Over at Amazin’ Avenue, Rob Castellano investigates a few of the fallacies perpetuating the nonstop talk that Jose Reyes will inevitably be traded at some point this summer.

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it a bunch more times: All the decisions — on all sides — regarding Jose Reyes’ future with the Mets are nuanced ones, and dismissing them by saying, “Oh well he’s X type of player and Sandy Alderson is Y type of general manager” is just silly. Alderson, Reyes, and Reyes’ agents are smart people. They’re going to spend a lot of time with this.

That doesn’t mean he’s certainly back in Queens next year, but it doesn’t mean he’s as good as gone either. It does mean no one should go about moving Reyes to second base to make way for Ruben Tejada just yet. Holy hell.

Martinez is only the first outfielder to get at least 100 plate appearances by his age 20 season and not be qualifying for a batting title by his age 22 season. No hitter regardless of position with at least 100 plate appearances by age 20 has failed to become a big league regular. Most became all-stars.

– Mike Salfino, SNY Why Guys

Fernando Martinez is getting about a plate appearance a day, which doesn’t seem like the pace you want for a 22-year-old prospect.

I suspect he’s the guy to go when Angel Pagan returns. I know a lot of fans are eager to run Willie Harris out of town, but with Chin-Lung Hu gone, David Wright out and the infield stretched thin, Harris’ defensive versatility becomes more valuable to the club. Plus obviously Martinez should be seeing regular playing time somewhere.

We get to see two games’ worth of Martinez’s bat in the lineup this weekend, as he’ll be DHing in the Bronx. Pagan played the last two nights in St. Lucie and the Mets want him to play four nights in a row there, so if all goes according to plan he should rejoin the club Tuesday in Chicago.

One last thing, and I imagine this point has already been made. I strikes me that it must have been, at some point:

People often discuss which Minor League transition is the biggest jump. In this Scout.com roundtable from a few years ago, most of the experts argued that the biggest jump is from High A to Double-A, and I’ve heard as much elsewhere.

But the biggest jump of all almost has to be from Triple-A to the Majors, no? Is that just common sense? Here’s how I figure:

There’s no talent ceiling in the Majors. Dominant players at every level can advance to the next level, until they reach the big leagues, but dominant players at the big league level have no place else to go.

If in some weird scenario a guy as good as Josh Johnson is in Triple-A — and I mean Josh Johnson now, not when he was in Triple-A — he’s only going to make his way around the International League once, tops. Awesome players stay in the Majors for as long as they’re awesome (and then some).

Still, the worst-kept secret in Flushing is the Mets likely will deal Reyes before the trade deadline, ensuring they get something in return before he becomes a free agent at the end of the season. The cash-strapped Mets have no interest in paying Reyes the $100 million contract he’ll demand. Bottom line: Come Opening Day 2012, Tejada will be the Mets’ shortstop.

Why the pretense if that’s the case? Why not start Tejada at shortstop now and move Reyes to second base? Why can’t the future start now?

– George Willis, N.Y. Post

Wait, hold on a sec… First of all — wait, no no no… OK. OK, where to start? Well for one thing, there’s… Oh, screw it.

The Mets won last night in the pouring rain, as you know. Justin Turner had two more doubles and two more RBIs, raising his OPS for the season to a sterling small-sample .885, best among the five men who have played second base this season for the Mets.

It seems fashionable now to come out and say, “Oh, well we knew all along that Turner was probably the Mets’ best option at second base,” but in a MetsBlog poll taken on March 16, only 7.89 percent of readers felt Justin Turner deserved the bulk of playing time. And in an Amazin’ Avenue poll taken the next day, Turner wasn’t even included — probably because he (rightfully) didn’t seem a very likely option at that point. So who was it saying all along that Turner was probably the Mets’ best option at second base?

Me, baby! Me!

But before I celebrate too much, I should note a few things: Most importantly, Turner probably won’t rock the .885 OPS all season. It fact, it’s downright unlikely. You might even say he’s crushing the ball over a tiny 52 plate-appearance sample and that though he looks great right now, lots of players have looked great in their first go ’round in the bigs only to wind up floundering back in the Minors by the end of the season.* There’s reason to believe in Turner based on his history of strong hitting in the Minors, but let’s not anoint him the second coming of Chase Utley just yet.

Second: Despite the best intentions of the Justin Turner Lobby, the Mets’ front office probably played the second-base situation the right way, given the personnel and Brad Emaus’ Rule 5 status. Even though Turner’s Triple-A stats were more impressive than Emaus’ due to park and league factors, the only way the Mets could continue to evaluate Emaus was to keep him on the big-league roster. They did, and after a couple of rough weeks they determined he was not special enough to hold on to for the full season.

It seemed like they pulled the trigger a bit too quickly at the time, and Sandy Alderson admitted that they might not have cut Emaus if the Mets were winning a few more games. But Daniel Murphy’s not-terrible defense at second combined with Emaus’ underwhelming adjustment to Major League pitching obviously made the decision easier. Emaus is back to crushing the ball in the Pacific Coast League now and still has a chance to be a productive Major Leaguer, but it seems unlikely he’ll be so much better than Turner to have merited sticking with him through his struggles.

*- Remember when Luis Hernandez killed it for a couple of weeks last year? Remember when someone unironically reported that Luis Hernandez would be the Mets starting second baseman in 2011? Luis Hernandez has a .518 OPS in Triple-A.

This is going to sound like Scott Templeton stuff but I promise you it’s true.

I got an opportunity to talk to some high-school kids in East Harlem yesterday afternoon. I miss some aspects of working in a school and I forgot how hilarious teenagers can be, so I had a great time.

The school happens to be across the street from the headquarters of Harlem RBI, a community youth baseball program through which Carlos Beltran has done a bunch of charity work. Many of the kids in the class played baseball in the program, and nearly all of those that did had a story about meeting Beltran. One guy, Rob, got to shag flies while Beltran took batting practice during his rehab stint in Brooklyn in 2009.

It was sweet. Back when I worked in a high school, I often had to rely on the television program “The O.C.” to find common ground with students, so it was pretty great to meet 14-year-olds as eager as I was to discuss Carlos Beltran’s awesomeness.

Another kid, Anton — a big Mets fan — said he wears No. 15 every season in honor of Beltran. He said this season the team’s No. 15 jersey is way too big on him, but he wears it anyway. He asked me if I could tell Beltran that.

I probably will.

Of course, the remaining Beltran haters out there will probably argue that he selfishly brainwashed these kids by giving of his time through charitable efforts or something. Nabobs nattering negatively.

That’s the cold-hearted reality of the Mets’ world. They are sitting on a gold mine of a deal and it could blow up in their face. Put the wheels in motion. This season has disaster written all over it.

The Curse of Citi Field struck again as Chris Young (shoulder) and Jenrry Mejia (elbow) underwent surgery and Ike Davis (ankle) was sent to Port St. Lucie to begin his rehab.

– Kevin Kernan, N.Y. Post.

As they watch an ever-evolving lineup shift around them, they can’t help but be struck by the irony that they are finally in a position to make the Mets go, but there aren’t enough parts. It’s like having a Ferrari with four flat tires. This is more evidence that the Mets are truly a cursed team.

– Tim Smith, N.Y. Daily News.

Man, series of great points here about how the Mets are cursed, what with David Wright and Ike Davis and Johan Santana being on the DL and all, and with the two straight losing seasons and — oh my goodness — four straight years without a playoff berth. Except that one nagging issue:

There’s no such thing as curses.

Mumbo-jumbo. Hokum. Nonsense. A curse is not a reasonable way to explain away a team’s struggles, nor, really, is lumping in the 2011 Mets’ problems with those endured under the prior front-office.

For one thing, though the DL stints have been frequent this season, they have yet to prove as crippling as they were in prior years. And — the case of Wright’s injury notably excepted — the current front office’s willingness to move quickly to put a player on the disabled list marks a vast departure from the prior administration, under which players were often pushed to play through injuries (sometimes with disastrous results) and managers forced to operate with short-handed rosters.

Though the club is currently stretched paper-thin, it has to date found at least vaguely viable Major Leaguers to fill in for its injured regulars. All teams deal with injuries practically all the time. Occasionally the injuries are insurmountable. Other times, with a deep enough roster and Major League-ready fill-ins in Triple-A, a team can overcome a rash of misfortune.

The Mets are 19-22. It’s not great. They face at least another week without their starting first baseman, and a couple weeks without their best player. But they haven’t tanked yet. And it’s May 18.

If you want to investigate a real, rational explanation — beyond a “curse” — for the Mets’ injury troubles over the past few years, go to town. Trainer Ray Ramirez and his staff are holdovers from last season, but it’s hard to hold them accountable for the injuries to Wright and Davis — both of which occurred in on-field collisions.

Remember when the Red Sox were cursed?