Pads' 'Operation' needs Milton Bradley's skills, not his games

SAN DIEGO -- That Milton Bradley was quietly working a USA Today crossword puzzle at his locker before the start of this week's key NL West series with Arizona is perfect in that six years and five organizations into his major-league career, he remains unsolved and far from completely filled in.

Unfulfilled talent? Troublemaker? Still maturing? Misunderstood?

As long as Bradley can stay healthy, he can be a big help to the Pads. (US Presswire)

The hardball Life and Times of Milton Bradley, usually located straddling Sorry! and Ants in the Pants, has moved two spaces, and now it's San Diego that is rolling the dice.

This will end badly, with flashes of anger and bitterness. With Mt. Bradley, it always does. What you hope, simply, is that you have one heck of a romance before the break-up.

"It's just nice to have a legit, solid hitter," Padres starter Greg Maddux says. "He hits for average, power, he's got speed ... you stick a guy like that in the middle of your lineup, it's going to make the other eight guys better."

Even in their Tim Hudson-Jason Giambi-Miguel Tejada heyday, Oakland never advanced to the ALCS. With Bradley last year, they did.

"One guy really can make a difference in the lineup," Padres shortstop Khalil Greene says. "Look at Philadelphia with Chase Utley. When he's in the lineup, it changes everything."

Since they acquired him from Oakland on June 29, when he's been in the lineup, the switch-hitting Bradley has been to the San Diego lineup -- a lineup that ranks 15th in the NL in on-base percentage, 15th in batting average and 12th in runs scored -- what a hydraulic car lift is for an auto mechanic.

Without Bradley in the lineup, the Padres this year are hitting .242 and averaging 4.3 runs per game.

With Bradley, they're hitting .275 and averaging 5.0 runs per game.

He missed 15 games earlier this month with a strained hamstring, then returned to the lineup last Tuesday in New York -- whereupon the Padres immediately scored 40 runs while winning four of five games against the NL East's best, the Mets and Phillies. (They then dropped a 14-2 blowout in Philadelphia on Sunday).

"Not only has he been hitting, he compliments that lineup," Arizona manager Bob Melvin says. "I don't think it's a coincidence that they've been scoring a lot of runs since he's been around.