Both Chass and Sherman covered the Mets in the Piazza era. These guys spent a lot of time with the Mets – and Piazza. Both confirm Mets beat writers and veteran baseball scribes in general suspect Piazza’s name may be on that dubious decade-old unpublished list of 104 players who failed the MLB steroids test.

In his 2009 book The Rocket that Fell to Earth, Jeff Pearlman suggests Piazza used performance-enhancing drugs:

According to several sources, when the subject of performance enhancing was broached with reporters he especially trusted, Piazza fessed up. “Sure, I use,” he told one. “But in limited doses, and not all that often.” (Piazza has denied using performance-enhancing drugs, but there has always been speculation) … Writers saw his bulging muscles, his acne-covered back. They certainly heard the under-the-breath comments from other major league players, some who considered Piazza’s success to be 100 percent chemically delivered.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the truth will be revealed, not in what Chass or Sherman claim they know, but what the evidence reveals as fact.

After reading reports by Chass, Sherman and Pearlman, the evidence supporting Piazza’s PED use boils down to one common piece of evidence: acne. Yes, acne. You know, comedones, seborrhea, cysts. By the way, how’s your breakfast? According to both reporters, Piazza had a bad case of acne on his back, “… a generally accepted telltale sign of steroids use,” wrote Chass. “Teen-age kids never had such a problem.” Sherman added Piazza’s “physical quirks” raised a lot of eyebrows.

What other evidence exists that he used PEDs? Well, there’s the acne thing and the fact that Piazza was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 62^nd round on the June 1988 draft as a favor to his father. Who can doubt the lingering suspicion created by that fact?

That’s it, and that, in and of itself, is a problem — a big problem.

Piazza never tested positive for steroids. There is no evidence that his name was on the infamous Mitchell Report, yet, he won’t make it to Cooperstown this year because at least 145 of the 581 ballots (75%) that were reportedly submitted did not place a check mark by Piazza’s name because members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America have branded Piazza a suspect. Just so we’re clear: Mike Piazza, the greatest hitter of the last quarter century, is being dismissed as a first-ballot Hall of Famer because the evidence suggests he may have used performance-enhancing drugs.

When Sherman asked point blank if he was a clean player, Piazza replied, “Absolutely.”

Doesn’t matter, Piazza had bad acne and, furthermore, anyone drafted that low must be using PEDs, right? His words mean nothing, but we had to ask.

Over his 16-year career Piazza posted a .308 career batting average (.377 OBP and .545 SLG %) and hit more home runs (427) than any other catcher in MLB history.

Doesn’t matter, didn’t you hear me the first time: He had acne – bad acne – and he was drafted in the 62^nd round. The evidence is clear, unlike Piazza’s skin.

The evidence is piling up, not against Piazza, but against Sherman, Chass and anyone who didn’t vote for Piazza. The greatest hitting catcher of the last quarter century is being dismissed as a first-ballot Hall of Famer because he had acne.

“The idea that you’re not going to vote for a guy based on something completely subjective and unproven doesn’t make sense to me,” said Morgan Ensberg, a former MLB infielder who now hosts a radio show on XM Sirius radio.

Ensberg makes a fine point. The Baseball Hall of Fame states, “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.” Plain and simple, anyone not voting for Piazza questions his integrity and character and that judgment is being made around guesswork; circumstantial claims.

That’s the case against Mike Piazza.

Hall of Fame voting is not held to the same standards as a court of law, but maybe it should be. Leaving Piazza off the ballot, first-time or not, is a mistake. He should be judged one the six criteria defined by the HOF, not suspicion, whispers or off-the-record claims.

Tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. (edt) Jeff Idelson, President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, will step to the podium and reveal the Class of 2013. I am hopeful Piazza’s name will be read, but I am not optimistic. That makes me sad, not just for Piazza, but for a game once again being stained by poor judgment.

Shame on you, Murray Chass. Shame on you, Joel Sherman. Shame on you, Baseball Writers of America.

Sherman said that Martin is already used to playing in New York and that the Mets are “desperate to add power, and Martin’s 21 homers were eighth among catchers in the majors this season.”

You can look at Martin’s gritty attitude and intangibles and the fact that he’s a three-time All-Star, but in the end, we better not see Martin in orange and blue in 2013.

Even Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton on WFAN this morning thought this idea was ludicrous. Why on earth would the Mets want to spend upwards of $7 million per season on a deteriorating catcher?

Not deteriorating, you may think? Well, just look at the stats from his days with Dodgers. He was a legitimate offensive threat in Los Angeles, but he has a combined .224 batting average in his two years in the Bronx.

Since reaching his career-high batting average (.293) in 2007, he’s progressively decreased in hitting each successive year before hitting a career-low .211 this season.

You may also be saying that Martin has tremendous power for a catcher. Well, he’s been the beneficiary of the short left field porch at Yankee Stadium. He hit 13 of his 21 homers at home this season.

Martin’s lack of offensive production has been overshadowed in a Yankees’ lineup that features eight other All-Stars. He usually hits eighth or ninth, and any offense from him is considered a bonus rather than an expected contribution.

Martin would be a defensive upgrade at catcher for the Mets, but frankly, the Mets would be better off saving the money than worrying about defense.

In the Mets weak lineup, Martin would most likely be hitting sixth and would be expected to be a run producer, which is something he’s not.

The Mets would be wise to stick with what they have over adding Martin. Kelly Shoppach’s career numbers are slightly below Martin’s, since Shoppach has been primarily a backup. However, Shoppach’s 162-game home run average (20) is higher than Martin’s (16).

While this move definitely doesn’t make sense for the Mets, letting Martin walk would make even less sense for the Yankees. With Jesus Montero in Seattle and prospect Austin Romine playing in just 31 games this season, there’s really no other potential starting catcher than Martin in the Yankees’ system.

But knowing the Yankees, they’ll probably let Martin walk then pull off a blockbuster deal for Buster Posey (obviously unlikely, but you get the point).

A Shoppach/Josh Thole platoon may not be the answer, but it’s a safer bet then gambling on Martin.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it seems as though they’re here to stay. Oh I believe in yesterday. Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be. There’s a shadow hanging over me. Oh yesterday, came suddenly. – The Beatles

Omar Minaya has come full circle. His five year tenure is slowly coming to an end, and his five year plan is as distant now as it was in 2004 when he unveiled it to a fan base that was on life support.

Joel Sherman reminds us, in his Sunday column in the NY Post, just how similar our circumstances are to the franchise Omar Minaya was supposed to save.

First, remember some of the reasons why the Mets named Minaya the general manager on Sept. 30, 2004. Exactly two months earlier, the Mets had traded a pitching prospect named Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano. The day the Mets made that trade, they were four games under .500, fourth in the NL East, and ninth in the wild card, 7 1/2 games back. The deal for Zambrano (and also the same day for Kris Benson) was designed ostensibly to fool fans into believing the team was still in contention and that good tickets still should be bought.

In the past week, Minaya proclaimed the Mets “buyers” in the trade market at a moment when they were six games under .500, fourth in the NL East, and tied for eighth in the wild card, 7 1/2 back. Good tickets still available at Citi Field in case you are interested.

In an attempt to show us how bad organizations remain bad organizations, Sherman goes onto review Omar’s five years of “doomed to failure” management.

Of course, the main reason the Mets needed a change is because there were too many chefs in the kitchen. Even Al Leiter and John Franco were influencing policy and shaping baseball decisions. The pitching coach was acting like an assistant general manager, and it was hard to determine who was leading who. Too many rogue elements were suddenly running rampant.

Omar was going to change that and restore order, and for about 15 minutes he did. Who knew though, that he was going to show up with his own entourage, each one working in the shadows and acting like captains in the Gambino family.

The Wilpons also cited Omar Minaya’s pedigree as a top baseball talent evaluator. Sherman explains,

And let us not forget the Wilpons never really interviewed Minaya for the job. They flew to Montreal to all but beg the then-Expos general manager to take the position. When asked at the press conference what they liked so much about Minaya, the Wilpons touted Minaya’s talent-evaluating acumen. But when pressed, neither Fred nor Jeff Wilpon could cite a single example they liked of his evaluating skill. When pressed for what his plan was, Minaya hemmed and hawed initially and then said, “The plan is pitching, defense and athleticism.”

Five years later, how is he doing on those fronts? His only two pitchers of any note — Johan Santana and Francisco Rodriguez — were examples more of checkbook decision-making, not evaluation. The defense is atrocious and the athleticism is skimpy, which is a key failing.

If Omar Minaya is a talent evaluator, than I guess that makes me a Pulitzer Prize writer, and we all know I actually rank somewhere between a fifth grader with a thesaurus and a toddler who used a dictionary to step up and reach for the cookie jar on the counter.

In five years, Minaya is responsible for one barely average starting pitcher in Mike Pelfrey. a .240 hitting first baseman, and a reliever with an ERA north of 5.00. Impressive indeed…

The farm is filled mostly with unrealized potential that is another five years away from bearing fruit, if they even bear fruit at all.

Some say that he recently moved his best prospects to acquire marquis player, Johan Santana. But I say that’s a load of bunk. We gave up nothing for Santana… just a bunch of warm bodies. We blindsided the Twins and now they know it. They should have jumped on Joba and Hughes. Those were real prospects… legitimate prospects. They should have jumped on Jacoby Ellsbury and Clay Buchholz. Those were blue chippers all the way… The Mets gave up who? Guerra, Gomez, Mulvey and what? Yeah, those guys really depleted our farm system, gimme a break!

What really did deplete our farm was a series of ill-advised trades perpetrated by none other than Omar Minaya. The real prospects were the ones that got away for nothing in return. Heath Bell, Matt Lindstrom, Brian Bannister, to name a few. Talent evaluator? I think not. I’m not saying trading those guys was a bad idea, but in all those trades, the players received are not even on a major league map, and therein lies the problem.

In ten years he has brought two NL East franchise to their knees and left them with a barren wasteland in the minors. Luckily, Washington continues to recover and will be pumping out some real blue chip talent over the next 18 months, but unfortunately we aren’t as lucky.

Our minor league teams combined are now 66 games below .500 and most of the teams are the worst in their leagues, including both higher level teams at AAA Buffalo and AA Binghamton. Wow, did you get a whiff of that? Something really stinks around here.

You can blame the injuries all you want, but the Mets were not able to replace even one injured player with any major league ready player. Not one. And that is an indictment on Omar Minaya.

During last night’s broadcast, Gary Cohen mused at how the Pirates brought up someone from their minors named, Garrett Jones. In 19 games he has already homered ten times in July, while the Mets had only five July homers as a team going into the game. This is the Pirates we’re talking about… Jones is nothing but a minor league journey man, but as of right now he’d be more valuable to the Mets than anything they’ve got in the minors, and that’s the point Gary Cohen was making.

So here we are again.

The organization finds itself exactly where we left off in 2004 when Minaya first burst onto the scene. He has had five years of Wright, Reyes and Beltran as his core players with nothing to show for it. (Two-thirds coming from Steve Phillips, and one-third from Wilpon’s checkbook) Do we really want to give him another five years at this point?