The Buscher

Bunch of cast and crew social media tributes to him in here Ugh man this sucks so bad

Fuuuuuck

Well....the answer was yes but had I played Stroud I still think I'd have been OK. Deebo just went wild this weekend. 0-5 start to sneaking into the playoffs at 6-8 on scoring tiebreakers! It's house money now. Sadly my loss in the dynasty league ended my season too, though even with a win I'd have been 100 points behind in tiebreakers with one week to go so I was likely out anyway.

Easily the most fun Giants game of the season. Giants Twitter being what it is I'm shocked I haven't read more people moaning about the draft positioning being messed up, and I'm glad I haven't seen much of that. In the first month or two of the season this was looking like a 2-15 nightmare type of season that would've left everyone with zero confidence going forward. It's important that this coaching staff has the team showing some fight.

It’s actually a really bad precedent for players because it can easily be weaponized against the next big free agent (presumably Soto). “You’re not Ohtani, your CBT hit can’t be that high.” Most players are not going to trade this amount of current money for future money. Ohtani is likely the only guy who could ever agree to do this because he pulls in $50 million a year in endorsements.

That’s such blatant circumvention. I mean kudos to the Dodgers for exploiting a loophole but if Steve Cohen deferred a contract like this it would’ve been banned within a week. Forget the owners and union negotiating the CBA, the owners are gonna kill each other before 2027.

Well if reports are to be believed they're still very much in on Yamamoto and seem content to go wild with spending this offseason. While Japanese stars over the year generally didn't like to be on MLB teams with one another due to hierarchical beliefs + wanting the sponsorship opportunities for that market, Yamamoto's said to be keen on the idea of being on a roster with another Japanese star since he loved his experience in the WBC. In that sense you don't have a better selling point than Ohtani, plus he's setting up shop for his US visits in LA. It's hard to look at their contracts and think they'll hand out yet another $300+ million one but after giving $700 million to one guy I don't know what to believe anymore. If the Dodgers offer him similar money to the NY teams he may very well take it. Speaking of Japanese aces, Roki Sasaki has asked to be posted as soon as possible. His club is expected to deny it this year but there's a belief he has an out in his clause for next offseason similar to Ohtani. If this happens, he'd come to MLB outside of the normal posting process and would be limited to the signing teams' IFA budget. So a team that saved most of budget would probably only be able to give him like $7-8 million and it's more likely he'd be getting significantly less than that. It'd also lock him into the usual 6-years of team control. Kudos to him if he does it, would cost him a LOT of upfront cash but presumably he'd be happy to just spend his career in the big leagues. Also if he lived up to the hype he'd still only be entering his age 29 season hitting free agency, same age Cole was.

It's amusing to me that if the Giants were to win tonight they'd only be like a game out of a playoff spot and if they lose they're just more firmly entrenched in a top 5 draft spot. This season is ridiculous. Messed around with the playoff machine though and even if they were to beat GB tonight and also beat the Saints and Rams, they've got no path to the playoffs because they play the Eagles twice and no matter how flawed they might look after the last two weeks those games will be a demolition. Losing to the Jets and Bills by a combined 2 yards might loom larger than expected but again the "reward" this year would've been a first round bloodletting at the hands of the Eagles, Cowboys, or Niners so I can't say I really care to make the playoffs in that case.

Opponent in one of my non-EWB leagues just had possibly the worst fantasy week of all time. He's a dead team so he had Dalton Schultz still in despite being ruled out earlier in the week and Geno Smith at QB who got ruled out day of game. The rest of his team: Chase, St. Brown, Evans, Gus Edwards, Dameon Pierce, Daniel Carlson, Philly defense Grand total of 18.00 points, 10 of which came from the defense.

Reid and Mahomes pissing and moaning about a correct call being made is really kinda disappointing.

I’m off the “Ah shit, Eagles will win the SB” train and now on the “Ah fuck, the Cowboys will win the SB” train Guess I have to root for the Niners to save us all

A lineup with Betts, Ohtani, and Freeman will probably sleepwalk to 100 wins. The regular season may as well be a 6-month Spring Training. I feel similarly about the Braves as well. Feels like you can already pencil those two teams in for the byes and call it a day. So yeah, pressure will be on for the NLDS.

Mike Puma of the NY Post reporting that the Mets never made Ohtani a formal offer. They saw how high his pricepoint was going and deemed it to be higher than they were comfortable with for it to be a worthy investment, especially if they were going to need to throw even more at him to get him to agree to go cross-country. Probably a wise choice. It would've been fun but objectively the Mets are nowhere near just being one piece away from contending after that disaster of a year. At 30 years old and at that kind of money you kinda need to be ready to win a title right now to make that move. It's full-steam ahead on Yamamoto now but I'm mentally prepared for him to pick the Yanks or even the Dodgers depending on the amount Ohtani saved them on the CBT. I actually still don't think the Mets are contenders with Yamamoto because that lineup still sucks but a 25-year old ace in free agency isn't something you get very often. If the Mets miss Yamamoto the fanbase is gonna have to accept that 2024 is a transitional year and, while they won't say the word "punt" out loud, they're basically gonna just sign guys to 1-year deals and hope to linger around .500 and get a wild card. There's gonna be a lot of "I thought we were done with half-assing seasons after the Wilpons" and people calling for David Stearns' head already even though anyone could see he was gonna have some significant cleanup to do. Cohen flexed his wallet to spend big for a 2022-23 window. 2022 was one of the best regular seasons in franchise history because of it. 2023 was a disaster, so he flexed his wallet again to basically buy some top prospects at the deadline when his original plan didn't work. But the kids eventually have to play and for Stearns to actually rebuild the org it's gonna take several draft and prospect cycles. It takes time, in a fanbase that is (understandably) impatient.

Supposedly this contract contains a record number of deferred money at Ohtani's request to lower the CBT hit for the Dodgers. I thought that deferring the money didn't impact the CBT and that it was strictly AAV (so a $70 million cap per year) but apparently that's not so. Deferring allows you to at least somewhat lower the cap hit based on the present day contract value. I'd assume there's only so much they could do there. Maybe his number drops from $70 million to like $50 million but if it drops any lower you'll probably have owners claiming CBT circumvention. Which would be a fun argument for them to make since they will also insist to the union that it's not a salary cap.

Well...so much for that. It's the Dodgers. 10 years, $700 million. Holy fucking shit.

JP Hoornstra (Dodgers writer, BBWAA member, and award winner) isn't retracting his story from yesterday afternoon about Ohtani making his decision to go to Toronto in spite of all the national writers saying no decision's been made. In fact he's doubling down on it, fully trusts his sources that Ohtani's made up his mind to go to Toronto, that the other teams were notified yesterday and that the announcement of an in principle agreement is still imminent. Essentially, he feels the decision's been made and there's just minor contract details to sort out but nothing that should be a roadblock. Still, suitors aren't going to leak anything in case a Correa situation unfolds and they can jump back in. If it were just some random hack it would be one thing but this is an actual reputable journalist sticking his neck out for this story so we'll see.

Weirdly there was some speculation out there that Ohtani expressed “no such concerns” about NY this time around, and that his thoughts about not wanting to play there is rehashed dialogue from last time. At absolute bare minimum you’d assume his camp would want the illusion of NY being in play in for leverage. Like I said though, I really doubt it. The Angels didn’t require him to talk to the media. It wouldn’t fly in NY so he’d have to be willing to do all of that which would seem to be out of his comfort zone.

Supposedly yes. And I think he should be entitled to his privacy. But, the news cycle being what it is this everyone wants to be the first one to break the news. It’s gonna be an extra big gut punch to Jays fans if he doesn’t sign now after all these bogus reports. I don’t expect this to happen since I don’t think he wants to deal with NYC attention BUT if he were open to it I’ll just say this: Steve Cohen negotiated a preliminary 12-year, $315 million contract with Correa in the middle of the night while the writers were asleep and he was vacationing in Hawaii. He also flew out to personally meet with Yamamoto last week and that went completely unreported until yesterday. He’s managed to work in silence and fly below the NY media when he wants to. It’s not gonna happen but the combination of that and that man’s wallet will continue to leave me with that 1% of hope until the move elsewhere is official.

Aaaand now everyone’s saying Morosi is incorrect and that Ohtani’s home with no decision imminent. Who knows at this point but this might be an all-time bad reporting performance. If Bob Nightengale is dunking on you, you’ve done something horribly wrong.

Morosi now confirming that Ohtani is, in fact, en route to Toronto. Emphasized that he's reportedly not yet made a decision nor has a signed contract. It's possible this is another part of the recruitment process plus even if he agreed to a deal he'd have to undergo medicals, etc. Having said that, it feels kinda tough to imagine dealing with customs for a simple recruitment visit. At this point I'm expecting this deal to close.

Indianapolis Colts vs Cincinnati Bengals (4) Los Angeles Rams vs Baltimore Ravens (5) Minnesota Vikings vs Las Vegas Raiders (2) Buffalo Bills vs Kansas City Chiefs (1) Philadelphia Eagles vs Dallas Cowboys (3)

Although they've gotten the timeline wrong before, about an hour ago reporters all started talking matter of factly as though an Ohtani announcement was imminent and could come today. Then someone took the time to check flight data and saw that a private plane left Santa Ana, CA (20 min outside of Anaheim) headed for Toronto. And Yusei Kikuchi has apparently reserved an entire upscale sushi restaurant just outside of Rogers Centre for 50+ people tonight. Oh and December 8th is also the same day he made his decision last time. This could all just be a series of coincidences but as JR says, business is picking up!

Steelers lose to the Cardinals and Pats at home in the span of 5 days. Yeesh.

Yep. This is a gut punch. I've never wanted a player in Queens as badly as Juan Soto. My only fear with the Mets not pursuing him in trade (and they really couldn't, they're weak in young pitching and could've never offered what the Yanks could) was that the team that got him would go all-out to re-sign him. Even if he hits the market, the Yankees will have all the pressure on them to keep him and I honestly think if Soto loves it in the Bronx it'll just be a Judge situation where I'll believe he actually leaves when I see it. I don't doubt Cohen will still make him the highest offer next winter but unless he just absolutely completely blows the doors off of everyone else I think Soto will stay in the Bronx if it's close. Cohen's money can't change the fact that an entire generation of players and fans alike have grown up seeing the Mets as the second rate franchise in their own city. That shit really can't be overcome short of finally being a consistent winner, which they've never been in my lifetime.

Yankee writers seem to believe strongly that the Soto deal gets done today. Yankees seemingly feeling some pressure to close things out before Ohtani makes his decision so that there isn't more Soto competition. The Padres knowing they can possibly wait for more bidders but ultimately just prefer the package the Yanks could offer. Add that up and it feels like maybe whatever final remain piece or two preventing the deal can be agreed upon today to get it over with. As a Mets fan, Soto to the Yankees feels like it'll be a nightmare scenario. Not for 2024, I don't care about that and realize he's officially only a rental. But I see a long-term ripple effect where getting him in 2025 becomes far more unlikely. I hope to be proven wrong of course but to me, I'd feel better about the Mets' odds of signing Soto if he landed literally anywhere else. Even if he tests the market, the Yankees will have tons of pressure to sign him back. Is it possible Hal gets scared off by the amount it'll take? Maybe. But it's just tough to not imagine them finally going "fuck it, we're still the Yankees" and doing everything they can to get him to re-sign in November/December. It's one of those things where if he plays a year here and decides he loves New York, a market competitive offer from Hal might win out over Cohen offering slightly more. It's just really hard to imagine a scenario where a guy goes from a stadium where he's perfectly suited to hit 45 nukes a year and hitting next to Judge in one of the most imposing duos of all time, to going crosstown to a far worse hitters park, on a team that figures to be bad in 2024 and in a division that will be run by the Braves for the next decade. It's just really hard to see a generational talent in the prime of his career willingly going from the Bronx to Queens. It's never happened.