Saturday, September 30, 2006

Milledge: Jeffries, part deux?

No, not the unfulfilled potential. That remains to be seen. But the ability to generate discord in the clubhouse? That's starting already. As reported by David Lennon in Newsday here:

KNOW YOUR PLACE, ROOK!

The hand-scrawled message hung above Lastings Milledge's locker after Friday's 4-3 victory over the Nationals. At the bottom of the two sheets of paper was written, "Your Teammates."

At a time when the Mets should be focusing on the playoffs, it was a disturbing sign.

Milledge, as usual, ate dinner alone seated at his locker, facing inward, as the rest of the Mets crowded the clubhouse cafeteria. Someone had hidden Milledge's street clothes, and one player thought they had been replaced by a dress.

The reason? According to one person familiar with the situation, Milledge - whose reputation is deteriorating quickly - mouthed off to a veteran teammate in Atlanta. Friday's rebuke followed. Apparently, his teammates are becoming more and more annoyed by Milledge's attitude.

"How much does it take to finally wake up?" the person said. "How long before you realize the way you're acting is the opposite of how you should be acting? Fine. Stay asleep, then."

1 comment:

SheaHeyKid said...

If as serious as it sounds, this is disappointing at best. Despite the fact that his first foray into majors was not productive, you at least figured if he had a good attitude his numbers would eventually come around. Now this set of events only makes it harder, and also makes him less tradeable. Randolph and/or Minaya are going to have to lay it on the line with him. Especially Minaya, if he is still dead set on keeping him. That ties Randolph's hands, so Minaya should be partly responsible to sit the kid down and straighten him out.

Calling someone in Mets farm system a lock 5-tool player is kiss of death: jefferies, payton, now milledge. On the other hand, I don't think anyone was calling wright or reyes 5-toolers, and that's worked out tremendously.