Happy With Our Guy

Warning – there’s a small fan-boy rant in this entry. Sorry, I just can’t help myself at the moment.

Via BaseballThinkFactory.org this morning, I noticed that NY Baseball Central has a good summary on the present war between the Mets and Bob Raissman regarding the press coverage of Lastings Milledge’s past. From that feature, here’s a summary of some of the baggage that comes with the Mets “great” prospect:

Look, the kid clearly has some thug tendencies — he drives his Hummer like a banshee (nearly running me over last spring training) and walks around like he’s a 10-time All-Star — but the irony here is that the team brass is showing itself to be a much bigger punk than Milledge ever could be with this sort of behavior.

More on Milledge from the Raissman piece in question:

So, there was hardly a word or whisper about how Milledge, during spring training, often had his watch set on “Pedro time,” taking the star trip and arriving at the ballpark late. What about those legal issues Milledge encountered when he was drafted by the Mets in 2003? They were a figment of some reporter’s imagination, right?

Mets ownership would also rather have everyone ignore that bench-clearing tango inspired by Milledge after he slid, spikes-high, into Richmond Braves third baseman Jonathan Schuerholz. The suits were not happy about the Daily News noting how Milledge’s “flamboyance” has made him a very unpopular guy among his International League peers.

While some might say that it’s wrong to point at something bad to make something else look good, I still have to say this: What a pleasure it is to watch young Melky Cabrera go about his business while he’s succeeding at the Major League level.

The Mets can have Milledge. I’d rather have Melky without question.

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