Wright Tells Milledge To Shut Up

The New York Mets do not like Lastings Milledge. After all they traded him - a potential Gary Sheffield type - for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider.

The love fest doesn't stop there, as David Wright and [of course] Billy Wagner took exception to comments Milledge made to Sports Illustrated upon his arrival at Nationals training camp:

"I can't go through anything worse than I went through in New York. It only gets better from here," Milledge said. "A lot of veterans didn't like the way I play the game. They thought I didn't respect it."

Milledge added: "The vets here (on the Nationals) have no problem with me. They know I respect (the game). They know I work hard."

"Enough is enough," David Wright said yesterday. "You're a Washington National now. Don't worry about what happened last year or the year before that. Just go out there and try to help the Nationals win.

"It makes no sense to bash your former team. He just needs to turn the page and worry about helping the Washington Nationals. Forget about what we're doing over here. Forget about the New York Mets."

This is a no-win situation when viewing the situation as an outside observer. Milledge probably had some growing up to do, but his make-up issues seemed to be very much exaggerated. After hitting an important homerun, running down your the foul line at your homefield and high-fiving excited Mets fans is youthful enthusiasm, not cockiness or showing up the opposition. If Milledge had released a rock record - and not a hip hop album - littered with profanity, methinks the youngster would not have received half the commotion.

On the other hand, Milledge could have shown some class and progress by keeping his mouth shut this Spring, but he could not manage to do so. Whether or not he hits his ceiling becomes more a question of maturity than physicality. The question remains, can Milledge put the trivialities aside and just play ball, or will he continue to fumble his priorities. At least he can always turn to the new Elijah Dukes for inspiration.

Boston Says Mets Lead For Santana

With Yankees, Red Sox and Mets columnists coming to a current consensus on the Johan Santana trade front, the question remains, can the Mets close a deal? At one point or another all three teams "led" the race to acquire the lefty, and yet the lead did not last long enough.

Today's Boston Herald article brings some new names to the table, including recent addition Ryan Church and pitching prospect Mike Pelfrey. From the column:

The Mets, and not the Red Sox or Yankees, remain the front-runner as the team most likely to succeed in pulling off a trade for Minnesota ace Johan Santana, according to baseball insiders in touch with both the Mets and Twins in recent days.

A package the Twins could receive will probably not include both of the Mets’ top outfield prospects, Carlos Gomez and Fernando Martinez. There are indications that Martinez would be in the deal, along with major league outfielder Ryan Church and at least two other prospects. Starter Mike Pelfrey could be part of the deal as well. . . .

In another story, David Wright told the AP that the Mets don't need Santana to succeed next season. Wright had some diplomatic answers regarding the conclusion to last year's season as well. From the Bergen Record article:

Wright is convinced that the Mets have the pieces to recapture the National League East title. But he wouldn't mind if Johan Santana was brought in to aid that effort.

"I agree 100 percent with Omar [Minaya]," Wright said. "If it's the right price, 30 teams would want him. You don't want to give up the farm system. I've faced Johan. I know how nasty he is."

"Just because we haven't made any changes doesn't mean that we aren't going to come in and be better individually," he said. "The answer isn't free agency. The answer isn't making these big trades. It's looking inside.

"Everybody has a bitter taste in their mouths and I think that's a good thing."