FrankStylV7

For two years I've been saying that Lastings Milledge MIGHT, if he was extremely lucky and tried really, really hard, grow up and hope to be as good as Reggie Sanders, and that he would best serve the organization by being traded as soon as was possible.

Most of you blasted me for this opinion.

Is Ryan Church as good as Reggie Sanders ever was??

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"The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum." -

Havelock Ellis

FrankStylV7

MetsBlog.com

During his recent appearance on SNY’s Daily News Live, Seth Everett from MLB.com had the following to say about Lastings Milledge, who was traded to the Nationals today…

“Milledge’s value had plummeted. If you were gonna have the foresight to realize that Lastings Milledge will never make an All-Star team you should have traded him two years. They didn’t, and they held on until it was too late…Milledge is still a talented young individual, but you couldn’t get a starting pitcher – not a front-line pitcher, but a starting pitcher – for Lastings Milledge, so they addressed another need…

“Billy Beane is on record as saying he likes Lastings Milledge, but it was 18 months ago. That’s the point. Lastings Milledge’s behavior and lack of development have taught other GMs that they don’t believe in him any more. The book has changed. John Schuerholz used to be great at this in Atlanta, when you know that Bruce Chen isn’t going to be a Cy Young you get something in return for him…

“The point is, there isn’t a GM who is willing to give you a fourth starter for Milledge…Clearly Billy Beane wouldn’t budge on Milledge, because if he would have there’s no way Omar Minaya would have blown that chance.”

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"The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum." -

Havelock Ellis

No.1

Frank, what can we say? I'm just hoping Omar will do something involving one of the 3 catchers

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Gregory Gewirtz

Why is it assumed that Milledge had to be traded? What would have been wrong with penciling Milledge into right field and keeping Estrada as the interim catcher? Milledge turns 23 just after Opening Day and he's hit reasonably well in his Mets stints. There's still plenty of time for him to reach his potential, and if he doesn't, he's basically the hitter Church is right now.

The only way this trade remotely makes sense is either if Church or Schneider or integral pieces to a larger deal (not f'n likely) or if it is absolutely a certainty that Milledge will never be the player that Church is now, and I think it's still far too early to make that judgment.

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lgm6986

The only other saving grace for Omar is if Church completely puts it together in NY the way Paul O'Neill did after coming to the Yankees from Cincinnati. And I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.

NeilAllen

Naah let's just ignore that because Omar made a stupid trade.

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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." --H.L. Mencken

METSSC

nothing at all. I dont get this notion that Milledge was nothing but a trading chip

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GET THE PIECE OF CRAP McGimpy OFF MY TEAM NOW!!!!!

The McGimpy does most things upside down: eats, sleeps (an average of 23 hours per day), mates, and gives birth. Because of the McGimpy's upside down life, many of the McGimpy's internal organs (liver, stomach, spleen, pancreas) are in different positions from other mammals. McGimpy sometimes lets out a cry or hissing sound.

During the rare times the McGimpy goes down to the ground (such as to change trees for food), it moves very slowly.

NeilAllen

That's the thing I'm still waiting for the faintest glimmer of hope coming out of these Ryan Church scouting reports I'm reading. Like I'm hoping I'll see a "is reasonably well disciplined at the plate" or "will sometimes wait for his pitch" somwhere buried in there. Unfortunately those are two comments I could have written about Milledge last year. Along with pointing out his quick bat.

But then again he danced after that home run against the Marlins. Can't have that kind of thing corrupting the other players

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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." --H.L. Mencken

mets84

if the rationale behind any trade is "maybe this guy will be our paul o'neill," it's an absurdly bad trade.

like BRD, I'm tired of "believing" and hoping that "it's just crazy enough to work." yet that seems like what this organization continually asks of its fans, pretty much without ever delivering.

lgm6986

I'm not going to be a hypocrite. I wasn't thrilled with Milledge in general, and if he really was boning a 12-year-old when he was 17 then I'm not sure what the hell they were thinking drafting him to begin with.

That being said, the kid has obvious talent. Maybe not world class, perennial All Star talent, but certainly at least enough to hold his own in the majors (sort of like Ryan Church, I guess). If his value had diminished so much that the best Omar could get was two players they didn't desperately need then he should have just played him in RF and hoped for the best. Short of an absolute meltdown, I think there still would have been some market for a 23-year-old outfielder at the deadline, even if he had a mediocre first half. It seems like Omar felt an urgency to trade Milledge immediately, and I'm not sure why.

Omar takes a hit either way here in my opinion. He either severely overrated Milledge all along or he overplayed what he knew to be a lousy hand and didn't cut his losses when he should have.

NeilAllen

Look, I have to say at this point that one of the reasons for my disappointment outside of the actual trade itself, is that in my opinion Omar somehow pulled off two of the greatest Mets trades of my lifetime easing a lot of the sting from the Kazmir debacle. Now it's all coming back...

Not that he cares but I cut Omar an awful, awful lot of slack for engineering those two trades. No more.

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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." --H.L. Mencken

NeilAllen

See I actually wrote those 1st two posts (I think) without even realizing Omar actually took on 10 million dollars to do this. I'm still trying to get my head around that one. Can't do it though.

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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." --H.L. Mencken

lgm6986

It's kind of crazy. It just reeks of Omar doing something for the sake of doing it. I have a hard time believing the net difference between Milledge/Estrada and Schneider/Church is going to wind up being worth 10 million bucks.

This move just doesn't seem particularly well thought out. It's like he was offered something and he was so eager to make a move there was no chance he wasn't going to do it.

NeilAllen

Yes it's like the only way to explain it at this point. It's like he was so stung by the criticism of his not paying the Nats their King's ransom for Cordero he wasn't going to turn down the chance to get screwed by Bowden again.

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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." --H.L. Mencken

mets84

Hey, it could still happen. Just give everybody time to get those "Pelfrey is worthless and this is the best we could do for him" talking points ready.