Omar Strikes Out AgainPrecisely because Lastings Milledge's trade value had plummeted, yesterday's trade of Milledge for two marginal players - Ryan Church and Brian Schneider - is yet another failure of Omar Minaya's.
Minaya, it will be recalled, refused to include Milledge in potential deals for Manny Ramirez and Barry Zito. Now he apparently was desperate to give away a talented young outfielder.
Church and Schneider may well be decent players, but their upsides are limited. Church seems like, at best, an upgrade over the likes of Shawn Green and Endy Chavez. But even now he may not be as good as Milledge, and with far less talent than Milledge, certainly offers far less upside than Milledge does.
Schneider is touted as being a good defensive catcher, which better be the case, because he's a terrible hitting catcher - even worse than Yorvit Torrealba - the subject of Minaya's recent short-lived infatuation. Count me as skeptical than Schneider, overall, is really an upgrade over either Paul Lo Duca or Johnny Estrada.
Minaya's attitude seems to be that it is worth letting go of Lastings Milledge for a very slight 2008 upgrade in right field. In that case, Milledge will likely be only the first young player to be sent packing this offseason by a team that increasingly resembles the 80's Yankees in its warped approach to developing talent.
posted on 12/01/2007
