He Didn’t Leave a ‘Lastings’ Impression

In 2003, the New York Mets drafted 18-year old Lastings Milledge with the 12th overall selection. On Thursday, the White Sox designated 26-year old Lastings Milledge for assignment. Having spent time in both the major and minor leagues for four different organizations over the past four seasons, the former highly touted high school product has lost virtually all of his luster.

Though his career is at a crossroads right now, Milledge finds himself in an interesting situation. He isn’t talented enough to legitimately help any team, but he will undoubtedly be given every opportunity to prove that assessment incorrect.

At 26, Milledge is still young enough not to be written off as a bust, but he hasn’t developed the skills many envisioned would come with more experience in the majors. He has some pop but not enough to make scouts think that the power stroke is right around the corner. He can run, but has not been successful stealing bases. Further, he does not even reach base enough to effectively utilize his speed. And while he won’t hurt a team in the outfield with his defensive play, he also isn’t a range demon. Mix everything together and that resume seems to belong to the last player on a bench and not a prospect about to blossom into an effective regular.

His splits don’t even profile well in a platoon situation. Against opposite handed pitchers he has a career line of .287/.361/.432, which is similar to Raul Ibanez ‘s overall numbers last year–decent but underwhelming. To merit usage in a specified role such as a platoon, you better bring it with the stick against an opposite-handed hurler. Teams aren’t going to be confident using a player with that slash line as the right-handed piece of bread in a platoon sandwich. Those that express such an interest are likely desperate or just in need of a cheap stopgap.

When a player is designated for assignment, the team has 10 days to decide whether it wants to release, trade, or assign him to the minors. Deciding on the latter course of action requires the team to place the player on irrevocable outright waivers, where he can be claimed by any of the other 29 teams. Given how Milledge’s career has gone so far, it’s likely that some team will submit a waiver claim.

That’s what happens to players like Milledge, who fall into the awkward area of not being good enough to retain a job on a major league team, but who are young and who have an enticing enough pedigree to consistently be given opportunities to succeed. I could probably store this article as a template on my computer, update the initial employer and the age, and run it each year, as the circumstances are unlikely to change.

Don’t believe me? Heck, Corey Patterson is still getting chances, and his background is similar. Milledge has a career .269/.328/.395 slash line. Patterson has hit .253/.292/.404. Their skillsets are a tad different, but if I had to project the rest of Milledge’s career I would suggest you look no further than Patterson.

Players like Milledge don’t generally “figure it out” but neither do teams. By the time Milledge is 30 years old, he will have played for eight teams, each of which kicked itself for not being able to turn perceived garbage into gold. Bank it.





Eric is an accountant and statistical analyst from Philadelphia. He also covers the Phillies at Phillies Nation and can be found here on Twitter.

49 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
David Wishinsky
12 years ago

Very good stuff Eric. I feel that is even more so true of left-handed pitchers, where they don’t even need to have the “enticing enough pedigree” they just need to have a left arm (see: Chen, Bruce).

CircleChange11
12 years ago

I think that’s the fans’ perceptions, but the consensus I get from reading Tango, BPro, etc is that average lefty starter has to be better than the average righty starter because there are so many more right-handed batters, and RHBs generally have a favorable split versus LHPs.

So, the idea that teams just throw a lefty out there because he’s a lefty doesn’t seem to jive with how the other team’s lineup is constructed.

While the WARs vary depending on source, Chen has not been a highly paid commodity (only “getting paid” after his 2-3W WAR season in 08). Most years he has been replacement level or above for replacement level money … with 3 years above replacement and a couple at league average.

Being left-handed probably doesn’t due him in favors in terms of being able to get people out. Teams keep Chen around because he usually makes $~500K, which is dirt cheap for a starter. This year he makes $2M because of a league average + 2010.

David Wishinsky
12 years ago
Reply to  CircleChange11

Yeah I am not saying that a lefty-starter isn’t a difficult job, but let’s also be honest and say if Chen was right-handed and put up those numbers he would not have a 14 or so year career. There are guys like Oliver Perez, getting another shot (lefty) whereas a right-handed pitcher wouldnt. It isnt about their pay, it is about the fact they can stick around so long for years and years with such mediocre results.