Nor is he "playing exceptionally well," having a "hot start," 'tearing it up,' or anything else. I admit that he's doing well, but 11 hits in 34 at bats is not an indication of anything substantial. Green's hold on a .324 batting average and .410 on-base percentage is about as firm as Toronto's hold on first place in the AL East. 11 hits: 1 home run, 2 doubles and 8 exciting singles. If Green had one more hit in those 34 ABs (let's pretend that game ending liner in the last Braves game got past their first baseman, tying the game that Green had lost by dropping an easy fly ball). He would be hitting at a rip-roaring .353, 29 points higher. Or what if a few of those broken-bat bloopers found infield gloves and not outfield grass? One less hit: .294. Two less: .265. Three less: .235. DO YOU SEE WHY HIS BATTING AVERAGE IS TOTALLY MEANINGLESS, ESPECIALLY WITH 34 ABs?Even with all that, Green is only slugging .471, still 20-50 points above any reasonable projection, but not great by any measure. This is the best it's going to get, folks. The grandest performance we can hope for from Shawn Green is one home run and two doubles for every eight singles. Somehow I doubt we'll see even that.
Don't get me wrong, I like Shawn Green. I mean, he seems cool. And I'm not going to blame him for a faulty managerial and administrative decision. But it frustrates me to no end that a young player is denied opportunities because a quickly declining veteran hit a lukewarm streak of variance.
Trade Watch: Consistent with my new duties over at MLB Trade Rumors, I'm going to start posting this section periodically. In it, I'll just list Mets whom I think might be traded. Nothing substantial, just speculation:
Chan Ho Park- pitched well in last two spring training appearances; many teams could use him.
Jorge Sosa- was offered to the Orioles for Todd Williams. They declined. The Orioles are stupid.
Jason Vargas- a young left-handed pitcher, who, along with the terrific trio of Adam Bostick, Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins, is all the Mets have to show for dumping about 400 MPH of pitching power. Can Mr. Minaya perform a Julio/Hernandez-like turnaround?
Jon Adkins, the previously afformentioned. He's a reliever with big league experience who posted a 3.98 ERA in 55 games for the Padres last year (yea, stupid, but so are a lot of GMs... unusually low BABIP and unadjusted ERA under 4 in Petco Park, anyone? Yea, someone...)
Lastings Milledge- so much majesty and mystique (especially when the Mets don't play him), Omar might just have to trade him when his value is highest. Not good for this blog.
4 comments:
to trade lastings is foolish, here's why -
Scenario 1 - lastings is traded for pitching in july. either the pitcher traded for is signed through next season (or longer) or is not. if he is signed longer, perhaps it's a good deal, but we will revisit this. if he is not, he must be a premier pitcher, because he will only get ~10 or 11 starts in the regular season or ~30 relief appearances. however, this pitcher will almost certainly be highly paid.
in the offseason, shawn green retires his .260, no SLG bat - now the mets have to find a right fielder and sign him. mr. bobby abreu will likely be available - let's say they sign him. well now they might have pitcher A and bobby abreu, but their combined salaries are ~20 million.
Scenario B - mets keep milledge, he takes over RF next year, has at least one more year before he's arbitration eligible, and in the off-season next year, they can sign pitcher B for the same amount of money they would've been spending on pitcher A.
pitcher B + milledge >>> pitcher A + FA RF next season. With the saved money, the mets could go get pitcher C, or second baseman A.
I like how it's Scenarios 1 and B. But anyway, the Mets would certainly not sign a free agent outfielder should they trade Milledge. Lastings is sort of expendable because the Mets have two other good outfield prospects, one of whom, Carlos Gomez, is currently tearing it up at AAA. Gomez projects to a higher ceiling than Blastings, but perhaps is more likely to flop. Milledge is going to be someone like Raul Mondesi at worst and Gary Sheffield at best. The other prospect is Fernando Martinez, who is 19 and playing in a AA Binghamton municipal workers game amongst total fish.
Lastings is 22 now, and having made appearances in the majors last year is two more years from becoming arbitration eligible, I think.
So, in conclusion, he is certainly tradeable, but I don't think the Mets want to trade him, nor should they.
either i'm forgetting an outfielder, or you're assuming endy chavez is a permanent solution in left field. he's not - the mets will need a left fielder as well.
martinez probably won't be ready for 2 to 3 years.
Yea, you're forgetting David Wright, the Mets' left-fielder of the future, who moved for Alex Rodriguez in 2008.
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