Over at Amazin’ Avenue, Chris McShane contends that the Mets were smart not to force trades at the trade deadline. And he’s right. The hoopla and nonsense surrounding the trade deadline (and the Winter Meetings) seem more like facts of life at this point than anything worth lamenting. Plenty of fans — excited or angry or passionate in some way — demand improvements or change, and old and new media fan the flames because it’s something to talk about in the midst of a long season. So it swells to this tremendous tidal wave of silliness. You can surf it or fight it or try to duck it entirely, but it’s coming regardless.

The Mets didn’t trade Scott Hairston. For some reason this pisses people off even though Scott Hairston has been one of the best reasons to watch the Mets all season. Reportedly, they fielded some offers and didn’t hear anything they felt was worth more to their short- or long-term future than the next couple months of Hairston’s lefty-mashing. Since the Mets’ front office seems to be in the business of making reasonable decisions, and since they employ an army of scouts and I don’t, and since they heard what was offered for Hairston and I didn’t, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.