Is there anyone we could dump this guy on? Anyone? How is he still hitting .270? Am I missing something? Aside from his hit last night there aren't many I can recall. Is there a conspiracy to keep him in the league? Is Dick Cheney involved. The Pentavirate? Colonel Sanders before he went tits up? I understood at the time of the deal the desire to have an experienced, "solid" bat but I think there are fourth outfielders who are putting up better numbers. Green is on pace for 12 home runs and 52 RBI's and I think that's trending DOWNWARD. My greatest worry is that we're going to sit Milledge for THAT. -X-
lol, wtf? if there's a conspiracy to keep anyone in the league, it's Julio Franco. Green is so many times better than Julio in all aspects of the game...
They can buy him out for 2m next year and I think he still has a place on the team this year, as their lefty off the bench. But we know that he'll continue to be trotted out there everyday unless he breaks his leg due to Randolph's fear of change. There's absolutely no reason I can think of to give a guy like him AB's over Milledge yet I would bet that it happens. It really is a shame, when the Mets had a great manager they were stuck with the awful Steve Phillips as GM, and now that they've got a decent GM in Minaya we've got Steamboat Willie filling out the lineup card.
Agreed. I don't think Green's useless, but he's not a starter anymore. Milledge, at the very least, has earned the right to get in as many ABs as possible and to be in the field more than Green. If Milledge continues contributing and Green continues his downward spiral up until Alou comes back, you have to start putting Milledge in there over Green. Give Green a start every once in a while against righties, but I'm going to blow a fuse if he's starting over Milledge against a lefty starter.
Milledge should be an everyday OFer for the rest of the year. Alternate him between left & right but he needs to play everyday.
He was a really good player for the Dodgers from 2000-2004. Moved to 1B when we needed him to, played hurt, never caused a problem. One year he hit over 45 HRs, but he had Gary Sheffield hitting behind him, 2001 I think.
The Mets are not going to able to live with his defense come playoff time. Every short fly to right finds grass. Free Lastings! I could actually live with Gomez in left and Lastings in right, should Alou not be 100%. That would be a speedy bunch on the basepaths
Green needs to stay at a minimum because of the possibility of losing Alou again for a prolonged period. I agree that once Alou is back, Green should be nothing more than a lefty bat on the bench and a spot starter for Delgado at 1st and occasionally in Right. Once (if?) Chavez gets back I would reduce Green's starts in the OF even more in favor of Endy. I think we've probably seen the end of Gomez for this year in any significant role (aside from 40 man callups of course).
Every time we play you guys Lo Duca and Green kick the shit out of us for old time's sake. In the playoffs even Mota got into the act. If you get Gagne I'm folding up my tent.
I'm not ready to christen him yet, but if he continues on the pace he's going at right now, there's no reason not to have him starting everyday. Experience be damned.
Well, the reason you could give is that Green's OPS against righthanded pitchers is .817, while his OPS against lefthanded starters is .516. He should never get an at bat against a lefty, of course, but he's actually been as good a hitter against righties this year as any Mets outfielder, including Alou, Beltran, Chavez, Milledge, and Gomez, and has arguably been better than any of them. That speaks to how bad the Mets offense has been, but it's still true. I agree completely about your manager/GM point, but would add the caveat that it's very possible that someone with Valentine's ego would have been unable to coexist with Minaya.
OK, but how much of that .817 is from the begining of the year when he was killing the ball? I mean, for June he went .182/.229/.318 and he's .250/.270/.319 for July. That's 36 games, there can't have been that many AB's against lefties in there to drive his numbers that low if he was still hitting righties. Valentine did have a huge ego, but in his case he was right about Phillips being a moron. You would think with a GM that at least listened to him and wasn't totally incompetant they would've been able to at least coexist.
I don't have the splits by month but I don't doubt that you're right that his numbers are nowhere near as good as they were at the beginning of the season. Having said that, he really has been far from the worst culprit for the Mets.
