All around the blogosphere, people have been giving Lastings Milledge a hard time. Why, because he is cocky?  Because he showed up one day early for training camp instead of two?  Because there was a "know your place rook" sign in his locker last year?  It confuses me why so many are down on him. People in NY love to have someone to hate and the media usually provides us with one.  The media loves to over-analyze things and I suppose they've targeted Milledge for some reason, so some "fans" regurgitate their blurbs. A more Freudian possibility is that people are projecting their own insecurites onto him. Who knows?

This is the guy no one wanted to see traded last year.  Now everyone seems to be on this crusade to crucify him.  He's had 166 ML at bats and people already think he's either not as good as we had hoped or a trouble maker. Boo A-Rod, Albert, and Chipper...but until Lastings really does something worthy of our dissension, stop the hate!

What I know about him:

Are those reasons to hate?

Sorry if this whole Ghandi approach to supporting our players, and giving them the benefit of the doubt until they prove us wrong is turning you off, but if it is you are the kind of fan that I dislike. One that doesn't allow a player to come to fruition before casting their iron-clad judgment forever.  I don't mean to generalize here, but my Yankee fan friends do this and it is often a big part of our disagreements.  Many of them thought Robinson Cano should be sent back to the minors when he made a few rookie errors but now they love the guy.

If Lastings starts disrespecting teammates, coaches, or the fans, hey I'll give you peanuts to throw at him...but he hasn't, atleast not publically.

I'm not saying Milledge is the second coming or anything like that, but I'd rather see him in a Mets uniform than playing against us if his potential is eventually fully realized.  Anyways, you get my point.

Update

Looks like my friends at Hot Foot and Metsmerized Online share my anti-hate vision.