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Lastings Who?
By Alex G. on May 14th, 2008 11:08 AM |
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On December 1st 2007, Mets Nation was collectively left with its jaw hanging. After seeing the Mets trade away one of their “untouchable” young studs in Lastings Milledge, an uproar from fans could be heard as far as Washington D.C.
Enamored with his excited play and charisma, seeing Lastings leave created a dark cloud over lowly Shea Stadium. But alas, a silver lining! The Mets actually did get players back for Milledge. Ryan Church and Brian Schneider were shipped to the Mets from the Nationals for the exuberant young player. To say the least, fans were not expecting much from either of their 2 new players. But surprise, surprise!
Ryan Church has become the Mets best player in the early going. Leading the Mets in Homeruns (8) and second in RBI (30) and AVG (.324), Church has provided this Mets lineup with some much needed pop. Nothing has stopped Church from putting the bat on the ball. No matter where Church has been placed in the lineup he has continued to hit. The big knock on Church coming into the season was that he could not handle lefty pitching. Well skeptics, Church thus far this season is batting .326 against lefties (3 points higher than against righties!).
Even Willie Randolph is taking notice:
“His approach has been consistent. I’d still like to see him go the other way a little bit more. He’s in a real good groove right now…The results have been good. He’s seeing the ball well and just attacking the pitch in the zone. He holds well against lefties and he’s probably been our most consistent hitter. He’s done a great job so far.”
But let’s not leave out the other 1/3 of the trade. When trading for a catcher who has a career batting average of .255, the mindset going into the season has to be “Well, whatever we get from him will be a plus.” Well, seeing as how Brian Schneider is now batting .321, I think it’s safe to say he has been a plus. But his hitting prowess was not the leading culprit for why the Mets wanted Schneider. After having years of defensively inept catchers behind the plate, the Mets decided it was time for a change. Schneider, who has thrown out 39% of potential stolen base threats over his career has been a stabilizing force behind the plate. Brian has handled the Mets pitching staff seamlessly and his aggressive style of game calling enables the Mets pitchers to get into a groove.
So in a trade where it seemed as if the Mets just dumped a young superstar for a sack of potatoes, as of now, the Mets were not the one’s who let go of impact players.
There are currently 2 responses to “Lastings Who?”
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Hey Alex, didn’t know you were such a Milledge fan! i have to say, the guy got off to a good start with this fan seeing how he cranked his first homer on my birthday. Gotta say, it was pretty much downhill from there however. By the end of his days with the Mets, I hated his attitude, hated his immaturity - both emotionally AND as a baseball player. I was not at all sad to see him go, so let’s not act like there was a universal lovefest for Lastings at Shea. Fans have been pretty harsh on him during his visits to Shea, so there’s definitely a lot of bitterness and resentment there. Paul Lo Duca, for instance, won’t receive the same reception (if he ever gets off the DL).
With the Milledge trade, I thought the frustration of the fans was less that they were sorry to see him go, and more that they were incredulous to how much his stock had dropped. This was a guy who was rumored to be the centerpiece in deals to snare Manny Ramirez and Roy Oswalt. As recently as this offseason there were whispers that he could be moved in a deal for Santana, Haren, or Bedard.
At the time, I wrote that to me “this deal is less about how it will affect the Mets on the field, and more about the meteoric fall of L Millz.” Well I was only half right. Church is a mammoth talent on both sides of the ball. Way to go Omar!
Your absolutely right. 2 seasons ago Milledge was basically traded to Houston for Oswalt until Baltimore shut that deal down. The griping was because of how much of his stock had fallen. I, like most of the Mets fans I know were basically awestruck that “all” the Mets got were Church and Schneider. Looks like Omar got the last laugh.