CF: Is Shane Victorino the Class of the NL East? (Part III)

Written by: Josh Landsburg on 2nd April 2009

CF: Is Shane Victorino the Class of the NL East? (Part III) | read this item

Lastings Milledge, of the Washington Nationals, was pegged as “The next Darryl Strawberry” when he was a minor leaguer in the Mets organization, and he was originally thought of as a “30-30” type player. Therefore, Milledge has had high expectations to live up to his entire career, and so far, he has not come close. In his first full season as an every day centerfielder in the majors, as you can tell by his numbers, he did not fair well. He played parts of two seasons with the Mets prior when they finally decided to give up on Milledge’s potential and his off-the-field antics. Entering his fourth season in the majors, 2009 will be an important one. Although Milledge will only be 24 at the season’s start, if he doesn’t show something this year, the Nationals will probably start looking for other options in 2010 for an every day centerfielder, and they may already have one in Roger Bernadina, who played in double A and Triple A last season, but saw some time with the Nats as well.

According to the numbers alone, you would have to say that Beltran is the best Centerfielder in the NL East, which I would agree with, but I don’t think Victorino is a distant second. In fact, you could make an argument that Victorino has come up more in the clutch for the Phillies than Beltran has for the Mets the past couple years. It is an interesting argument between these two players, because Victorino provides exactly what the Phillies need, a great defensive player, and a solid sparkplug at the top of the lineup, whereas, Beltran provides the same defensive prowess for the Mets, but he is the opposite of Victorino in that he provides the power numbers in the middle of the lineup that the Mets need. However, even if Beltran is the best NL East Centerfielder, one thing is for sure, Victorino has something that Beltran does not: A WORLD SERIES RING!

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Topics: Beltran, Darryl Strawberry, Lastings Milledge, Roger Bernadina, Victorino