With This Move, Let the Games Begin

Let the rest of baseball begin the season with, “Play ball!”

Dodger fans should instead be shouting, “Yahtzee!”

The only thing Milton Bradley provides better than bad board-game metaphors is good baseball.

Given a stunning chance at a fat pitch on the eve of opening day, Paul DePodesta swung for the fences, and it says here he connected.

A team desperately needing both a power and contact hitter has found them in the same 25-year-old body.

A team criticized for being too protective of its farm system boldly traded its minor league player of the year to get him.

A team suffering from serious ownership credibility can show that at least the new general manager is trying.

Milton Bradley is the Dodgers’ best overall hitter. Right now. Period.

“This should be a jolt for the organization, for the entire fan base,” DePodesta said. “On the day before opening day, it’s hard to figure a better possible scenario.”

One might not hear the words of DePodesta for all the whooping occurring in Cleveland, where the Indians are thrilled to rid themselves of a guy they had essentially thrown off the team last week for bad behavior.

To which I reply with two words: Gary Sheffield.

One of the best pure hitters to sit in the Dodger dugout in many years, he was traded for being a miscreant, a move that was originally applauded in this space until the ensuing losing taught me better.

The idea of clubhouse chemistry having evaporated after 15 years of feel-good failures, it is time to face the nasty truth.

The Dodgers need some jerks who can play.

Milton Bradley certainly qualifies on the second account, with a breakout batting average (.321) and on-base percentage (.421) last season that would have been among baseball’s top five if he had sat out because of an injured back.

With 10 home runs and 56 runs batted in in 377 at-bats, he was on pace to add nice some power to those numbers, not to mention the speed of 17 stolen bases.

If he is indeed the bad guy that the Cleveland Indians are painting him to be, well, as long as that same brush decorates the lineup card every day with his name in the third spot, the Dodgers will have to learn to live with it.

“When you win, the team chemistry speaks for itself,” DePodesta said.

Also speaking loudly is DePodesta’s commitment to winning now, by trading outfielder Franklin Gutierrez, a type of player who had been protected at the expense of the playoffs.

“The object is not to have the best farm system,” DePodesta said.

“The object is to win games at the major league level.”

Simple, huh? If only Dan Evans had thought of that last summer.

This is a unique case, certainly, with Long Beach Poly’s Bradley blowing on to DePodesta’s plate like a pretty, if multifaceted, leaf.

When is the last time a team’s cleanup hitter -- a switch-hitter with power and speed -- was banned from the clubhouse a week before opening day?

For failing to run out a popup in spring training?

If I had a dollar for every major leaguer who didn’t run out a popup in spring training, I could have bought the Dodgers, and without all those loans.

“Guys like this are just not available,” said DePodesta.

“A player of this age and quality is just not out there.”

OK, so the Indians had other issues with Bradley, who has been traded for the second time in three years.

He seems to get hurt easily -- last year he sat out the last six weeks because of the back injury, and he has never been in the big leagues long enough or sound long enough to play more than 101 games.

He seems to find trouble off the field -- he has been jailed for fleeing an officer who was ticketing him for speeding.

He has been accused of being a showboat -- last summer he engaged in a verbal tiff with Dodger catcher Paul Lo Duca after Bradley loosened his batting gloves before beginning a slow home run trot.

Lo Duca said Bradley was too good to be behaving that way.

Bradley responded: “I live by a simple creed that says, ‘If you don’t know me and I don’t know you, don’t approach me and I won’t approach you. Don’t assault me and I won’t assault you. Because you don’t know what I will or won’t do.’ ”

OK, so he says some strange stuff.

But Bradley apologized to Lo Duca the next day, who said he accepted the apology.

And, um, fellas? If you don’t want a guy to celebrate a home run, don’t give up a home run.

One thing Bradley hasn’t done is fight with his teammates.

They have considered him an odd guy, but not necessarily a bad guy, and until last week’s popup incident, he was on a good behavior roll.

The most important question is how he will relate to Manager Jim Tracy.

The fact that Frank McCourt has made Tracy a lame duck will not help any future tension.

But it’s nothing scoring a few more runs won’t fix.

The Dodgers are acquiring Bradley not for his leadership, but his knocks, and if he’s as good as advertised, Tracy will be buying.

“We have looked closely at Milton, and we think he will be fine in the clubhouse,” DePodesta said.

With maturity, scouts say Bradley can become another Bernie Williams.

With the arrival of opening day, he’s the equivalent of that first Dodger dog, mustard and all.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Bradley in General

Newest Dodger Milton Bradley’s career statistics:

*--* Year Team G AB R H HR RBI BB SO AVG OBP SB 2000 Montreal 42 154 20 34 2 15 14 32 221 288 2 2001 Montreal 67 220 19 49 1 19 19 62 223 288 7 2001 Cleveland 10 18 3 4 0 0 2 3 222 300 1 2002 Cleveland 98 325 48 81 9 38 32 58 249 317 6 2003 Cleveland 101 377 61 121 10 56 64 73 321 421 17 Totals 318 1,094 151 289 22 128 131 228 264 345 33

*--*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. For previous Plaschke columns, go to latimes.com/plaschke.