Time To Trade Piazza
"Step right up, step right up, step right up,
Everyone's a winner, bargains galore
That's right, you too can be the proud owner
Of the quality goes in before the name goes on
One-tenth of a dollar, one-tenth of a dollar, we got service after sales
You need perfume? we got perfume, how 'bout an engagement ring?
Something for the little lady, something for the little lady,
Something for the little lady, hmm
Three for a dollar"

--Tom Waits, Step Right Up

Let the fire sale begin. With the Mets in a free fall from first, their competetiveness slipping away into daily humiliation and the disgrace of reality shining blindingly down upon them, having lost four in a row and 8 of their last 11, all against their NL East opponents, since the All Star break, suddenly six games back from the lead, it is time to cut their losses and their fat and start an earnest look ahead to the future.

That cutting of fat should begin with Mike Piazza, the quintessential nowhere man; the stubbornly selfish Met who put his goal of breaking a meaningless catcher homerun mark over the interests of his own team even though he has been a massive defensive liability for the Mets behind the plate. A man who could have spent the offseason and Spring Training preparing for a season playing first base where he allegedly could do less damage but chose instead to stick to catching, even in meaningless games in March. A man who instead, adamantly stuck crouched behind the plate and was then forced to look like a baffoon, making hideous errors and injuring himself at first base when the season counted and when the time came for him to make the move, simply because he thinks he's a catcher even though he would probably go down as the worst fielding Hall of Fame catcher in baseball history.

And let it not be said that this is about bitterness over the callous and undying selfishness that is Mike Piazza and his catching fetish. The simple fact of the matter is that Piazza has now mastered not one, but two position where he can be a defensively liability and not even his numbers (.288-17-42) at the plate can make up for all the damage he does on the field. But this isn't news, really. Waaaay back in November I suggested a trade to the Chicago White Sox for CF Aaron Rowand (currently .315-11-26 with 10 stolen bases and lefty set up man Damaso Marte and for name-value alone, the indominable Tetsu Yofu.

Back then it seemed absurd to quite alot of you, but if you look at the realities such a trade would have brought, you'd see the following:

Without Piazza, we'd be missing a .983 fielding percentage at first base, the lowest of any first base man with more than 15 appearances in the NL, we'd be missing his equally nauseating .976 fielding percentage behind the plate, one of the worst in the NL, not to mention his 21% success rate at throwing out base stealers which, you guessed it, is also one of the lowest in the NL.

Without Piazza and with the trade in mind outlined above, the Mets would never have had to sign a rapidly aging and injury prone, batless Mike Cameron to play CF and would have the speedy 26 year old Aaron Rowand patroling the position for years to come. Without Cameron, and without Piazza's $16 million dollar contract, the Mets might have been more willing to take a chance on Vladimir Guerrero. Vlad, however, is mere speculation. Despite his numbers, his cranky back was always an impediment to a long term contract with the Mets given their recent history of failures with fat long term contracts and injury-prone players. Nevertheless, the absence of Piazza's $16 million is alot of money to spend on a free agent, whether that would have been last winter or a trade this summer or a free agent this winter coming up.

Without Piazza and with Marte in the bullpen, the Mets wouldn't have been relying on the senior citizen arms of Mike Stanton (5 blown saves and 0-5 record and a 25-36 walk-strikeout ratio) and John Franco (2 wins against 7 losses, 5.73 ERA and 21-27 walk-strikout ratio) to set up closer Brandon Looper. This might have spared us the eye-gouging frustration at seeing Glavine and Leiter pitch brilliantly for 6 or 7 innings only to see the two stooges in the bullpen blow the game before the closer can even make an entrance.

But this isn't just about the speculation of failing to pull the trigger in a timely manner last winter. Such a trade, with the players exchanged changing by now of course, would still benefit the injury-prone and hitting-starved White Sox in their run for the AL Central and simultaneously rid the Mets of the problem of what to do with Piazza. You might even say that given the time of year, there are plenty of AL teams, not just the White Sox, who would give up substantially more for a proven offensive force like Piazza to DH for them. Certainly someone who won't even do the White Sox any good this season, like free agent to-be, Magglio Ordonez, wouldn't be out of the question.

The sad fact of the matter is that Piazza has proven there is only one place left for him in baseball and that is the American League, where he DH and spot-catch, help a team with his bat without irreparably harming it with his fielding. It is imperative that the wimpy and emotional Fred Wilpon, who loves his players like sons instead of evaluating them based on their utility to the Mets team, let the load loose, flood the market with Met veterans and pick up as many young arms and bats as possible.

One great start would be to send Tom Glavine to his home town Red Sox. Granted, he isn't the ball-buster of intimidation that is Randy Johnson, but as Randy Johnson doesn't seem inclined to go join Schilling and the Red Sox, certainly Tom Glavine is an adequate alternative. Not to mention how frustrating it must be for Glavine in his far-fetched pursuit of 300 victories to be supported by one or two runs every outing by Met bats. He'd be overjoyed to join the Sox and the Sox, with a proven lefty in their rotation would be overjoyed to have him. Question is, what would the Sox give up in return? How about Juan Cedeno and Brandon Moss, two young players the Sox wouldn't be seeing for another couple of years anyway. They aren't even Boston's top minor league prospects.

Next off would be to shed Cliff Floyd and/or Mike Cameron. Both are brittle players who might last out a pennant chase but are not players the Mets should want to start next season with. Maybe the Marlins would like to have Floyd back for the final push against the Braves and Phillies. Certainly the thin-skinned Floyd who seems to comment daily on the boos of frustrated Met fans, would be happier and more prosperous, like Armandogeddon appears to be, in a place like Florida, where the fan base won't be holding them accountable for every miscue and blown game. They certainly have some juicy prospects available to bargain with. And let's not forget that Juan Pierre is a free agent-in-waiting and if the Mets could unload their injury-prone duo, would be an excellent off season signing.

Maybe the Phillies, if they don't trade for Finley, would appreciate the defensive wizardry of Cameron. Cameron's offensive numbers, after being held down at Safeco and at Shea, would probably blossum in the Phillies new park. He's only 31 and he's only got two more years on his measely 4.3 million dollar a year contract to go. Surely he'd be worth a few lower level Phillie prospects.

Maybe the Dodgers would like either player. Or the Padres. The market is still wide open if the Mets act now. Ideally, the Mets would trade SOMEONE to the Twins in order to raid that fat, successful farm system they have. But failing that, Glavine and/or Leiter and Cameron and/or Floyd should be able to net at least a pair of future starters.

Finally, I'd still like to see the Mets rid themselves of the Human Hammy and preferably, to Texas for Alfonso Soriano. Naturally, the Rangers aren't likely to make this trade in the heat of a pennant race, but it is something to chew on more considerably over the off season.

No matter how you slice this team up in the end, the undeniable truth is that this season for the Mets is over and if they don't hurry to cut their losses now, this will be a very expensive old and broken team.