Just got a chuckle out of an article I just read by some guy called Rob Parker of ESPN New York. Our friend (not really), writes that because the Mets have been rebuffed by Jose Reyes, they have just one option; trade him.

If the Mets weren’t sure what to do with Reyes — trade him or try to re-sign him — it should be crystal clear now. The Mets must trade Reyes, their All-Star shortstop, for the best package available by the July 31 trading deadline. It only makes sense. The last thing this organization can do is live in some fantasy world in which they believe they can’t live without Reyes. The truth is that they can. Hate to break it to the you-can’t-trade-Reyes crowd, but there hasn’t been a championship banner raised here since he arrived in Queens.

That’s easy for him to say, but who is this guy anyway?

Parker then goes on to justify his reasoning (or lack thereof) for trading Reyes with this priceless nugget,

It’s not fair. But you just get the feeling that with the Mets’ luck with signing big-time players to fat-money contracts, Reyes would wind up hurt next season and the Mets will be saddled with the deal for years to come. It’s just how things seem to happen for the Mets. Can you say Mike Hampton? Or Johan Santana? You get the idea.

Mike Hampton? 

First of all, Mike Hampton never got hurt or missed any significant time. He pitched 32 games for the Mets that season, won 15 of them, and was largely responsible for leading the Mets all the way to the World Series which we lost to the Yankees in 2000.

Second of all, we didn’t sign Mike Hampton, we traded for him in the offseason and gave up Octavio Dotel, Roger Cedeno and Kyle Kessel for him and Derek Bell (remember him?) . Hampton was essentially a one year rental.

Finally, Hampton never signed any free agent contract with the Mets (Thank God!) after that 2000 season. That dishonor went to the Colorado Rockies who paid him an obscene $125 million dollars in what ended up being one of the five worst contracts in the history of the game.

Luckily for the Mets, Hampton wasn’t to keen on the average SAT scores in the NY-NJ-CT Tri-State area at the time and wanted his kids to have a first class education.

So anyway, how can this so-called journalist not know any of that?

Don’t they have editors at ESPN?

I guess we better get used to this king of trash journalism as the season goes on, especially now that Jose Reyes finally put an end to the daily “Sandy Alderson needs to make Reyes an offer” diatribes.

Brace yourselves Mets fans.