M's trade Silva for Bradley

Clearly not content with acquiring a Cy Young award winner, the busy Jack Zduriencik traded Carlos Silva and his albatross contract to the Cubs for Milton Bradley.

The M's will also chip in 9 million dollars in cash, 3 million this year and 6 million next year. The Mariners were finally able to send away one of Bavasi's worst mistakes and were able to get something of value from it, for which we should be very excited.

What is left to say about Carlos Silva? He was given an ill-advised 4 year, 48 million dollar deal by Bavasi because, apparently, he was "the best starter on the market." Silva responded to big paycheck by posting his worst season ever and making himself very unpopular amongst the fans with his angry "blame everyone else" rants and perceived violent threats.

After starting 2009 worse than he did 2008, Silva made his greatest contribution as a Mariner by getting hurt and going on the DL for the rest of the season. The one negative aspect of losing Silva is that Silva and Felix were friends, and while that probably won't have any affect whatsoever on Felix's contract negotiations with the M's, who knows? Seriously though, just be glad he's gone.

Bradley is a very talented hitter, but the Cubs gave him up for Silva for a reason. First, the baseball stuff. Bradley is a switch hitter, which is nice to have in the lineup, though he historically hits much better from the right side. Bradley had a disappointing season last year on the field, .257/.378/.397 and 12 home runs in his first season after signing a sizable multi-year deal.

However, as recently as 2008, Bradley made the all star team and posted the highest OPS in the AL at .999. Granted, he did that playing half his games in Texas and he probably could not sustain that sort of performance over a longer period of time, but the man can hit. He also has a decent glove in the outfield, though he won't play there every day. However, the reason the Cubs were so adamant about trading him that they accepted Silva in return is because Bradley's attitude has proven so many times to be a distraction at best.

While Bradley hasn't been a problem for every team he has been on, he has had attitude problems since the beginning of his career, and while I try not to take clubhouse issues seriously, Bradley is a special case. Bradley is one of the most often suspended and ejected players in the league and he has mouthed his way off several teams. I would be more concerned about Bradley's ego though, if I didn't think that this wasn't a perfect environment for Bradley to play in.

Seattle's combination of a close-knit clubhouse, a respected manager, a fairly small local media, a lack of national attention, supportive fans, and yes, Griffey, make this the ideal spot for a player with a checkered past such as Bradley. If Bradley can't make it work here, he is unlikely to make it work anywhere.

This deal seals it: if the Mariners were not division favorites yesterday, they are today. Bradley isn't likely to post numbers as bad as last year's or as good as 2008's, but he is probably good enough to push this team into around the 87 win range with money left in the budget for another difference maker.

Bradley's attitude aren't the only risks this deal has: Bradley has been known to be injury prone, especially when he plays the field too much. However, given the cost, any return is a good return. Count it as another steal for Jack Zduriencik and the rest of the Mariners front office.

Welcome to Seattle, Milton. We will try to refrain from board game jokes.