The Mets have officially traded OF Lastings Milledge to the Washington Nationals for OF Ryan Church and C Brian Schneider.

Milledge, who was selected 12th overall in the first round of the 2003 amateur draft by the Mets, was always highly touted as a prospect, but was criticized for having attitude problems. This led to him being involved in more trade rumors over the past few years than any other player in the Mets farm system. After numerous rumors this off season which had him involved in trades for Johan Santana or Dan Haren, the Mets have settled for Church and Schneider.

Ryan Church, who got his first chance to play everyday for the Nationals last season, hit .272 with 15 home runs and 70 RBIs in 2007, and will likely compete with Carlos Gomez and Endy Chavez to be the every day left fielder for the mets in 2008. (That is of course assuming that Gomez or Church aren't traded before then).

In addition, the Mets also get catcher Brian Schneider who has been the Nationals starting catcher since their days in Montreal. In 2007, the 30 year old Schneider hit .235 with 6 homers and 54 RBIs. Schneider is known however for being a very good defensive catcher.

This deal tells me a few things; first, the Mets, and Mets fans, have seriously overestimated Milledge's value, second, the mets look like they will let Johnny Estrada become arbitration eligible in January and let him go, proving the deal for him was done solely to dump Mota. Third, I get the sense that the A's were never really interested in Milledge, and didn't want him in a potential deal for Dan Haren. Fourth, The Mets didn't have confidence in a Milledge Gomez platoon in left field for 2008.

Personally I'm not all that pleased with this deal, for all the hype Milledge has been getting the last few years, leading to the mets selling Milledge jerseys, and Met fans creating Lastings Milledge "facts" sites, all we end up with is a mediocre offensive catcher and an older outfielder who isn't that much better than Milledge to begin with.

Early indications on the reactions of fans are mixed, we will be running a poll on your opinion of this trade later today.
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Hello and welcome to another edition of Thursday Thoughts. This time it’s the Turkey day edition. I got a few things to comment on this week so lets get right to it.

GUILLERMO MOTA IS GONE! Hallelujah. One piece of crap out of our bullpen. In return we got Johnny Estrada who has trouble getting along with teammates and threw out a career low 8% of baserunners last year. He might not even be a Met come opening day depending on arbitration. But all I can say is that Mota is gone and its one less pitcher Willie’s gut can go to.



See ya Tommy G. While it was great having you for 5 years and you pitched some great games for us, that last game you pitched for us this season left us with a bitter taste in our mouths. You belong in Atlanta, but don’t expect to do too much being 42 years old. I hope we can hammer you and make you give up 8 runs in the first inning in one of your starts.


While the rumor mill continues I think the Mets need to sign 2 solid relievers and acquire a starter. Easier said than done. Id expect that at least 2 of our top prospects will be dealt for some type of pitcher that will help us out. Honestly I don’t know who, but Id expect the Mets to pull the trigger on a pitcher of some sort in some way.



Until next time..hope you all had a good turkey day



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The New York Mets announced today that they have acquired catcher Johnny Estrada from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for righthanded pitcher Guillermo Mota.

"Johnny adds depth to our catching situation," said Mets General Manager Omar Minaya. "He's a former All-Star who switch-hits and has hit over .300 three times in his career."

Estrada, 31, hit .278 (123-for-442) with 40 runs scored, 25 doubles, 10 home runs and 54 RBI in 120 games with the Brewers last year.

Mets fans rejoice, because not only have we gotten rid of Mota, we also solved our catching problem as well...Oh yeah and did I mention we got rid of Mota?
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