Shawn Green had a nice game last night, but his season over all has been less than adequate for a starting right fielder. The Mets primary starting right fielder (the player who started more games in right for them than any other during the season) over the past 11 seasons has been:
2007 Shawn Green
2006: Xavier Nady
2005: Victor Diaz
2004: Richard Hidalgo
2003: Roger Cedeno
2002: Jeromy Burnitz
2001: Timo Perez
2000: Derek Bell
1999: Roger Cedeno
1998: Butch Huskey
1997: Alex Ochoa
The Mets have changed primary right fielders every single seasons for the past 11 seasons (icluding trying Roger Cedeno twice), and it appears inevitable that they will do so again next year. The degree to which this has been a black hole for the team is pretty amazing. The best try was probably Mike Cameron moving over there when the team signed Beltran to play center, but the big 2005 collision between those two guys indicated that the outfield wasn't large enough for these two swift, wide-ranging center fielders, so that experiment was a failure, too. The jury is still out as to whether Milledge, Carlos Gomez or Fernando Martinez might be a long-term solution to this gaping hole.
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