Idiots Write About Sports

The A’s have sent submarining reliever Chad Bradford to Boston in exchange for the galactically unexciting Jay Payton. The trade, which would seem to have been completed for the sole purpose of keeping transaction wire operators awake during the All-Star break, would be utterly unremarkable except for this one tidbit:

Payton, who was upset with his backup role after an offseason trade brought him from San Diego, was designated for assignment last Thursday.

So Payton, unhappy about sitting on the bench in Boston, went and got himself traded to a new team where he’ll… continue sitting on the bench. I mean, where is he supposed to play in Oakland? Center field is spoken for, at least through 2008. I’m not sure you want to take away playing time from promising rookie Nick Swisher in order to placate the demands of an aging, under-achieving grump. And Bobby Kielty has done nothing to indicate that he shouldn’t be the regular left-fielder. That leaves Payton to do… what? Leg-wrestle Eric Byrnes for playing time.

So I’m with Catfish Stew on this one: Payton is just passing through the 510 area code on his way to another exotic locale. Here’s hoping he brings us a player more useful than himself. And that is all we have to say about that…

… except to say a fond goodbye to Chad Bradford, lovingly nicknamed “Brad Chadford” around these parts because we are dopey, infantile men. Whatever your opinion of Moneyball, you cannot come away from that book without a modicum of warm fuzzies for Bradford — a fellow who, on the face of things, would seem to have no business even dreaming of a Major League career but managed not only to stick around but to carve out a fairly successful middle-relief role for himself. Not all of us are destined for super-stardom; sometimes the best we can do is to perservere beyond the natural abilities we’ve been saddled with. Watching a guy like Bradford succeed gives hope to the rest of us underdogs that one of these days, we’re going to make the people who dimissed us without a second glance look pretty damn silly.

Also, by using the word “submarining” in the opening paragraph of those post, I am now in compliance with the obscure federal requirement that anything written about Chad Bradford must mention his funky pitching style early and often.

Well, so much for Byrnes...

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