Minaya's Lasting Mistake

On Friday, Met's GM Omar Minaya decided to spice up the off-season with a boneheaded move, trading away 22-year old prospect Lastings Milledge for much older and scrubbier players, Ryan Church and Brian Schneider. Way to go!

Marty Noble, Mets beat writer who usually tells it how it is, claimed this falsity:

Milledge remains highly regarded because of his quick bat. But he wasn't as good a fit as Church for the Mets -- at least for 2008 and perhaps '09 -- because he bats right-handed. With Schneider, a left-handed hitter, catching and Church playing right field, the Mets now can have three switch-hitters (Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo and Beltran), two right-handed hitters (David Wright and Moises Alou) and three left-handed hitters (Carlos Delgado and the two new men) in their most regular lineup.

The Mets have trouble hitting lefties...the solution, apparently? Trade for a lefty who can't hit lefties. While Church hits well at Shea, he also hit .229 last year against LHP. At 29, he's in his prime, and that's the problem. A still developing Milledge will post similar numbers to him this year, at 7 years his junior.

In addition, the recently acquired Johnny Estrada is as bad an offensive option as Schneider, but cheaper by a million or two per year. While it's true that Milledge is a better center fielder than corner outfielder, judging by his remarkably superior play in center while filling in for Carlos Beltran, but won't get to play that position for many years, he's still a better option than Church.

Lastings was once mentioned in trades for Manny Ramirez, Roy Oswalt and Dontrelle Willis. Coming off a subpar year, Milledge's trade value had plummeted, but trading him for two scrubs has left the Mets without many bargaining chips. Or Utz chips for that matter. Lastings used to pick them up from the corner bodega on game day. Without proper nutrition derived from crab chips and without good young players, I'm afraid Minaya will be forced into signing subpar Livan Hernandez in an effort to corner the market on old Cuban pitchers named Hernandez.

Mr. Noble, bucking the trend of his fellow writers who denounced the trade, believes that both Schneider and Church will be good fits for the Mets, "the kind of players that make the whole greater than the sum of it parts." Sorry Marty, but sometimes crappy player plus crappy player really just equals a lasting mistake.