Welcome Back Lastings Milledge

Nobody was happier to play baseball last night than Lastings Milledge.

While every other NL team had the night off the Mets and Reds were forced to cut their All Star break short and begin a 4 game series. Man was I excited to be a Mets fan when Reyes & Gotay led off the game with back to back homers. That was the first in Mets history the first two batters of the game hit back to back home runs.

But even on a night when El Duque pitched a gem, the night belonged to Lastings.

You have to feel for the kid who should have been the starting left fielder. But the Mets picked up Moises Alou in the off season and Milledge was sent down to Triple A where he got hurt. And we all know the revolving door that has been left field this season, so Milledge would have had a shot at proving he deserves to be the everyday left fielder.

But it had to wait until last night. Milledge on an awkwardly fielded Gotay single, hustled all the way from first base to score what would be the game winning run. A superb slide by Milledge is what made the play. He should have been dead to rights and Sandy Alomar had no business sending the runner, but sometimes risks payoff.

I'm hoping Milledge gets some good at bats and proves he's the prospect we all want him to be. Now let's sweep the Reds.

Julio Franco is the Mets' Version of Sanjaya Malakar

Atrocious. Awful. Painful.

These words from American Idol judge Simon Cowell about Sanjaya Malakar could just as easily be used to describe Julio Franco this season. Franco is batting a stellar .188 with a slugging percentage of .250 and only one extra base hit.

But much like Sanjaya, Julio Franco won't go away. He continues to show up in key pinch hitting situations (like the other week against the Cardinals and Phillies), and he continues to deliver one sour note after another. His bat speed is slower than most high school baseball players. He swings at the first pitch every other time up. He doesn't play the field well.

So why is he still around?

I know Omar Minaya and Willie Randolph fawn over his leadership in the clubhouse and how the players respect him. Ok, I'll give you the intangibles, but doesn't that just make him a bench coach? Why is he taking a spot on the roster?

Unlike Sanjaya, no one is voting to keep Franco around except Omar Minaya & Willie Randolph. So what happens when it's time to set the playoff roster, if the Mets actually win a few games in the next 3 months? You're going to have to drop a guy like Rueben Gotay or Carlos Gomez in order to keep Franco on the roster when Endy Chavez & Moises Alou return. Now neither of those two young guys are saviors of the ball club but they can at least pinch run if not drop down a bunt to say the least.

Thankfully, Sanjaya made his exit before the final rounds of American Idol, but it doesn't look like Franco will be exiting any time soon. I would love to see Julio as a bench coach some day, but he's just taking up an extra spot on this roster which needs an extra bat. Especially of late.