First Joe Kennedy, now Mike Piazza? ESPN's Buster Olney -- not a pen name! -- is reporting that the A's placed Mike Piazza on waivers, and that no other team put in a claim. (Unlike, say, for our old friend, Miguel Tejada who was thisclose to becoming a White Sox.) What all this means, if true, is that the A's can trade Piazza at will, with the most likely destinations being either Minnesota or Los Angeles of Anaheim of Orange County of California of the United States of North America of the Western Hemisphere of Earth of the Milky Way.

I can report that at Sunday's game -- attended by all three members of the far-flung Catfish Stew empire -- Mike Piazza did not get the start and was relegated to eighth inning pinch-hitting duties. (He fouled out first with the tying run aboard, thus torpedoing his trade value.) I assumed this was part of Bob Geren's wholly unsatisfying rotation that has the roster all mopey and bothered, but perhaps it's a signal that a move is afoot.