Cubs Questions

Why is it that Milton Bradley playing 120+ games in Right field is assumed and not questioned?

Only the most blindly optimistic Cubs fans with no concept of reality would expect that. Of course, I would guess about a third to half of the bleachers won't even know they have a new right fielder and will wonder what happened to that Japanese guy. Who am I kidding. What happened to that Sosa cat?

I know it's nearly impossible to guess how long Bradley will last out there. I have to think the Cubs will give him some days off when they play on old turf, but when he gets hurt, the key is whether it's for 3 weeks or 3 months, and there's just no way to know. If he can play 80 games or more AND be ready in late September and October, the Cubs will probably be happy. His production in those 80, 90 games will probably be better than what the Phils get out of Raul Ibanez even if he plays 162.

And another thing, don't tell me that Rich Harden is the key to the Cubs making the playoffs. Yes, he's a great pitcher. When he shows up. There's Harden plus relying on Dempster actually being as good as he was last year is an awful combination. Remember that Dempster from the previous 5 or 6 years? Yes, a decent reliever, but a fairly awful starter. Plus Zambrano has been breaking down - his K/9 has fallen each of the last two years and he still walks a ton of guys- and if he falls much further he's going to run into real trouble. Is anyone going to debate that their bullpen is better than last year?

Fortunately for the Cubs they can still have a whole lot go wrong and probably still win the division... unless a whole ton of things also go right for someone else. Brewers, maybe?