Lastings Milledge for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider

[Guest Edgy DC]

How do you feel? Because I don't know, statistically.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I was gonna vote "dislike" but "hate" is really more accurate.

Church may turn out to be a decent contributor, like Nady. And Schneider is probably not much more or less sucky than most catchers around the majors.

But I'd rather have kept Milledge to see what he could become. (Rather than having a divison rival have that opportunity.) And if Milledge were to be traded, I'd want it as part of a bigger and better package than this one.

This may turn out okay or neutral for the Mets, but it's not a move that they should have made.

It will be interesting to hear how Omar explains this. Actually, no it won't. I know what he's going to say. He'll praise all three players and spout typical claptrap.

[Valadius]

I dislike it very much. I am very much confused by it. But I won't hate it until I see how the players perform on the field next year.

[Guest Edgy DC]

[RealityChuck]

They should have tried to get more for Milledge. This seems like far too little.

[Guest iramets]

Kazmir. Bannister. Keppinger.

I'm starting to think that maybe they're not the most astute judges of young talent, I really am.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Keppinger, Fleppinger. Gotay Okay.

[seawolf17]

iramets wrote: Kazmir. Bannister. Keppinger. I'm starting to think that maybe they're not the most astute judges of young talent, I really am.

I hate agreeing with Sal. Although this only really resonates if they decide to trade Reyes.

[Guest iramets]

Yeah, Gotay's okay, but Fleppinger's ahead of okay. In the three seasons he's had about one complete year, and it's pretty damned impressive, especially given their ignoring consistently good minor league numbers and MLB #s when he was here. They keep on puling these challenge trades, starting pitcher for starting pitcher, second baseman for second baseman, now RFer for Rfer, and they're not really demonstrating that they have a clue what the fuck they're doing, do they?

[nymr83]

i'm looking at this as Milledge and Estrada for Church and Schneider because with Castro's recent contract you have to assume Estrada is not going to be offered arb. now, this looks like a really dumb deal and i'm waiting to here omar's BS reasons for making it.
I have to think the real reason is a dislike of milledge (his attitude, his work ethic, etc)

[nymr83]

MINAYA ON WFAN. (i'm paraphrasing here and there but not distorting the content)

Mike: what is church's role?
Minaya: everyday player. (cites counting stats)
Mad dog: he only did that once
Minaya:exciting to give him the chance
Minaya:i think those numbers could improve, remember this was in a big ballpark in washington
minaya: good numbers, (admits difference in age) but says church will produce better numbers with the opportunity to drive in runs

Mike: why make mota deal if you're gonna do this?
Minaya: fair to say it was a salary dump, gave us an option going forward

Mike: why no loduca, any worries about torrealba lawsuit against you which was rumored?
Minaya: no worries about that, we agreed with agent not to discuss the reason why it didnt work out.
Dog: anything to do with the mitchell report?
Minaya: no.

Mike: loduca?
Minaya: its about how we are building our team going forward...yadayada...about speed, defense, loduca did a good job, loduca better offensively than schnieder but schneider's defense is what we need. had nothing to do with loduca's off the field conduct.
Minaya: we hadda change things up with how the season ended last year
Minaya: the way the team is setup now i'm a big believer in being strong (defensively) up the middle

Dog: get a big pitcher in trade? do you have enough prospects?
Minaya: there are pitchers being shopped i cant named them, we're talking, clubs have interest in our players. pitchers like defense so they'll want to come here

Mike: any problem with wagner's comments
Minaya: talked to him, told him to watch what he says, says wagner was then pleased with omar's explanations

Dog: do yank moves put pressure on you?
Minaya: no.

Minaya: we should have won more games last yeat, trade "changes things up some." "i like our team the way it is right now" only difference is we lost glavine and added pedro martinez (for a full year- haha) and church, we will hopefully work in the winter meetings, i do believe there'll be other pieces of this team.

Mike: reyes untouchable?
Minaya: reyes part of nucleus/core, one of best young players in game, not trading reyes.

Dog: (question about milledge's stock)
Minaya: hes been considered a big prospect, we have other big prospects, a couple of years ago if you told me we'd make this trade i'd be happy to get an outfielder who will produce and who we control for 4 years. "tough deal for me to make" "good baseball trade for both sides"
-end interview-

[nymr83]

who voted that they like it?

[seawolf17]

Apparently, Brian Schneider is a member of the Pool.

[Fman99]

seawolf17 wrote: Apparently, Brian Schneider is a member of the Pool.

He's the Baby Ruth in the pool.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Who voted that they neutral it?

[Vic Sage]

iramets wrote: Kazmir. Bannister. Keppinger. I'm starting to think that maybe they're not the most astute judges of young talent, I really am.

lets not forget last year's deals with SD, giving up Ring and bell for Adkins and Johnson.

[nymr83]

i voted i hate it.

mike and the dog are done talking to minaya, i posted most of the interview in my post above, any comments?

[smg58]

I don't see Church as an everyday player, but he does hit righties very well. He wouldn't have been a bad guy to get for somebody other than Milldege, because now I'd have to label another righthanded bat as a need. That, and he doesn't have Milledge's upside.

Schneider has less upside than Johnny Estrada. In fact, he may have less upside than me. I can't even see him getting more starts than Castro unless Castro breaks down. And we're committed to him for two years. LoDuca was at least average. Schneider won't be.

[soupcan]

Dislike.

Good transcript Namor.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I voted that I dislike it, but I think we have to wait until spring training or even Opening Day before we know for sure. Too many pieces of the puzzle aren't in place yet. Gotta let the man work. Not finished yet.

[Guest iramets]

The whole puzzle is never in place. The man is always working on something. It's never finished.

Yet eventually you have to stand in judgment. Your "eventually" may not have come, and may not arrive in my lifetime, but I think the facts speak for themselves.

Speaking of which, btw, among Omar's words of wisdom with M & MD were his satisfied-sounding (but totally sickening) remark that the Mets were in first place almost all of last season. Yeah, put that one at the top of your resume, that's what you want people to remember about your 2007 team.

[nymr83]

]Burger King Application Name: Minaya, Omar position you are seeking: General Manager Work Experience General Manager, Montreal Expos -traded Brandon Phillips, Grady Sizemore, and Cliff Lee for 17 starts by Bartolo Colon -traded Colon for el duque and 2 nobodies General Manager, New York Mets -managed large payroll -experience dealing with media -oversaw worst collapse in national league history

in all seriousness though i'll judge him now for this BAD trade. if theres a bigger picture or something (say he turns church around for haren) i'll apologize then.

[TransMonk]

I dislike, but not to the point where I hate.

I would have liked to see Milledge as part of a bigger package, but don't think his value was that high.

[metirish]

Gotta say I was stunned to see who he was traded for.

[metirish]

So I suppose Jesus Flores who the Mets didn't protect in last years draft will be the Nats starting catcher, something seems wrong here,we trade Milledge to get the guy Flores will likely replace.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yeah, the whole trade is all about Schneider, that's what makes it so wrong. And it's about Schneider in part because the Mets chose not to protect Flores. And Schneider is another bad hitter in a lineup that doesn't need any more bad hitters.

[Guest iramets]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: the Mets chose not to protect Flores.

Again, whoever is in charge of evaluating young talent isn't doing a very good job of it. This is a person who is wearing a "FIRE ME" sign around his neck.

[Benjamin Grimm]

metirish wrote: Gotta say I was stunned to see who he was traded for.

Yeah! Neither of them is Hispanic!

[Guest iramets]

BlastingsThrilledge ain't too pleased by this deal, and they have some good links to various pissed-off Mets fans.

[Guest iramets]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Yeah! Neither of them is Hispanic!

Listening to Richard Neer's too-fervent defense of Omar as unbiased, it occurred to me that there really is a decent test of Omar's race-and-ethnicity blindness (Neer was arguing that Omar is just looking for good ballplayers and he sees good qualities in Hispanics which white GMs may overlook, so it's just purely a positive.) But examine when, if ever, Omar has dealt off a Hispanic player to get a white or an african american player. Has he ever done that? If he has, and the deal hasn't worked out so well, maybe that's because other GMs are thinking "Hey, if Minaya wants to unload an Hispanic player, that's pretty much telling us that the guy stinks on ice, because no one is more optimistic about the virtues of Hispanic ballplayers, no one looks to find some good in them than Omar, no one gives them more opportunities to prove themselves than Omar, so if he's wiling to pass on this one, we dont want to trade anyone half-decent for his hispanic rejects."