"Lastings" Stock of Baseball

I’m not sure if “Lastings” sounds close enough to the word “laughing” for that to work but I went for it anyway. The Mets essentially took themselves out of the Johan Santana sweepstakes when they sent former top prospect Lastings Milledge to the Washington Nationals for catcher Brian Schneider and outfielder Ryan Church. This is the same player who less then two years ago was being rumored to be a center piece of a trade for Barry Zito or Roy Oswalt. Now, he was traded for a catcher who batted .235 last season and an outfielder who hit 15 home runs. So while the Mets did improve their defense with this trade, they ended up getting a catcher who was worse offensively then Paul Lo Duca or Johnny Estrada and they got a younger version of Shawn Green. They essentially gave away Guillermo Mota in the process when they traded him for Johnny Estrada who they are now going to just cut anyway. While the Mets may have never really had a shot at Johan Santana in the firs place, unless they were willing to give up Jose Reyes, losing Milledge in this deal takes away a big bargaining chip for them. A package of Mike Pelfrey, Carlos Gomez, and Fernando Martinez is just simply not going to entice the Twins. Despite my bashing of this trade, I do not think they are going to miss Milledge all that much anyway. Milledge has become the definition of overrated and I do not know how he ever became such a top prospect to begin with. Milledge has a career .305 average in the minors, which is good don’t get me wrong but it’s nothing spectacular given that it’s been paired with only modest power and speed numbers. Milledge has also struck out more then twice as many times as he’s walked in the minors, has hit only .257 in the majors thus far, does not play the outfield well, has a bit of a diminutive stature, and has a less then stellar attitude. Mark my words that Milledge will never make one all star appearance (although on the Nationals his chances are better since every team has to have one all star so he could be their Mark Redman for the team). Still, the fact that the Mets have basically conceded defeat in their pursuit of a big deal this winter as well as failing to capitalize on Milledge’s reputation a few years ago does make for a good laugh. This may seem only loosely Yankee related but what can I say, I can’t turn down an opportunity to bash the Mets.