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New York Times today:
October 31, 2005
Mets Can See Their Future, but Can Their Present Wait?
By BEN SHPIGEL
SURPRISE, Ariz., Oct. 26 - His Grand Canyon Rafters are losing, 4-2, when Lastings Milledge strides to the plate with two outs and two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth inning. It hasn't been a good day for him - two flyouts, a groundout and a foul-out - and the late-afternoon shadows creeping over home plate are making it increasingly difficult to see.
The first pitch to Milledge is low. The second is outside. Milledge is expecting a breaking ball, but when a fastball comes hurtling toward the plate, he tilts backward, knees bent at a nearly 90-degree angle, cocks his bat and whips it on a slight upward plane through the zone.
When bat meets ball, the sound stops conversations in mid-sentence. A major league scout sitting behind home plate gushes a "wow" as the ball soars beyond the fence in left-center field, above the bullpen, and lands, finally, on the grass berm, officially a long, long way away.
Rafters 5, Surprise Scorpions 4. Game over.
The home run, in a sense, is merely a tease. Power is not the most alluring element of Milledge's game - not yet, anyway. But on this cloudless Arizona afternoon, it is yet another tantalizing snapshot of a skill that persuaded the Mets to make Milledge their first-round draft pick in 2003.
At 20, often the youngest player on the field during these Arizona Fall League games, Milledge boasts exceptional speed, tremendous outfield range and a frighteningly quick bat. During a showcase event in high school, his throws from the outfield were clocked at 96 miles an hour. He tore through Class A St. Lucie in the first half of last season before being promoted to Class AA Binghamton, where he batted .337 in 193 at-bats. And while Milledge acknowledges that he still needs some polish, Kevin Morgan, the Mets' director for minor league operations, raves about his precociousness between the foul lines.
Milledge, it would seem, is one of those can't-miss prospects. Except, of course, he still can. Even though the Mets project him as a fundamental component to their future - billboards with his face alongside those of José Reyes and David Wright should be ready for 2007 - Milledge is caught squarely in the crosshairs of an organizational predicament. With the World Series over and off-season maneuvering picking up steam, the quandary facing General Manager Omar Minaya as he tries to move the Mets up a notch is whether Milledge could help them more if he were playing somewhere else.
That is, should the Mets hold on to Milledge, a player with a seemingly endless upside, or, bowing to the transitory nature of the sport, package him in a deal in coming weeks that could supply immediate help, perhaps the big bat they need to turn an 83-victory team into a contender?
"If the Mets are looking to trade him, I know 29 teams who would be more than happy to take him off their hands," said a veteran National League scout, who asked that his name not be used because he was commenting on another team's player.
As an organization, the Mets know the risks involved in trading away a No. 1 pick in the hopes of instantly improving the team. They were derided for dealing Scott Kazmir in July 2004, giving up the hard-throwing left-hander who was widely viewed as one of the top pitching prospects in baseball in exchange for the Tampa Bay right-hander Victor Zambrano, who since becoming a Met has been either injured or inconsistent.
Minaya was not with the Mets when Kazmir was traded, so he will not have any explaining to do if Kazmir becomes a major league star. But will all the criticism the Mets have received for the Kazmir deal ultimately make Minaya cautious about trading Milledge? Minaya is not tipping his hand.
"He's always the guy who plays well in the big game," Minaya said of Milledge. "How can you not be pleased to have a guy like him?"
Still, Milledge's name has already come up in trade talks. He was mentioned prominently when the Mets and the Boston Red Sox engaged in discussions last summer that would have sent Manny Ramirez to Queens, and it stands to reason that Milledge's name will come up again this fall and winter as Minaya looks for trade partners.
None of this bothers Milledge. It may not be in his pedigree to worry about things he cannot control. He grew up in Palmetto, Fla., near St. Petersburg, the last of Tony and Linda Milledge's three sons (hence the name Lastings). He was something of a baseball prodigy. He played in the 1997 Little League World Series and in 2001 was named the top 16-year-old player in the country by Baseball America. Both of his older brothers, Greg and Anthony, played minor league baseball. His father, a former minor leaguer, spent more than 25 years as a Florida highway patrolman and expected excellence from his youngest son.
"Lastings knows I don't put up with no jive, I don't put up with no short cuts; that's not who I am," Tony Milledge said in a telephone interview. "There have been a few little scrapes, but he's never really tested me."
But there was trouble in May 2002. A few days after leading his Northside Christian School baseball team to the state finals, Milledge, a 16-year-old junior, was expelled by the school, which said he had engaged in inappropriate behavior with an underage girl.
No charges were filed, and Milledge transferred to Lakewood Ranch High School in nearby Bradenton. It is difficult to determine whether the expulsion and subsequent questions about his character caused Milledge, projected as a top-five pick, to fall to the Mets, who had the No. 12 selection in 2003. During contract negotiations, the Mets were informed of additional allegations about inappropriate behavior with underage girls, and they suspended the talks for 10 days. Those allegations were never substantiated. Still, two years later, Milledge says he feels he will never shake the accusations.
"People will always think what they want to about me, and it's not fair," Milledge said. "It's something that I have to deal with, but I've always kept my nose clean. Everyone has their nicks and falls and bumps and bruises along the way, but the main thing is being out on the field and producing. If you can concentrate on that, you'll be O.K."
Milledge is 6 feet and is 185 pounds. The first things you notice about him are his hands. They're enormous. The Livestrong and Hurricane Katrina relief bracelets that encircle his right wrist seem as if they are straining to break free. He pulls his black socks nearly to his knees, making his legs look deceptively small. He has always had physical gifts, and now, since playing in the minors, he has started breaking some of the few bad habits he carried.
The scout, who said he had seen Milledge play several times in high school and in the Florida State League, said Milledge had improved his plate discipline and would punish a pitcher's mistake. He did not do that before, the scout said, and his developing power projects him as a No. 3 hitter. Until now, Milledge has been a center fielder, but he is playing some left field in Arizona, perhaps to prepare to play alongside the Mets' incumbent center fielder, Carlos Beltran.
The consensus among Mets officials is, so far, so good. Grand Canyon Manager Ken Oberkfell, also the manager for the Mets' Class AAA team in Norfolk, Va., called Milledge a model citizen, and Minaya said he had heard nothing but encouraging reports on Milledge's progress. Milledge also has the built-in safety net of his parents, who bought a camper shortly after Tony Milledge retired so they could follow their son's baseball travels along the East Coast. When Milledge played in 2003 in Columbia, S.C., in what was then the home of a Mets Class A team, the team bus waited for the Milledges before leaving on road trips.
If his knee feels up to it, Tony Milledge will most likely steer the camper toward Binghamton for opening day in 2006.
Although his time in Arizona has accelerated his progress, Milledge needs work before a promotion to Norfolk is even considered. Slowing at third base on a single to right field is not smart baseball, although even in that instance last week, he compensated by turning on the speed and scoring easily.
There is a lot of time to smooth the rough edges before he plays his first major league game, which he hopes will be in Shea Stadium.
Whether it happens in Shea is up to Minaya. It is what he feels, and the trades he makes, and rejects, that will determine Milledge's future.
"All the stuff that I've been through - that's why I think I can handle playing in New York," Milledge said. "That's why I feel I
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The league has been the same for the most part over the past week, except for Brandon Wood hitting four bombs in one game against us. That was pretty exciting. It was fun to see someone hit like that. We're more relaxed out here, so we were kind of happy for him. We're trying to win the game, but it's not the same thing as during the year. It was a cool sight to see because I'd never seen anything like it before.
It means a lot to me to represent the United States in the upcoming Olympic qualifier in Phoenix. I'm real excited to play. Having played for Team USA four times, I feel more comfortable. I think I sort of know what it's going to be like to play and how I have to produce.