Poor Judgement On A New Level

David Lennon at On The Mets Beat, writes about Lastings Milledge and his rap career:

I know John Maine just suffered his first loss of the season, Cliff Floyd banged out three hits against his former team and Carlos Zambrano, the Mets' No.1 starter next year, turned in a nifty eight-inning audition at Shea this evening. But let's not lose sight of the fact that Lastings Milledge is on the verge of rap superstardom.

The Mets were not thrilled today to hear Milledge rapping with Manny D on a track called "On Ya Knees" that includes sexist language about women and liberal use of the N-word. MIlledge, or "L Millz" as he's called on the web site, apparently is a friend and manager of Manny D. It's always good for a player to have options if baseball doesn't work out, but the Mets surely wish his outside interests were a little more PC.

What If The Mets Did This?

I'm a huge fan of trading up for a team. In the fantasy league I'm in, I think, I've been involved in more trades than anyone else. It let's you know that your GM still cares (not that Omar doesn't).

So with that said, I’ll throw out a couple of trade proposals to make the Mets younger and better for years to come.

1. The Mets give Oakland Lastings Millege and Aaron Heilman for Dan Haren.

I know, I know. This trade has been bounced around more times than a pinball. But, I think Billy Beane is finally ready to pull the trigger. Call it a gut feeling. And as MLB Trade Rumors said it in a previous post,” Dan Haren on the other hand… could challenge for Cy Youngs as a Met.”

2. The Mets give Pittsburgh Rubin Gotay, Ricky Ledee and Ambriorix Burgos for Freddy Sanchez.

Sanchez is probably at the lowest selling point right now. He’s hitting only .258 and has only 4 RBI’s. A change of scenery will most likely do him good. The Mets need a second baseman with a decent bat and a good glove. Sanchez is both of these.

From the Pirates side of the table, Gotay could replace Sanchez at Second, Burgos would go to a pen that desperately needs help (28th in the Majors) and Ledee would go to a team that’s in need of veteran leadership.

It’s by far a win, win for each team.

The rotation would shape up like this:

Tom Glavine
John Maine
Dan Haren
Oliver Perez
Jorge Sosa

The batting order would shape up like this:

Jose Reyes
Freddy Sanchez
Carlos Beltran
Carlos Delgado
David Wright
Moises Alou
Shawn Green
Paul Lo Duca

Pitcher

Note From David Rubin: I think that, if we are willing to part with both Milledge AND Heilman, we could expect to receive Rich Harden back in a deal. Even though Harden has been chronically hurt, a la Mark Prior, he still represents a unique talent who, when healthy, is capable of becoming one of the top 10 pitchers in the game, a designation not unknown to Mr. Beane. Second, I HATE dealing with Beane, because he always seems to make one-sided trades. Finally, I think that the Bucs would want more than the package above for Sanchez, as he is, after all, the reigning NL batting champ. I know a bunch of folks who worked with the kid when he was a busboy back in SoCal, and they all said what a great person he is and what a student of the game he is as well. I'm sure the Bucs have no doubt that he'll pick up his pace soon, as he's probably not as good as he was last year, but is certainly far better than he's showing this year. I think we'd have to offer a better pitching prospect, as well as a good hitting prospect to acquire a talent like Sanchez, as the days of prying talent away from Pittsburgh for a song are now seemingly over. I would not mind Haren, but would want to give up less...I would definitely want Sanchez, but we'd have to give up more...and I DON'T want Cantu, unless he's our last option, for the reasons stated in another post on the site. But, GM-In-Training that he is, John is certainly guilty of one thing- Throwing good ideas out there to get the "hot stove league" spinning...keep it up, bud!!!!

Milledge Ready For Fresh Start

Charlie Nobles at Mets.com, writes about Lastings Milledge and how he's looking forward to a new start this season:

"My nutrition was kind of bad," Milledge said Monday after his arrival at camp here. "My family helped me out with that, saying you can only eat a couple burgers a week. So I started eating only a burger a week. Now it's become a routine. I don't eat them that often. I feel a lot better now. [I] feel I have more energy."

Earlier he had asserted, "I'm able to do things I wasn't able to do last year."