Milton: Paradise Regained?

Since Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley was the recent recipient of one of The Baseball Desert's occasional awards I thought it was only fair to link to an ESPN.com Q&A with Bradley, conducted by Baseball America writer and author Alan Schwarz. As Bradley himself says, there's a lot of cockiness and swagger in his attitude, but he feels that it can be a positive thing for the Dodgers after losing clubhouse leader Paul Lo Duca.

"I'm flashy, cocky, whatever. That's all part of my game -- go out there with a swagger. [...] Not to show anybody up. Not to be outrageous. But you have to go out there and play with confidence and a way about yourself that other teams see, "Hey, we've got a task on our hands."

Now and again there's a touch of Pete Rose's whiny chip-on-the-shoulder pleading in some of what Bradley says ("But I'm a good person. People don't know that. If you see me constantly doing that, of course you're not going to think I'm a good person. I don't want anybody else to be seen the same way people look at me."), but the very fact that he was willing to go out onto the field to prevent a teammate doing exactly the same thing that he did only a few weeks ago is maybe proof that he's realised that it really is "time to grow up".

On the subject of Schwarz, Futility Infielder has a great review of Schwarz's new book, "The Numbers Game". As you probably know, I'm not a great stat-freak, but Jay Jaffe's post makes me want to go out and buy the book (and maybe "Moneyball" too) and see what all the fuss is about.