Excerpt from the article i was mentioning above:Ray Finkle said:
"It's mostly hot-dogging stuff, but not really serious," one source said. "The concern is that he'll get to the majors and have an attitude problem like a young Gary Sheffield or something. Like he's on good behavior now because he's trying to get there, but once he makes it, who knows? But even with that, there's almost no way he's going to be traded. With the makeup of the clubhouse there, with guys like Delgado and Pedro and Wright and Reyes, there are enough good influences. I don't think there's any way he isn't the starting left fielder next year."
When the Mets drafted Milledge in 2003, they knew he had some problem at school, something about getting in trouble for having sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend. Milledge was expelled from Northside Christian School in St.Petersburg, Fla., and agreed to enroll in a juvenile arbitration program to avoid prosecution. The baggage was enough to scare off several teams, and Milledge, projected as one of the top three picks in the draft, fell to No. 12.
Soon after Milledge was drafted, the Daily News reported that he had been accused of having sex not only with his girlfriend, but with 12- and 13-year-old girls as well. For that reportedly consensual sex, he and the girls were expelled from Northside.
Milledge and his parents, who met with a Daily News reporter three years ago to discuss the allegations, denied he had sex with the younger girls. But a source with the Pinellas County State's Attorney's office, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The News at the time that if Milledge had not agreed to the arbitration program - with the approval of the girls' parents - he would have been prosecuted as a juvenile for molestation"
From what I know...After the pre-draft scandal was cleared up, all the personal pieces that I read about Milledge have been largely positive. Hes 2nd in OBP at .425, and the only real knock is that his power hasnt fully developed yet.
Before coming up the impression that I got about him was that Milledge was confident bordering on ****y in respect to his belief in his abilities, but modest in the sense that he was respectful of his peers, teammates and the organization itself. Yet he's 2nd in AAA with 11 HBP and is largely disliked after he slid hard into John Schourholz's son instigating a rawl 2 weeks ago.
Yet the second he cracks the majors there are all of these stories suddenly popping up out of nowhere that he is a show-boating egomaniac with character issues. I've yet to see anything to support this claim outside of the pre-draft story which has reared it's head again, and one story about him semi-instigating a bench clearing brawl in Norfolk.
Whatever the case may be, the truth will present itself in his interviews on TV (as opposed to in the newspapers). What I saw/heard last night was a well-spoken kid that was thrilled to have gone through the experience of making his MLB debut.
They consider him a potential handful, but are so far convinced his talent will make them smile more than cringe.
