Most of the stuff I've read about the Delmon Young trade indicates that a lot of people believe he'll be a superstar one day. That's understandable, he's a very young player who's already performed decently at the major league level. There's another young corner outfielder who's performed about as well, but doesn't seem to be held in the same regard. Lastings Milledge is only 5 months older than Delmon Young. He was taken eleven picks after Young in the 2003 draft. They're both athletically gifted corner outfielders. They both face accusations of having bad attidudes. Ignoring durability, Milledge has performed better over the last 2 years.
For 2006, here are their avg/obp/slg/ops in AAA:
Milledge: .277/.388/.440/.828
D.Young: .316/.341/.474/.815
For 2007, here are the same in the majors:
Milledge: .272/.341/.446/.787
D.Young: .288/.316/.408/.724
Milledge outperformed Young in 2004, too. A lot of the hype for Young is due to his impressive AA performance in 2005, but for players this young, a lot more weight needs to be given to recent performance. I realize durability is an issue. I know that scouts see a little more projectability in Young. Regardless, I think the only reasonable conclusion is one of the following:
(a) Delmon Young is overrated
(b) Lastings Milledge is underrated
(c) all of the above
4 comments:
It appears Lastings Milledge is no longer a Met.
That was remarkable timing. And a remarkably bad trade.
Is Omar trying to reassmble his old Montreal team? Is Colon gonna be on board soon? God, he's making it tough to be a Met fan. Then again, he's acquiescing to the general sentiment of the local media, which had it in for Milledge since day one, and the Coupon family has recently been incredibly self-conscious about the team's image.
I think they were worried they saw their own Vick on their hands and dumped him. Bad trade, especially cuz they didn't even get a youngster, they got a 29 and 32 year old. Also, I don't dispute your stats provided, and you have a point, but didn't Young have many more plate appearances than Milledge last year?
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