Friday, November 30, 2007

The Milledge Trade

I don't want to say too much about this, because I want to hear what Warren has to say, but there are a few things I have to get out there. I wanted to put up my "Retired Numbers: NL East" post so I could suggest that the Nationals leave a number open for Milledge, but I thought that was kind of cruel. So before I give my own TripleSteal ratings for this deal, let me just say:

- The Mets just downgraded in the outfield for the privilege of downgrading at catcher (.726 career OPS for Estrada vs. .700 for Schneider, although Schneider is five months younger). I actually like Church, but the Mets had to be able to get more for Milledge, right?

- The Mets are now starting a right fielder who thinks all Jews' souls are beyond saving. That should be interesting.

- I'm amazed that Minaya pulled off a trade for two white guys at the expense of a Latino catcher. Literally stunned.

Long story short, I give the Nationals a home run (if Milledge wasn't such a head case, it could be a grand slam), and the Mets a single. At least the Mets filled two positions of need, but compare this return to what the Rays got for Delmon Young... it's night and day.

Warren?

2 comments:

Warren said...

I was hoping that by not saying anything, this trade might reverse itself in some kind of Superman-spinning-the-world-backwards kind of way.

Apparently there wasn't a big market for Milledge. Maybe there's some kind of problem we don't know about. Well, there's a nice alternative to trading him for 50 cents on the dollar...don't trade him at all!

Estrada is apparently a dick, and dealing for him was more about getting rid of Mota's contract (Estrada can be non-tendered) and having a backup plan just in case they couldn't find another catcher (although I think Castro would be good enough as cheap starter). Schneider should do a little better now that he'll be out of RFK. And Church isn't too bad.

Now what I really think: this blows. Sure, Milledge could fail to pan out, but he's close to a league average center fielder right now, and he's 22. Church wouldn't be a bad fourth outfielder, but there's no real upside for him or Schneider. And Schneider's contract isn't all that great - you could argue the Mets would be better off getting just Church rather than both of them.

I actually love Church's stance on Jews - having him replace Shawn Green in right field is going to be awesome. And I bet we'll get some good cheers from the Shea Faithful.

To Ryan Church, a real swell guy
Your beliefs about Jews made my son half-cry.


Maybe that's a bit too specific to me. How about this:

Eli, Moshe, Yitzhak, Shlomo!
Who burns more, Church? A Jew or a Homo?


Well, like that, but actually funny and less offensive. But I can't pass up a good Shlomo rhyme.

Ross said...

When I saw this trade all I thought was "There is no way Warren could be happy right now."

As quite often the case, it's not about if the Mets should trade Milledge, as much as the return for trading him.

Maybe the Mets decided that he shouldn't be on the roster, and that's fine, but wait. I can't believe that there wouldn't be at least a deal of this caliber come Spring Training, and then maybe Milledge would have a good enough spring to make a needy team forget his personality.

It will probably help Milledge to be out of the NY spotlight, which could expedite how quickly this ends up being a bad trade for the Mets.