Willie Need To Trust The Future

If you were to sit in front of your computer and just take a look at the Mets bench, you would run into an enormous question. Why is Shawn Green in Right Field and Lastings Milledge not? Sadly enough, with all of our collective Met fan thinking; we just can’t seem to make heads or tails of the situation.

Shawn Green can no longer field a shallow ball as he’s demonstrated on many occasions with his head first dive to only take one in the face. Clearly, he can’t hit with power anymore, as his home runs have been quickly regressing since the 2002 season. Up to this point he’s only hit eight home runs and isn’t showing signs of a power surge anytime soon. His slugging percentage is at its lowest point in his career (.414) since he played fourteen games with Toronto in 1995 (.121). Maybe it’s me but it just seems like Green is running on fumes in his proverbial aging gas tank.

On the other side of the spectrum you have a kid who is supposed to be a big part of the Mets future and could very well make as big as an impact now if he were only given the chance. Lastings Milledge is hitting the ball every chance he has gotten. The only problem with this is that since Carlos Beltran made his return into the lineup, Milledge has been riding the pine and in clear view of watching Shawn Green’s batting average get dangerously close to Carlos Delgado’s.

Lastings Milledge is hitting at .309 and has three home runs, 18 runs batted in and has a stolen base. He’s outdone Green, if their at bats were put up next to each other, by an extraordinary amount. Milledge has only had 97 at bats and, I know, he still gets fooled by some pitches, but more times than not he’ll put the ball in play to either drive home a run on a sacrifice or push a runner up. This isn’t like the Ruben Gotay situation where he was taken off of second base for, two time Gold Glover, Luis Castillo, because Milledge also has a slightly better fielding percentage than Green (.986 to .983).

It could be argued that Milledge just lacks the experience needed to contend for the Division Title, but that doesn’t mean that Green is going to step up and deliver like Milledge has been doing for 28 games and is showing no signs of letting up. But how is he supposed to get the experience if he isn’t even given the chance to perform under those conditions. David Wright, Jose Reyes, Aaron Heilman, Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca to name a few, didn’t feel that pressure until last year, so how does that make it any different from Lastings Milledge’s position.

At any rate, the reasons for Lastings Milledge to be in Right Field and Shawn Green to be rooting from the dugout are many, but the fact remains that Willie Randolph will always put the veteran out there instead of the kid. Until he learns to trust the future of the outfield, there will be no future for the Mets.