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Nobody in the BVW administration, save perhaps for Ricco, had anything to do with drafting or developing him, so I imagine the sense of attachment the previous regime may have had to a first-round draft pick wasn't there. I don't know how much of a factor something like that is, but I would guess that every little bit helps a player on the bubble.

Peter Magowan, the supermarket magnate who bought the Giants when they were on the verge of moving to St. Petersburg and saved them for San Francisco, 76. Committed to his investment by signing Barry Bonds and getting what was first christened Pac Bell Park built. Loved the Giants as a kid in NY, got lucky in a baseball sense that his family was moving to Northern California the same time his team was. He sat and talked with the NY Giants Preservation Society a few years ago. Seemed like a good guy and true fan.

This hire implies Kristie Ackert is full-time on the MFYs now, which would indicate two beat reporters devoted to New York baseball, which used to be assumed but with the stripped-down Snooze, that's actually a doubling of the second half of 2018 depth chart, when it was just Ackert covering both teams.

The thread for quick transaction-type updates. Gavin Cecchini DFA'd, off the 40-man roster to make room for Justin Wilson.

Mets make Wilson signing official today, bump Gavin Cecchini from the 40-man to make room.

Jack Reinheimer has been claimed off waivers by the Orioles from the Rangers.

=smg58 post_id=1855 time=1548508509 user_id=62] They should also hire John Buck to coach his minor league team.

Twins have signed recent Duck and 2018 Atlantic League MVP Jordany Valdespin.

Ollie Perez signs one-year deal to remain a Tribesman. With Wright done and Reyes probably finished, Perez looms as LAMSA -- Longest Ago Met Still Active. Also the Last Met Standing from the blessed year of 2006.

Ed Lynch will be Wally Backman's pitching coach in Central Islip this summer for your Long Island Ducks.

It's a battle for the soul of the Pool. Or something indicative of nothing in particular.

"goes unsupported" would fit the "gets shaft again" space. They'd lose the "again" and the sense that this keeps happening, but there's enough bad news already between the hed and deck.

While Rivera broke the unanimity barrier, the writers must go one better in 2020 and elect Jeter not only unanimously but alone. Any ballot that has more than one check mark should be considered a desecration of true immortality and therefore marked invalid by the BBWAA. Baseball's most sacred star cannot be compared to peers, for he is peerless. Jeff Idelson, Jane Forbes Clark and the other Cooperstown decisionmakers need to inform previous Hall of Famers that they may be seated for the Captain's induction, but down in the audience, looking up at Derek -- the way a nation of baseball-loving fans always have and always will view him. Due respect to every living inductee from Aaron to Yount, but no one can share a stage with Derek Jeter. He is singular.

SMILE HIGH is a splendid Newsday cover, Newsday being a tabloid in form if not spirit. If Conforto or Rosario or anybody else was grinning, SMILE HIGH wouldn't have worked quite as well. It was very clever and very knowing, but as is generally Newsday's style, it doesn't really get in your face. Nuance is a lovely thing, but the back page ain't necessarily the place for it. MIDNIGHT BADNESS is quintessential late-period News, true to its tabloidity, and communicates not just the game, but the moment the Mets were in, which is why I found myself breaking for BADNESS. The only thing I don't like (besides any MFY mention, but that comes with the territory) was the phrase "gets shaft". Earlier today, I heard Meat Loaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love," and was struck how, after 25 years, the lyric, "sooner or later, you'll be screwing around" still sounds cheap, crass and hurried. "Gets shaft" hits me the same way, as if they were rushed...which they might have been given the length of the game and the impending deadline, but still. To paraphrase Bruce (Springsteen, not Jay) from 1984, it wasn't morning in America for the Mets during 2018; it was midnight with a bad moon rising. Might as well document it accurately.

Josh Thole, whose last big league game was in September 2016 (catching R.A. Dickey for the Blue Jays), has signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers.

That Magic summer of 1980 was as much on Tom Hausman's durable right arm as any Met. One of those middle relievers you live with and understand just how valuable he is. RIP.

That at least one of those cards might reappear when the Mets next play the Diamondbacks is both something to hotly anticipate and not a little sad.

Hit just well enough to make you almost overlook his chronically inadequate fielding. Fielded just badly enough to make you almost overlook his periodically spectacular hitting. If he was a little worse at what he did best and a little better at what he did worst, he'd be an obviously average player. If he was a little better at either component, he'd still be here. Molasses had a better chance of scoring from first on a double. After July 31, 2015, I was never at a close game in a late inning when he came up where the ballpark didn't utter its anticipation. "Do that trick, Wilmer! Do that trick where you win the game on one swing!" That he did it as often as he did is more amazing than that he couldn't do it on demand was disappointing. He will look wrong in another uniform.

The most chanted name in Citi Field history.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Did anyone really cry at DW's final appearance? I shed manly tears when he pinch-hit the night before. After a two-year string of updates about what he was doing to get there and how his return was always beyond the horizon, to see him finally walk to the plate and be the player we lived with for so many seasons was to be emotionally gratified. If the farewell was manufactured, it was about time the Mets made something beautiful. The only thing I don't love about the Wright back page is the awkward phrase "waves farewell," as if we don't see he's waving. Alternate headline that I think would have fit logistically and spiritually (with maybe a touch of kerning): HOME FANS BID CAP ADIEU Last night for Wright brings out crowd for fondest farewell

Where would you rather have had Jack Reinheimer at that moment -- in the field?

Original thread was http://www.thecranepool.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27417here, though despite many personnel machinations these past 109 days, there hasn't been any scoring.

DeGrom. Scherzer. Probably. It's only 179 days away. And now it's only 70 days away.

Eli Grba, 84. First expansion draft pick, by the Los Angeles Angels, ahead of the 1961 season, from the MFYs. In retirement, battled the alcoholism that ended his career, stayed sober these past 37 years.

A Patrick Mahomes piece (by Ian O'Connor) focused on the simpatico between Daddy Pat and Bobby V. http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/25769603/patrick-mahomes-inherited-clutch-gene-major-league-dadhttp://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/25769603/patrick-mahomes-inherited-clutch-gene-major-league-dad