I Hope You're Happy, Joel Sherman

Gee, here I was about to write that Jose Reyes needed to step it up after his vote of confidence from Omar, who refuses to deal him for Johan Santana, when I heard today's big news.

I'm just pleased as punch that the Mets were able to foist the bubonic plague known as Lastings Milledge on the Washington Nationals today for a Right-wing Christian and a .230 hitter. That was, for sure, a move that desperately needed to be made.

It baffles me, quite honestly. I know this all comes back to the Media in New York, which made this poor kid a pariah because he sang a rap song and high-fived some fans because he was excited over hitting a Home Run, and he showboated a little bit, and was a young, exciting ballplayer. God Forbid the Mets should have someone like that on their team. My feelings on the Mets' stance on Milledge have already been well documented, and their stance on other such "boat-rockers" as LoDuca has already reared its head this off-season, and now it's culminated with Lastings finally being driven out of town.

In his stead, the Mets have brought in a catcher, who is good defensively but cannot hit the broad side of a barn, to go along with the other two catchers they already have. I guess this is the opposite of Art Howe's logic, when he claimed that you can't have too much pitching; now you can't have too much catching. So the Mets can now lose games 2-1 instead of 3-1 because Schneider will keep that extra run off the board, but he's still going to go 0 for 4.

Moreover, the Mets have brought in a guy who, despite putting up some decent offensive numbers, really boils down to a younger Shawn Green, except that he hits closer to the 35-year old Green than the 29-year old Green. But then again, Green is a heathen, headed for eternal damnation.

But at least he's not rapping about it.

I sincerely hope that this happened simply because there was no market for Milledge, and that this was Omar's precursor for dealing one or two or some combination of several of these spare parts for something decent. Otherwise, the Mets have just screwed themselves even further by dealing away the guy who was best suited to take over the Right Field job full time in '08. I don't know. Maybe if Milledge's star has fallen that much, this really was the best Omar could get for him. Maybe he's not going to develop and Church's numbers will end up equaling his. But right now, I can't figure this one out. I'm baffled right now.