Mets - Nationals Trade

The Mets traded Lastings Milledge to the Nationals for catcher Brian Schneider and outfielder Ryan Church. What to think?

Milledge was supposed to be an untouchable player - I guess not. At one point it was rumored a couple of years ago that Milledge was going to be traded to the Red Sox straight-up for Manny Ramirez. Thank God that never happened. Don't get me wrong - Milledge will just be 23 next season and he's shown significant improvement in his time in the big leagues. He easily could be a 20-HR, .300 batting average guy next season.

In return the Mets get Brian Schneider who I guess you could categorize as Jason Varitek-lite or as Brad Ausmus's brother from another mother. They also get 29-year old Ryan Church who I think is a good player but not good enough to trade one of your top trade chips to acquire.

I don't know what Omar Minaya was thinking. His big need is starting pitching and he just gave away one of his biggest chips for the equivalent of Jose Molina and Corey Patterson - both of whom are free agents and wouldn't have cost the Mets Lastings Milledge to acquire. I think Omar Minaya is a bad general manager. How bad? He just got fleeced by Jim Bowden.