F***ing Monday Reading

Let’s make this Monday a fun day with some links to stuff that other people wrote.

• Jorge Posada thinks the Yankees should keep Joba Chamberlain in the bullpen. Fans of the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Rays and Orioles agree.
• Milton Bradley, who leads the league in OBP and is second in batting average and slugging percentage, needs 29 plate appearances over the final 12 games to be eligible as a statistical league leader. He also would reach a $525,000 contract incentive with 27 more plate appearances. He’s missed three of the last four games with a sore left wrist. While Bradley has been a star for the Rangers this season, teams should still worry about his injury history before signing him to a big contract this offseason. And that’s saying nothing about him being, you know, kind of crazy.
• The Braves have the highest on-base percentage, second-highest batting average and third-most runs in the NL since the All-Star break. That tells you something about how bad Atlanta’s pitching has been since the break.
• Another Braves factoid: On Saturday, Atlanta won its first one-run road game in a year. The Braves snapped a major-league record of 29 consecutive losses in one-run road games. The Braves lost their last seven one-run road games in 2007 and all 22 this season before Saturday.
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• Bill Conlin thinks Gavin Floyd would look good on the Phillies right now and points out that Floyd leads the White Sox in victories. There’s no doubt that, if he had it to do over again, Pat Gillick wouldn’t trade Floyd and Gio Gonzalez to the White Sox for an injured Freddy Garcia. But let’s not get too carried away with Floyd’s 2008. Among pitchers with 160 innings pitched, he’s got the second lowest BABIP (.238), behind only Tim Wakefield. So it’s likely Floyd won’t be as good next season.
• The Milwaukee Brewers have fired manager Ned Yost and replaced him with third-base coach Dale Sveum. MLB Trade Rumors thinks the timing is bizarre, since the Brew Crew is currently tied for the wild card lead. But Milwaukee had lost six of seven and four in a row. They had to do something. Plus, Sveum is fun to say.