Milton Bradley

A couple of people asked me why I didn't write about Milton Bradley in yesterday's N.L. FAAB round up. And, no, it's not because I owned him in the American League and feel like my $15 purchase was wasted.

Depending on your league rules, Bradley may or may not be eligible to be added to your active roster. In many leagues, you cannot use FAAB to add a minor leaguer or disabled player to your roster. So Bradley is still in the free agent pool in many leagues this week.

However, if you can add Bradley, what to bid?

My instinct is anywhere from $15 to $50, depending on how much risk you need to take.

Milton Bradley is an extremely high-risk proposition. For those of you N.L. owners who haven't been paying attention to the American League this year, Bradley has put up 65 AB this year while shuttling back and forth from the A's active roster to the disabled list and back again. This sustains his pattern of never staying healthy. Bradley's only topped 400 AB once, and that was three years ago, in 2004.

The flip side is that Bradley's potential is exciting, and better then you're going to get from any N.L. only free agent until possibly the major league trade deadline. Even then, you might not see a player of Bradley's caliber get traded in, as the big rumors seem to be focused on a few N.L. names, like Adam Dunn.

If I had a team sitting with 50-55 points in 4x4, I'd bid $45-50 on Bradley. He might not work out, but he would add something across all four categories if he did. And there might not be another free agent in the pool like that all year.

On the other hand, if I had 65 points or higher and was within striking distance of first place, I might bid $25 or lower. If this trade had happened on May 1 instead of July 1, then Bradley's potential impact would be greater. As it is, you might be lucky to get only 200 AB from him, and the extra month of Bradley versus the best player to come into the National League via trade on July 31 isn't enough to warrant blowing most of your FAAB.