I might be the only one still interested in the Brian Wilson saga. That's because you're all awful people.
SHOW SOME DAMNED RESPECT. Now, just because Wilson threw what might have been the greatest pitch in Giants history (when considering both form and function, location and situation) doesn't mean that I want the Giants to sign him to an unreasonable, make-good deal. Sorry about your arm, here's eight million to buy another one. Nothing like that.
But all things being equal, I'd rather him pitch for the Giants than, say, the Mets. If the market determines that he should be paid like a reliever who might not be ready for the start of the season because he's coming off a second Tommy John surgery, it would be upsetting for the Giants not to be the team paying him the relatively small amount.
It looks like Wilson might not be ready for the start of the season, too. From the ... wait, if the New York Times is the "Gray Lady", what does that make the New York Post? The "Lady with a strange rash and tons of antibiotics in her medicine cabinet?" Probably. Anyway, from the Post:
According to a baseball source Tuesday, the veteran closer didn’t impress the Mets during his workout at UCLA on Saturday and wasn’t deemed worthy of a major league contract at this point in his rehab from Tommy John surgery. Wilson, the source said, wasn’t interested in a minor league deal.
"Physically, he’s not ready," the source said. "He’s got a ways to go."
If he were blowing people away, the Giants' odds of signing him would have dropped to almost nothing. But because he's acting like a pitcher nine months removed from a surgery that usually takes at least a year of rehabilitation -- which is exactly what he is -- he probably isn't going to get a substantial deal. It might not be minor-league deal or bust, but he's probably not going to get anything close to a Ryan Madson-like $5 million if the Post is right.
They should have announced this in a full-page spread with the headline "BEARD SCIENCE" or something.
So if you're like me, the sentimental minority that still wants Wilson back, it's not like this is good news. This is still a man's livelihood we're talking about. But the chances of his return just went up ever so slightly.