Submitted by jonathan, Dec 21, 2006 04:23

In Lastings Milledge you have a young athlete that the entire major league system would love to get their hands on however now that "perception" is that the Mets do not want him as badly they believe that they can bring his worth down to the level of a second rate mediocre, at best solid player. You have to take into consideration how he dominated the minor leagues to the point that the Mets could not keep him at that level any longer. Many people are quick to brush that off as if to say his very few at bats in the Major Leagues are the measure of his worth however this is untrue. comparing him to other young players on this very team, Jose Reyes and David Wright, Milledge has been so rushed through the system mostly because of his talent and production in the minors that people tend to forget that he's recieved at least 1000 less at bats in the minor league system than the former tandem. Those of you who believe that Lastings Milledge is such a common commodity are naive and perhaps were on board with the Kazmir deal. Those of you who do not realize Aaron Heilman's value also are sorely mistaken, the mainstay of our middle relief system the New York Mets would have been eliminated possibly as early as the first round by the Los Angeles Dodgers, those of you who forget the role of our relief system too perhaps have forgotten the key to winning baseball teams. Danny Haren is a fine pitcher truly no better however than Barry Zito except for perhaps his youth which in another argument could be a disadvantage in playoff situations and experience however is he worth three bright futures players, the future of this organization? No, he is not. Furthermore Billy Beane does not recognize that our preferable trading chips are weak, in fact most likely he realizes their true worth however he most definitely knows the ways of shrewd business deals. Dont believe for one second that these players Milledge/Heilman are too little to make a swap, however the popular perception, the naive one that is, is that they are not so highly prized by their organizations...No good business man would make a trade and ask for less than what he thinks the popular perception of his products worth would be. The Mets should stay neutral this offseason and go with the young but talented pitching staff (Glavine and El Duque excluded), Barry Zito is an enormous waste of money especially considering the possibilities for next season (Carlos Zambrano) who will test the FA market. The Mets should hold on to that money now so that when a Zambrano or a Santana or some elite pitcher finally does hit the market, theyre not looking at the money they spent on Zito and feeling robbed. An elite pitcher will become available, right now there is nothing on the market better than the talent compiled currently on the Mets and this team needs a bonafide ace to lead it to the final game in October.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.