No More Games with Milton Bradley

If you're of the school of thought that Colletti HAD to trade Bradley, getting Ethier was probably the best he could do. I don't like including Perez, but the situation was probably such that in order to get a better prospect, they had to throw in Perez, who'll hopefully get a fair shake in Oakland and a chance to show what he can do with 300+ PAs. It's a hell of a lot better than Kirk Saarloos, but when you set the bar that low, then you can't help but be disappointed at how the Bradley saga played out.

Certainly Bradley deserves the lion's share of the blame for things that happened during his tenure in Los Angeles, though I don't think it wasn't anything that couldn't be taken care of via strong managerial leadership. Look for the fact that Ethier won the Arizona Fall League Dernell Stenson Sportsmanship Award last month to be played up.

On a side note, Bradley's move also, unfortunately, brings the number of African-Americans projected to be on the Dodger opening day roster to zero. Given the history of Jackie Robinson with the team, this point cannot be lost in the afterglow of getting rid of a "bad character" guy.