Hey, I just found a towel lying around in here like somebody threw it. Let me just pick that up and drape it over in our corner where it belongs…there, that's better [1].
First place, despite the best efforts of Aaron Heilman (which were pretty darn good), likely remains a pipe dream but I'm not tossing out the Wild Card as fast as you did the terry cloth. I wouldn't bet Fred Wilpon's mortgage on us making it to October, but I don't think we're completely preposterous, not with the pitching we have and not with Carlos Beltran who, word has it, is quite the second-half player (and New York's gonna love Bill Pecota). While it's a pity that Atlanta, of all teams, is this week's leader in The House of the Wild Card — and I've noted [2] more [3] than [4] once [5] how perennially untenable our position is against them — five games doesn't seem impossible.
No, the world doesn't owe us a hot streak, but look around the Majors. Everybody seems to be getting one this year. Two teams that we, in our infinite wisdom, left for dead, Houston and Oakland, have made a major push to the edge of contention. Is it a coincidence that their rolls began against us? Could we get a few intrasquad games going and maybe take off versus ourselves? (Actually that would be perfect for these Mets: win one, lose one all at once.)
I think we've established here that this season, barring a collapse of Howeling proportions, is an improvement over what came before and that we can feel good about any number of platforms for 2006. But ya know what? It's not 2006 yet. This team has to play 2005 for at least another month before it can think that way. Too much has been poured into this edition before consigning it to the archives. We didn't sign Pedro to kill time and fill seats. We can't tell Wright and Reyes to get used to this sort of thing, that every August and September we start to look ahead, that it'll get better next year.
There are words for that sort of thinking: Tampa and Bay.
While I don't necessarily disagree strongly with any individual aspect of your plan for eventual world domination, I will caution against treating the trading deadline as a legal and binding contract to do something. Listen to offers for Cameron, Floyd or Piazza? Sure, why not? Stephen Hopkins, delegate to the Continental Congress from Rhode Island said (in 1776, the movie we watch every Fourth of July), “I've never seen, heard or smelled an issue that was so dangerous it couldn't be talked about.” He was referring to declaring independence. All we're talking about is fielding inquiries for outfielders. (God Bless America.)
I more or less trust Omar to do the right thing. I like the way he handled the Cameron-Sheffield bit, at least by most accounts. Cashman asked about Mike C. and Omar said, fine, how about Sheffield? From there it blew out of proportion and probably was never going to happen anyway, but he thought big. So if another GM wants to ask about one of our non-Beltran outfielders, listen. But don't rush to sign any papers.
Honestly, I'm in no hurry to trade either one of them. If we're building for 2006 (each has a year remaining on his contract), then we'll need a slugging left fielder and an athletic right fielder. Floyd and Cameron will both be 33 next Opening Day. The way they're playing this year, it feels as if they'll still be in some portion of their prime next year.
Their trade value will never be higher? Value for what? What are we going to get in a panicky, eleventh-hour deal? Who will be in just the right spot to give us X, Y and Z in order to have Cliff Floyd or Mike Cameron come to them and be the big difference in their lives? When does our team stop building for a future that never comes because we never break this cycle of midsummer groping for something better that's rarely if ever attainable in late July?
And how many questions in a row was that?
I know you're not preaching trades for trades' sake, but I'm wary of July 31 under the best of circumstances. It's one thing when you're a pure seller as we were in 2003 and just wanted to move merchandise. And it's another thing if you fancy yourself a true contender and you're shopping for playoff pieces. Sometimes you do well for yourself (Craig Paquette for Shawon Dunston), sometimes you shoot yourself in the foot (Melvin Mora for Mike Bordick). The Mets are neither here nor there, your towel-toss notwithstanding. When residing in that gray area, I vote for here over there. I vote for keeping Floyd and Cameron for the rest of 2005 and considering their future at a calmer, cooler time of year, like after the season. All things being equal, I just as soon return them to office in '06.
The Mets aren't the only local team that should think about standing pat on July 31, or so it says at Gotham Baseball [6]. Don't worry, I'm plenty catty to them.