Mark Healey

I said it on GB Live, I said it on Scotty Ferral's show, and I am saying it in Going Nine...this Milledge deal was a solid one, and frankly, one that needed to be made.

Online Home of Gotham Baseball Magazine - Going Nine: Minaya, Milledge and 10, 000 Maniacs

The Mets, IMO, just dealt Timo Perez for Jerry Grote and Jim Edmonds...we'll see who was right soon enough.

mets84

Are you drunk? By the time Edmonds was Church's age he had four seasons where he had slugged .500 or better.

MrHat

I wont comment on the rest, but how does Milledge have poor power projections when he just slugged .450 at 22 in the majors and slugged higher than Wright in the minors?

Anyone who watched this kid, knows the ball explodes off his bat. I dunno that he'll ever be a 35+ HR guy, but just about every scout I've ever seen had him pegged to hit 25+ and a ton of doubles.

lgm6986

About six months ago, maybe it was eight, I heard Johnny Bench say in an interview, and I'm paraphrasing, "I get a lot of accolades for my defense. But I'm telling you- ask any catcher from that era and they'll tell you Grote was the best, hands down. And I agree."

Are you saying that Schneider is one of the greatest defensive catchers of all time?

Jim Edmonds? What? Church is going to play RF, and he's already two Gold Gloves in the hole with six more after that to make up.

I'm not in the camp that thinks this is the worst trade ever and I also don't think Milledge will ever be enshrined in Cooperstown. But Timo Perez? Jim Edmonds? Holy sh*t.

Hojo of 1991

This is what kills me about this whole thing. Whether it be Omar or the Wilpons who wanted him gone, his "issues" come nowhere close to outweighing the potential he has.

lgm6986

And you know what? Milledge didn't just turn into Timo Perez overnight, which means Omar sat on his hands too long. If the deals for Zito and Manny and Oswalt fell through, fine, that's not his fault. But if those names are an indication of what other GMs thought of him, and Omar was intuitive enough to know they were way off base, he should have been more aggressive and/or creative and moved him then when he had the chance. He just can't get a pass here. Sorry.

mets84

But we collapsed last year because of Milledge!!!1! At least this way we can be so mediocre that we won't ever have to worry about a collapse killing a world series dream ever again.

More mediocrities! More! I demand them! Omar sucks - he let Cesar Izturis get away!

Mark Healey

Maybe two years ago, the scouts thought that of him. Not any more. I interview them, on and off the record, not a one thought Milledge would bring much back. Endy Chavez is a better player for goodness sake.

If Omar could have gotten anything more for him he would have. I think you guys have just decided that you hate Omar and everything he does.

Hojo of 1991

I'm pretty confident that Lastings will outperform Endy, Alou, Gomez and Church in 08.

lgm6986

Then he should have traded Chavez for better players than Schneider and Church.

MrHat

Agreed and to me its even worse to have a guy who you knew was worth that just a year or two ago, not act on it, then realize you missed a chance and the next thought isnt "Hey, lets give this kid a year and see if he can turn it around or maybe even help the current club..." instead its "lets get something for him even if it pales in comparison to his value less than a year ago"

Very similar to the thoughts that went thru Omar's head with Ring/Bell/Lindstrom IMO. Not that I was a fan of any of those guys really, but he basically dumped them all when their values were the lowest of their careers.

Hopefully his return on Milledge ends up better, but I just hate the deal from the fact that he sent Lastings packing at what is his lowest value. Even if Milledge bombed out completely this year folks would be crying over missing out on Haren/Oswalt/ect from mistakes made 2 years ago...not crying over the impact that Church or Schneider could have made on this club.

MrHat

Well Chavez is definitely better than Melky Cabrera so maybe the Mets are saving him to package for Santana.

Bay Ridge Dave

His answer for starting pitching help better not be Livan "Too Many Cuban Sandwiches" Hernandez or Carlos "Latin Trax" Silva.

As I've said earlier, I ambivalent about this trade. Substitute one the Nats good relievers for Schneider, and I would have been 100 percent on board with this deal.

Omar BETTER snag a top starter of some kind next week. He can actually save this off season if he did that...

NickPapagiorgio

My beef is that if this is all you could get for Milledge then they should have just held onto him. I would have rather taken the chance, however slim it may be, that he could turn into an All Star player than to trade him for two journeyman.

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NeilAllen

You have GOT to be kidding. You know the very fact that you have to (and are able to) spend so much time denying this trade as being in the same zip code as the Kazmir deal does not help your case that the deal was a "solid one"

You have GOT to be kidding Part Deux. Yeah we'll see who's right all right, because when Milledge starts tearing the league up sometime in the next few years we'll get to hear that tired old "oh well he'd never have been able to do it here" bullcrap I love so much.

Jikm Edmonds? Really? Wow. What single aspect of Church's game reminds you of Edmonds I'd love to know. And Timo Perez? Please. In Perez' wildest dreams he couldn't hang in there for some of the at bats Milledge had this year. But yeah, Milledge did suck against Peavy, so he's worthless. So worthless and such an albatross in fact we had to PAY 10 MILLION to dump his ass. Great move

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