The Sam Smith of MLS?

If you ever read Mark Cuban's blog, you know the disdain he holds for Chicago Tribune NBA columnist Sam Smith. Cuban's main problem, and it's a valid one, is that Smith frequently just makes up trade ideas off the top of his head, and never, ever checks with anyone who might know better before printing them.

I can't help but get that feeling from Ives Galarcep's new blog, particularly with regard to this notion that the Fire would look to deal Chris Armas:

What other deals make sense out there? Chicago needs to make a deal or two in order to deal with potential cap problems and I wouldn’t be at all shocked to see Chris Armas leave the Fire. New England will be on the market for a defensive midfielder when Shalrie Joseph leaves and Armas would make a good fit there, assuming Bruce Arena doesn’t make a play for Armas. I’ll do some serious digging in the next few weeks and hopefully I can unearth some new gems.

If you read what he wrote here, there's absolutely no basis in fact. And yet, we may end up with a real rumor that Armas is going to Boston or New York. That the latter is at all in the mix is just one of those things that seems to be a requirement of a New York-area sportswriter, and that is the implicit assumption that every single player in the world, all things being equal, would prefer to play in the Big Apple.

I just find it odd that Ives would just make shit up when he spent another recent blog post blasting the thinly-sourced rumor that Jose Pekerman would be the next U.S. Men's National Team coach. The alternative is that he knows more than he's letting on with regard to Armas, but that's not the feeling I get.