The Buscher

Yankees acquire Alex Verdugo from the Red Sox for Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert, and Nick Judice. A few of my Yankee fan friends absolutely hate Verdugo so this is a great troll move from Cashman.

I think it was actually pretty sensible why he turned down that deal. He still had three years until free agency including two more arbitration years where he figured to get huge numbers (got $23 million last year and might hit $30 million this year) and Boras is a smart enough guy to assess future markets and see that, if Soto kept up his levels of production, he'd still be able to match that same contract a few years later if not get more. And he very likely will get more at this rate. Plus he's so young it's likely he'll negotiate an opt-out 4 or 5 years into it. On top of all of that though, the Nats were obviously gonna be terrible in 2022 and in dire need of a rebuild whether Soto was there or not. It was clear they weren't gonna be a contender for his final three years there so in that respect I can also see why he didn't want to tie his career there. Yes, most guys will test free agency. But, if he landed somewhere he was happy with and the team dropped an offer in front of him that Boras deems similar to what he would've gotten in next year's forecast, maybe he goes for it. Obviously a complicated situation for this year though. Teams don't like to trade top prospects for rentals anymore unless they truly are one big piece away from winning it all. I sense if the Padres' financial situation is as bad as being reported Soto will end up being traded for something that 28 other teams say "that's it?"

Trevor Lawrence gets his ankle stepped on and has to be helped off the field.

Not every Boras client refuses to sign an extension. Stephen Strasburg, Jose Altuve, Xander Bogaerts, Jered Weaver, Lance McCullers, Carlos Gomez, JD Martinez, and Elvis Andrus are among the Boras clients who agreed to extensions and that’s just at a quick Google search, several of them signed right before their walk year. Boras might advise his guys to go to free agency but that doesn’t mean they have to. With that said it feels tough to imagine a guy getting traded to a brand new city and then signing a life-changing extension unless he really has had a preferred destination all along. Well, that and whatever team would have to drop half a billion dollars in front of him.

They definitely captured every possible “Florida Man” meme in that trailer so I’m all in.

One thing that feels clear is that if Ohtani doesn't decide his destination the Winter Meetings will be boring. Usually this is where tons of juicy rumors get going and/or you start seeing the big names fly off the board when they're meeting with teams directly. But beat writers from pretty much every market are commenting that this is the quietest first day of the meetings they can remember. It's not unusual for one or two free agents to hold up the market but Ohtani is taking it to new levels, both because of his desire for his free agency to be private + the fact he's gonna command well over half a billion and, presumably, some of these teams are willing to spend big money and will pivot if they lose out on him. There is zero reason for any major FA to have anything more than preliminary discussions with teams until Ohtani's out.

I'd guess the Jets know they're moving on from Wilson after this year and realize that benching the former #2 pick for QBs that are somehow even worse wasn't the best idea....so that's why they're giving him the "freedom" to decline a starting assignment but it just seems really odd and like it's not really the best idea for Wilson to decline. Usually these high round QBs end up going elsewhere as a team tries to see if there's any hope of them being a serviceable backup but if the dude's gonna refuse to play why would I want him?

I mean this whole Jets situation is a hilarious shitshow anyway. But on top of all of that, I don't even know how it's the player's decision in this case. If you're healthy and the coach tells you to play, you play. It's not really meant to be a choice. Yet this being the Jets, I love that Zach Wilson is apparently allowed to just say "nah" and get paid to not play.

So here's how the first round of the playoffs would've looked if next year's format was in effect: BYES: Michigan, Washington, Texas, FSU (I think they'd have just kept them 4th and not rocked the boat in an expanded field) #5 Alabama vs. #12 Liberty - they get an extra game for Bama ratings but it would be a bloodletting #6 Georgia vs. #11 Ole Miss - again, the networks win because of SEC ratings but this was a 52-17 blowout last time and probably wouldn't be much different this time around #7 Ohio State vs. #10 Penn State - okay, this was a 20-12 game last time and you'd figure it'd be close again, it'd be funny to see James Franklin lose another big game #8 Oregon vs. #9 Missouri - bleh, Missouri's defense is legit but it'd probably play out similarly to the Big 10 game, they wouldn't be able to hold Oregon off the board the whole time. So that's 1 possibly good game out of 4. The 2nd round would be better - Bama/FSU would be a Bama blowout surely but then Ohio State/Washington, Georgia/Texas, and Oregon/Michigan could all possibly be fun. Maybe they should've expanded to 8 instead of 12. Neutering the regular season to this degree for what will be first round blowouts most of the time isn't worth it.

Absolutely horrific personal foul call on the Packers. Mahomes was in bounds and it wasn’t a blow to the head. Love watching Mahomes but the league’s coddling of him is so incredibly blatant, he’s the league’s designated golden boy in a post-Brady world.

Jim Leyland is the first member of the 2024 Baseball Hall of Fame

Mike Evans has hit 1,000 yards for the 10th straight season to start his career. Only the 3rd WR to ever do that. He’s generally a quiet player as opposed to some of the bombastic WR personalities out there, so it’s easy to overlook the fact that the dude has built a HOF resume.

Poor sideline worker in the Saints/Lions game just got his leg broken by Alvin Kamara being tackled into him.

The odds will drop even more for sure. There’s a video of Michigan watching the selection show and you can hear gasps and groans at Bama being revealed as the 4 seed. I mean, that just tells you all you need to know.

Well, I instantly jumped on a Bama +105 bet in their game vs Michigan.

The betting markets favoring no SEC is pretty promising. “The house always wins” etc I’ll still believe it when I see it but of course the SEC Commish has already come out and basically said the playoffs will be fraudulent if the SEC are left out. I hope it happens. Salty Eyes Conference.

There’s no way the committee aren’t all actively rooting for a Louisville comeback in these final 5 minutes to make their lives easier. This is where the rankings cause problems. I don’t think there’s any objective argument that FSU’s a better team than Bama. Bama, unlike FSU, have an actual shot at winning a natty. But if you’re gonna rank an undefeated team in the top 4 ahead of championship weekend and they go out and close out their season by winning the conference title - how the hell do you yank them out last second? It would be hilarious to have no SEC team in it but the bias for that conference is well-established. I’d be shocked if someone doesn’t get bumped for Bama.

Well, Bama wins. I don’t see any scenario where they’re dropping Georgia all the way out after this game. Barring Michigan choking I’m expecting it’s gonna end up being Michigan 1, Washington 2, Bama 3, Georgia 4 Maybe flip 2 and 3 but it doesn’t really matter. The committee will set up the inevitable SEC rematch for the natty. The semi-final games won’t be close.

Washington/Oregon was great. RIP PAC-12.

Ohtani's purported quietness and media aversion is as big a reason as any why I never expected him on the Mets. The fact that they just had one of the most disappointing seasons in league history this year didn't help but at least there was an easy pitch to make that this is an owner who isn't afraid to go for it. If there's any part of Ohtani that actually was interested in playing in New York, I can't rule out that "the Mets focusing on other players" is more like Cohen's just told his camp he's not interested in a bidding war and to give him a call once he's whittled down his final offers, since he can easily outbid anyone's final number if he really wanted to. But Ohtani's getting over half a billion anywhere he goes and it makes sense he'd want to go somewhere he's more likely to be comfortable. Besides, much as I'd jump for joy for signing Ohtani I can acknowledge it doesn't make much sense given the current state of the club. They badly need starting pitching more than anything else. He'd be a $45-50 million DH next season and whilst you'd hope he can be a two-way player again in 2024 nobody actually knows. Obviously it's not my money and I want to have fun watching baseball so if you could get him, go for it. But this team still wouldn't be a contender with this staff and adding that kind of contract means they'll never be under the CBT ever again, and every team is gonna want to reset eventually especially if the next CBA tries to make the draft penalties even harsher. Yamamoto should be and seemingly is their main focus, problem is a dozen or so teams also have him as their top target and at this point the guy might get close to $300 million without ever throwing a pitch in the big leagues. If Ohtani goes back to the Angels, the Dodgers will move heaven and earth to get Yamamoto.

With acknowledgement that a lot of the Ohtani sweepstake is shrouded in mystery, Passan who is normally as reliable as it gets has said that the Red Sox, Rangers, and Mets have dropped out of the bidding and that the only known suitors left are the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Cubs, Giants, and Angels. I've long expected it to be the Dodgers but man, if he just stays with the Angels after all of this just to go back and continuing to waste his career with Trout it would be such a wet fart.

Love how the Pats have zero players worth putting on the graphic.

Indianapolis Colts vs Tennessee Titans (2) Carolina Panthers vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4) Denver Broncos vs Houston Texans (1) San Francisco 49ers vs Philadelphia Eagles (5) Kansas City Chiefs vs Green Bay Packers (3)

So it's just gonna be what I always thought from the very start - he can say he was ready to return in record time but the Jets being out of the race means he didn't have to actually prove it and therefore avoids his Achilles falling right back off the bone. He wants this to be a "gotcha" on modern medicine.