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In his latest Rumblings & Grumblings column at ESPN.com, Jayson Stark reviews the month of April, which he dubbed “a month that really defied logic.” 
According to Stark, the Lastings Milledge for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider trade was the “best deal of the winter that got ripped at the time.”
A scout, as quoted by Stark commented:
“Hell, Ryan Church is that team’s MVP so far,” said one scout, “offensively and defensively. And Schneider is in a system now where his talents are accentuated, because there’s so much emphasis on game-planning and game-calling. Milledge, for me, is just a marginal player with great skills. We’ll see if that changes.”
…i agree with the scout…it is scary to think where this team would be without church playing the way he has so far this season…
At the time the trade was made I approved of it. but it’s turned out even better than I thought it would. What surprises me the most is how well-rounded a player Church is.
It is one of Omar’s best trades. Ever.
I was always a fan of the trade too, but let’s wait until at least June to decide where this lies…
OK, I fixed it …
So far, it is one of Omar’s best trades. Ever.
:smile:
June? How about 2011?
It’s way too early to claim victory. Time will tell.
Church is better than expected and I live in DC and knew he was underrated.
Agreed. I have always defended this trade. Granted i think nobody would have thought church was going to be this good but i always felt we were getting 2 good pieces for one who may/maynot be a superstar. Schnieder has been great handling the pitchers. Both of these guys have been brought in and have performed better than we all expected. Definatly one of the best moves omar has done especially with milledges decline in stock value. Good job Church keep it up
He also says that one scout believes the only way he will get better is if he reunites with Peterson as his pitching coach. If Giants ate most of his contract, I’d take him.
i’ve been saying this all week. this could be the move that makes a dynasty.
are we talking about Zito?
Church will have his ups and downs but Schneider (because of his managing the pitching staff) will be the seldom sung hero. If Pelfry has a good year it will be because of Schneider. This will turn out to be a very good deal even if Lastings lasts.
Two above average position players–with higher potential than we realized at the time–for one with raw talent and too much swagger for what he had achieved thus far. Great trade; thought so at the time. We needed a catcher. We didn’t get a young one with great potential, but it turns out we got a really good one who hits too. Someone we can build around for a few years anyway, and we don’t have to worry about filling that one hole next off-season. Stability at catcher is a great thing. And Church is one of the few Mets showing guts, heart, and some swagger right now; he’s more than quieted the doubters. Another great addition that’ll hopefully keep paying dividends. Throw in Santana and it was a great off-season. We should be rolling right now, no? So what happened?
I saw this coming, people didn’t give Church a chance in the off season and I knew what to expect based on his stats with the nats. All that hype about church not being able to hit lefties has turned out to be over done.
And Schneider is a nice defensive upgrade behind the plate, it’s about time we have a starting catcher that can consistently throw some runners out!
Church is a tremendous defensive upgrade over Green and definitely over Milledge. To Church going to get the ball is just a job, to those two guys last year it was always an adventure.
FYI – Florida just lost, so we are now the first place Mets….lol
Yes, and only Mets fans would talk about firing the manager when their team is in first place on May 1st.
or judge a trade after a month.
love the way church approaches the game though.
As long as you qualify that judgment, then it’s ok. For example, it’s ok to say so far, the Church-Schneider/Milledge trade is a steal for the Mets.
agreed.
Seems to me there were a lot of folks giving *definitive* judgments on the trade — generally pretty negative — the day after the trade and for months after, before any of the players involved had played an inning for their new teams.
that was a product of several years of rumors that had milledge landing manny ramirez or dan haren.
The Mets *did* reach an agreement with the (then)Devil Rays and the Red Sox at the trade deadline in 2005 on a deal in which the Mets would have gotten Manny and given up Milledge and quite a bit else besides, but the Devil Rays backed out at the last minute.
There was never going to be a Milledge-for-Ramirez or Milledge-for-Haren straight-up deal. I can’t believe anyone seriously thinks that there was.
nobody said it was a straight-up deal.
you may also want to consider scott edward kazmir. if milledge is .290 28hr 105rbi in 2 years and the mets haven’t won a world series….watch for the reaction.
just glad church has played so well.
I still don’t like the trade, and I have always thought Church was better than most people imagined he’d be.
I think a young, cheap, contractually controllable player like Milledge is worth more than what we got. Unless there was a glaring need for a position to be filled — and there wasn’t — I think this is a head-scratcher of a trade. Still do, despite the success of the players we got thus far.
It’s a great trade for the Mets, but it was still a good trade for the Nats.
Both Church and Schneider are older. Milledge is still only 23. Nats are playing for the future and that future really didn’t include either Church or Schneider, while Milledge might still be as good or better then Church when he is 29.
I’m not a big Milledge fan at all, but it completely made sense for both parties. Mets needed more mature players to win now.
Don’t know about that. Their pitching staff actually overachieved last year, believe it or not, and I’m sure a lot of that credit goes to Schneider. If they implode this year, their development could be stunted.
Kind of typical Mets…it’s never the things you actually worry about that end up killing you.
Well, almost never.
So every Mets fan liked this trade. K, and no one boos either.
Look back to a previous thread about this trade, guy…then you can pass judgment on the right people
Haha, thanks guy.
No one claims they boo, yet there are overwhelming boos at Shea. For two weeks everyone has been acting like they wanted this trade, yet there was a huge outcry when overrated “potential star” Lastings was dealt.
- guy
Good point…..I was unabashedly against the trade. So was 90% of the commenters on the site at the time it went down. BS to those above who say they were for this trade when it went down.
My problem with the trade then and now is that the team neeed RH outfield help. That is Milledge. While he is struggling a bit now…he is still a terrific looking young player who has the potential to be a dynamic all star. I am still pissed that the media and the few aged “vets” on this team skewed the view of the owners and Minaya enough to dump this kid at 50 cents on the dollar.
While Church has done better than we expected and Schneider when healthy has been exactly what we expected, both of these guys are nice complimentary players but not potential all stars. Church just completed a nice month. I actually like more than I thought I would. He has hit righties and lefties so this is not a knock against him…Just think that Milledge did not get a fair opportunity to succeed here and that in the long run…with the right tutelage, he can become another Alex Rios type player.
Church has been great, and I thought the trade was at least reasonable from the beginning. On the other hand, any scout (or person) who thinks Church has been the team’s offensive MVP is crazy (Wright, despite struggling at times, leads the team in OBP, SLG%, HR, RBI, and virtually all other categories).
I think Church has been just as valuable to the mets successes so far this season as Wright and his defense has been far greater. if that opinion is “crazy” then so be it, but I am just trying to look at things objectively
c’mon!
if it’s too early to write off the season after a sub-standard start, it’s certainly too early to make any conclusions about this trade.
For everyone saying you have to give Willie more time, that it’s too early to fire the manager, you need more of a sample, I say this: many of us that want Willie fired now wanted him fired at the end of last season.
You just can’t have as your manager someone who supervised that epic collapse. Whether it’s his fault or not doesn’t matter. The taste of what happened last year will only linger with Willie at the helm. So of course the fans will boo. It’s the same team with the same leadership as lasty year. That’s life in the big city.
Enough is enough, time to bring in Carter.
A lot of people sure seem to have liked this trade when it was made, eh?
I’ll go on record as saying I hated it when Omar made it. So far, I’ve been dead wrong. Church and Schneider have been great.
I admit as well I did not like the trade at first. So far I have been proven wrong.
But lets hold judgment for a while. The dog days of Summer are right around the corner.
I absolutely hated this trade when it happened (just look at my username), but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the performance of Church and Schneider thus far. As everyone has said, it’s way too early to make a judgment, but I’m not angry about the trade anymore.
This was a deal based on trying to win now with more refined players now or wait for a younger player with a higher celing to develop.
The results of this trade won’t be known for a while. With that said, I love the way Church is playing and hope he keeps it up.
Yeah, I mean, Church was splitting time between A+ and AA ball when he was Milledge’s current age.
Hey, the Marlins lost. We are in a virtual tie for first place!!!!!
Even if Church hits .250 the rest of the way, the way he played during April made it a good deal for the Mets. Who knows where they would’ve been without him.
Now, if Milledge turns out to be a superstar, then it might not look so good. But if the Mets manage to win the division by a game, it will be in large part because of Church and the way he carried the team offensively and defensively during the first month.
I’ll go on record as being for signing Fukudome for RF and trading for a catcher, even keeping Estrada, anything but Jorge Posada.
I think Milledge and his energy could be what the team needs, and I thought at the time he was being traded due him being the “anti-Willie”. I wasn’t against trading him in the right deal, Church & Schnieder I thought would be OK short term, but I never expected this type of return on investment.
So far . . . .
Yes! I, too, wanted Fukudome, but people balked at the tag. (Who knows if the Mets might have balked at Santana’s tag had they dumped a boatload of cash on an unproven outfielder, however?) That, and the Matsui effect — afraid of another Kaz. Essentially, if that’s why they passed on Fukudome, it only compounds the error of signing Matsui.
You have to think that the flirtation with Posada was about sticking it to the Yanks. I am so glad that I am not a fan of that team. They are so damn old right now. Much older and less productive in so many spots than we are.
1b – Giambi – old and close to done but at least only one more year on the contract
LF – DH – Damon – old and one more year
LF – DH – Matsui – old and a few more years
Ca – Posada – aging and 4 more years to go
RP – Mo – still awesome but old and 4 more years
SS – Jeter – still good but aging and 3 more years..less range than ever and less a threat to run.
AROD – still amazing but 10 more years…come on
mussina and petite – not the same anymore and both have just this year left but not looking good
We certainly have a bit of age also in Alou, El Duque, Castillo, and Pedro….but there is more good youth here than there at the moment
I really didn’t like the trade and thought it was made for the wrong reasons. So far it’s turned out well, but like everyone else is saying, it’s early. I mean, Schneider’s hitting over 300 right now. Tell me that’s gonna last.
How bout Omar performs another magic trick and gets something useful for Perez. Lotta teams need pitching and he’s gonna need a bigger contract than he’s worth for the mets to keep him beyond this year.
This was by far the most logical response I have seen thus far. About Oh Pea that is. I have said all along that Ollie is the odd man out – although erratic, he can return I think a great deal and with his contract b eing up this year, his desire to return to NY on an extended basis questionable and Boras being his agent, I say they shoulda traded him back in the offseason. but now, he is the most valuable chip. Of course, this won’t happen – not till Pedro returns.
As for Church/Schneider for Milledge – this trade would have never had to happen had Flores not been lost to Rule V or Yorvit Torrealba being able to pass his physical. How’s estrada working out for the Nats?
Perez for Zito. The Giants would pounce! Not sure I’d take that swap, but it really all depends on how much of his contract they eat (i.e., a very significant chunk.)
I believe Milledge will turn out to be another Ryan Thompson, a guy who thought he was a superstar as soon as he got to the show. I’ll take the less-talented guys who are busting their ass every time.
Perez is one of those guys that all the other teams will drool over, believing that they can solve the mystery and turn a loser with great stuff into Cy Young. I just hope we don’t sign him to a new deal.
The Church/Schneid trade for Millege was a trade that worked for BOTH sides, Millege will be good, in 3 years…and we need to win now (as most of you are aware, every time a Met makes an out you all Boo like morons) so clearly Millege in RF this year wouldve led to even more booing.
Its OK to have trades that make both sides better, where no one wins or loses, its happened before and it will happen again. …like Jeff Kent for David Cone.
- Its OK to have trades that make both sides better, where no one wins or loses, its happened before and it will happen again. …like Jeff Kent for David Cone. –
That’s just wrong . . . .
It’s a pleasure to watch Church play right field; Green and Milledge were both adventures out there. I’m tired of hearing how young Milledge is; he’s not 19 and he seems to have a ten cent head. He continues to make bonehead plays this year and becoming a superstar at this point is more than a longshot; it’s a Lotto ticket.
J Stark is the man!