Q and A - Who Impressed and Who Depressed?

Reese Kaplan asks –

            What player were you sure would succeed at the big league level only to struggle?  The flip side, who surprised you the most with his success?

          

           Jack Flynn says –

                       Mack and some of the other site veterans will laugh at me for this, but I was sure that Lastings Milledge was going to be an above-average major league player.

I always felt the various controversies surrounding Milledge were overblown, from his side gig as a mediocre rapper to the "overexuberance" of slapping hands with Mets fans after hitting a two-out 10th inning game-tying homer that just happened to be the first of his career. So many people seemed almost predisposed to dislike Milledge, for reasons that I'll leave up to the reader to speculate.

For me, the Lastings Milledge I saw in 2006 was the youngest player in baseball, a cocky kid with a happy-go-lucky attitude. He was considered a Top 10 prospect at the time of his promotion and had been successful at all minor league stations before arriving at Shea. Perhaps he hadn't quite earned the swagger he carried himself with when he got up here, but Milledge's track record certainly suggested that big things were in his future.

At worst, Milledge was an immature kid that needed some caring veterans to set behavioral standards without alienating him in the clubhouse. In retrospect, the Mets were one of the worst places for someone like Milledge to end up. The "professionals" in that clubhouse took to leaving handmade signs in Milledge's locker instead of confronting him face to face, and the overly sanctimonious New York media lapped it up with a spoon. At a time when David Wright and Jose Reyes were blossoming into young superstars, Milledge was always under the microscope in a way that they were not.

Nevertheless, Milledge was a regular for much of the second half of the 2007 season and put up respectable numbers, but one could be forgiven for assuming that the team's disastrous collapse was an indication that something was wrong in the clubhouse. Two months later, Milledge was a Washington National, replaced by Ryan Church and Brian Schnieder.

It's easy to forget that the Nationals were willing to trade a starting catcher and a starting outfielder for Milledge, an indication that the organization believed that Milledge had only scratched the surface of his talent. He was a regular for the Nats in 2008 but put up pedestrian numbers, and within 18 months he was traded to Pittsburgh. His career petered out from there, as injuries and lack of development led to a release by the White Sox in 2011.

By the time the Mets traded him, Milledge's reputation was etched in stone - unfairly, in my eyes. Who among us can look back at the person they were at 23 and be satisfied with that narrative following them for the rest of their lives? Again, for reasons I leave up to the reader to speculate, it always felt the Milledge was held to standards that other players were not.

Lastings Milledge will be just a few days shy of 33 when the 2018 season begins. He is still in organized baseball, having spent last season with Lancaster in the Atlantic League. For some, Milledge remains a cautionary tale to be clucked at disapprovingly, meant to scare amateur ballplayers away from ever having too much personality or showing too much independence, lest they be branded a troublemaker.

For me, Lastings Milledge is an example of what happens when a ballclub overvalues conformity of personality and spends too much time obsessing over what a player is not, instead of treating players as individuals and striving to get the best out of each one.

Mike Friere says –

A very interesting question that brings back some memories, both good and bad.  

It is easier to think about the "can't miss" prospects that failed, as opposed to the ones that were not thought of in a similar fashion, yet managed to be successful in the long run.

Despite my Gregg Jeffries induced negativity, I would have to vote for Lastings Milledge as my most disappointing prospect.  He was hyped as the "next big thing" for the Mets at a time when the team  really needed a young outfielder.  He was supposed to be what Andrew McCutchen turned into, but instead he underachieved and remains on the extreme fringe of the game with a whopping total of 0.5 WAR over 1500 career plate appearances.   A very sad turn of events that was only superseded by his attempted musical career.

On the flip side, how can you not be blown away by what Jacob DeGrom has become?  I cannot say I knew who he was in his early days as a middle infielder at Stetson University.  He converted to a starting pitcher prior to being a mid-round draft pick of the Mets in 2010.  Since that time, he rocketed through the minor leagues and has since established himself as one of the best starting pitchers in all of baseball.  

I would take five more just like him!

Mack says –

                       Definie ‘struggle’.

           Easily, Matt Harvey has disappointed me the most, especially after his rocket ascent. This guy’s arm was supposed to single handedly carry us to the playoffs, year after year.

           My biggest surprise has been Juan Lagares, who I said for years would never make it to the major league level. Maybe it’s hard work, an organization without outfield depth, or a little of each, but him winning a Gold Glove proved I still have much to improve on being a Mets pundit.

Reese says –

           The first one is easy for me as he's still hanging on by his fingernails -- Rafael Montero.  His minor league numbers were eye popping to say the least.  He entered professional ball with a 4-team debut in 2011 as a 20 year-old and provided a cumulative 2.15 ERA and a 5.08 K:BB ratio.  He followed that up at age 21 with an 11-5 record, a 2.36 ERA and an improved 5.98 K:BB ratio.  At age 22 his ERA ticked up again to 2.78 but again he had a winning record and impressive control numbers.  He even delivered an impressive 3.05 in Las Vegas that year.  Then the wheels came off.  Yes, he had some dazzling starts here and there but the control evaporated and his banishment to the manager's doghouse seemed to play games with his head.  He's never recovered.

For the one who surprised me it would also be a very familiar name.  When the Mets decided in 2014 to promote a converted shortstop at the mature age of 26 who had been pitching to around a 4.50 ERA over the course of his AAA career, I had relatively low expectations.  They needed a pitcher and he'd been throwing well in the pitching torturous league.  No one could have predicted the career 2.98 ERA at the major league level for Jacob deGrom.