for Milton Bradley, everyone agreed that GM Jack Zduriencik pulled off yet another brilliant heist. Silva's real market value was akin to a $5 gift certificate from Arby's. To get an All-Star caliber player for a pitcher who spent his first two seasons in Seattle buying up large quantities of Double Stuff Oreos with the $48 million former special needs child GM Bill Bavasi gifted him seemed unthinkable. (And just you wait Cubs fans, despite his good start, Silva is getting nice and plump to start posting lines that look like this : 2/3 IP, 8 hits, 10 ER, 4BB, 0 K's).

Sure, the knock on Bradley is that he's a walking time bomb, ala Britney Spears circa 2007-2008, but that's still infinitely better than Fats Silva requiring daily retrofitting of the clubhouse bench.

Unlike Kanye West and Ron Artest, the two people Bradley recently compared himself to, Bradley's actions genuinely seem to be in earnest. Kanye and Artest are all show, little substance. Milton simply cares too damn much. And that's what makes Bradley's cry for help so endearing.

There's something about Milton that makes you want to give him a hug and tell him everything will be alright.

While it appears the M's are going to do whatever they can to get Bradley the treatment he needs, one can't help but notice that this reactionary move may very well have cost the Mariners the season. For a franchise that has been widely recognized for its solid personnel decisions, the M's should have been proactive in dealing with Bradley. It's not like he woke up yesterday morning and needed help. He's needed help for years.

Like a troubled foster child being passed from foster home from foster home, Bradley has been passed from team to team (8 in 11 seasons). His undeniable talent is what keeps general managers to naively think that a change of scenery will solve Bradley's problems. And when his demons overshadow that talent, Bradley is discarded like an old MiniDisc player you found in a box that's been taped shut in storage for the last seven years.

At a dinner in January featuring Zduriencik and Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu as the guest speakers, I asked them how they planned on dealing with Milton should any issues arise. Both agreed that having a veteran clubhouse and a great role model in Ken Griffey Jr. would be keys to keeping Bradley under control.

That plan obviously hasn't worked.

In a perfect world, Bradley's saga will bring the Mariners together. Bradley will get the help he needs, come back and start hitting the way he did in 2008 when he lead the American League in OPS. Fueled by his return, the Mariners will charge their way to the AL West title they've coveted since the end of last season.

But the reality is that the Mariners just lost the only player in the lineup who has shown some pop in his bat over the last two weeks. There's no quick fix to replace Bradley's production.

For a team that desperately needed Bradley to be 2008 Bradley begin with, the M's need him even more now.

And for the first time in his career, Bradley needs the team just as much.