Roster Move: Church Put on 15-Day DL Again

You know that I was a vocal opponent of the Lastings Milledge trade from the beginning and his poor play this season has done nothing to change my opinion. I admit that I really expected to see .280/.360/.450 with 20 home runs from Milledge this season, so I have to man up and admit that I was wrong there. Nevertheless, I am still convinced that Milledge is a star in the making - even if that means he will fully arrive in 2009 instead of right now.

The trade looked like a huge win for the Mets early in the season, when Ryan Church was tattooing the National League and Brian Schneider looked reasonably competent with the bat. That has all changed. Church is back on the DL and Schneider has regressed to his level of incompetence at the plate. I always thought the trade was doomed from the start, but I never thought that Church would be felled in such a fashion.

I can't fault the Mets for their handling on this one - Church was out for a month, came back and seemed to feel fine, until the headaches came back. Concussions are like that. Aaron Hill of the Blue Jays has been out even longer with post-concussion symptoms and there's no timetable for his return. Sadly, I suspect we'll be hearing those words used about Ryan Church soon.

Nick Evans is back again, presumably to fail as miserably as he did in his first stint with the Mets. No knock on Evans, who may have a future with this club, but he simply is not a major leaguer yet. Better him then Marlon Anderson, I suppose. I think I'm going to end every Roster Move in the future with these words: Free Valentino Pascucci!!

Let's take a look at the active roster now:

STARTING PITCHERS
Johan Santana
John Maine
Pedro Martinez
Oliver Perez
Mike Pelfrey
Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez - DL

RELIEF PITCHERS
Billy Wagner (closer)
Duaner Sanchez
Pedro Feliciano
Aaron Heilman
Scott Schoeneweis
Joe Smith
Tony Armas
Matt Wise - DL

CATCHERS
Brian Schneider
Ramon Castro

INFIELDERS
Carlos Delgado
Damion Easley
David Wright
Jose Reyes
Fernando Tatis
Argenis Reyes
Luis Castillo-DL

OUTFIELDERS
Endy Chavez
Carlos Beltran
Nick Evans
Marlon Anderson
Chris Aguila
Ryan Church - DL
Moises Alou - DL
Angel Pagan - DL
Trot Nixon - DL