September 11, 2007

Who's The Right Fielder?

If the Mets make the playoffs and Carlos Delgado returns from his injury, the Mets will have to make a decision on who the starting right fielder will be. I find it very unlikely that the team will go with a platoon situation, both players respond much better when they can get in a groove by playing regularly. When I say both players I am referring to Shawn Green and Lastings Milledge, I believe Endy Chavez is best suited coming off the bench.

It comes down to the veteran or the youngster. Do you want a reliable guy that you know what your going to get or an exciting young player who may be incredible or make a stupid rookie mistake. Green lets alot of balls drop in front of him and can't track down balls in the gap because of his lack of speed but you know he'll generally play the hop correctly and hit the cut off man. Milledge may make an incredible run saving, diving catch or he might take the wrong approach on a ball and miss an easy fly out.

At the plate Green is very streaky, when he's hot it's hard to keep him out of the line-up but when he's cold it's an automatic out. The one good thing about Green is that he will take a pitcher deep into a count, whether he gets a hit or not. Milledge has speed and it's great to have that kinda threat on the base path. Milledge has great bat speed and can turn on a fastball, putting a mistake out of the park in a split second. But he has been a free swinger and even an average breaking ball pitcher can make him look foolish. Recently Milledge has been a much more disciplined hitter, but a veteran pitcher can still fool him.

I'm leaning towards Green being the starting right fielder with Milledge as a pinch hitter/running and late inning defensive replacement. My biggest concern with doing that is, he may become completely cold and you won't get any productivity out of him.

In Aug. Green hit .293 with three doubles and one home run with six walks; Sept. he's hitting .320 with four doubles and one walk. Overall Green is hitting .277, OBP .330, SLG .413, 42 RBIs, 8 HRs, 1 triple, 30 doubles, 29 BB and 10 SB in 412 at bats. Fielding percentage is .985 with three errors and two assists.

Milledge is slumping in Sept. which may cost him the position, in Sept. he is batting .250 with two homeruns and four RBIs (no other extra base hits) almost seventy points below Green. In Aug. he hit .318 with four doubles and seven RBIs. Overall Milledge is hitting .285, OBP .343, SLG .437, 25 RBIs, 5 HRs, 8 doubles, 10 BB and 3 SB in 151 at bats. Fielding percentage is .980 with two errors and two assists.


There's no doubt that Milledge is the future right fielder with Gomez in left and Beltran in center. But is he ready for the full time position in the playoffs this or should the veteran Green man the position........

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

its going to be green

Anonymous said...

yeah age before beauty

Anonymous said...

milledge deserves it but green will get the nod from willie

Anonymous said...

it sucks but its right

Anonymous said...

that does suck

Anonymous said...

wish milledge could get the start