The Buscher

Unbelievable performer. RIP Big Man.

Jose Reyes is reportedly trying to switch agents from Peter Greenberg to...yep, you guess it, Scott Boras.

He's good as gone. Now it's just a question of whether the Mets think they can get more from trading him or from draft picks. It might be the latter, actually...since not too many contending teams are in need of a shortstop and as such they'd be less likely to trade a lot of talent for a rental player who is expecting to make more than Crawford.

Competing executives have said Reyes will absolutely get the Crawford contract he wants. I just don't know who the fuck is gonna give it to him. It certainly isn't the Mets. The Yanks won't boot Jeter out of the spot. The Sox have enough money tied up in hitting. The Cubs have Castro. The Cards are gonna invest every last dollar they have into keeping Pujols. The Dodgers don't have the money. The Phillies probably feel obligated to keep Rollins, and he'll be WAY cheaper.

Who does that leave? The Angels? The Tigers? The Reds? The Orioles? I just don't see where people think he's gonna get that enormous contract from.

I'll continue to hold out hope that he stays with the Mets for like 5 years, $90-100 million or something.

Hasn't the load times always been absolutely awful in WWE games? Smackdown 2 was abysmal for it.

Nothing worse than having to seeing X-Pac's ugly mug on a loading screen for up to like 4 minutes.

Just to be told the ever-important news that Scotty Too Hotty had arrived, before going back to more loading screens.

Attacking your opponent before the match starts also needs to be scaled way back. I remember in one of the very first cards I played I booked a Luke Gallows/JTG match and controlled Gallows with the idea of giving him a push. He attacked JTG from behind early and won with one move. I marked out huge and immediately proclaimed my love of Universe Mode...

...then I found that early interference happens before damn near every match.

If Nexus did get in, I think they would throw Husky Harris in as well. He was punted off around the same time before Mania as the others, he just never got brought back.

Come to think, his model would be funny to look at since everybody gets 6 pack abs in SD games.

Maybe there will be more awkward "commentating your own match" moments this year, since its seems like as sensible a year as any to put Lawler in as a legend. I'd love it if Booker T and Diesel got in as well.

I was working on a roster prediction - but since they had over 70 playable characters on the disk last year in addition to guys like The Hurricane who were removed from being playable and Carlito/Khali who were referenced in RTWM and so they may have also been in and taken out late, I can't see them downgrading the roster size. As such, I think everybody who was in last years game and still on the roster as of WM this year will return for another year - even the never-seen Primos and David Hart Smiths, being in the previous game always gives you a better chance of returning.

In terms of "new guys" - Del Rio's confirmed. Barrett and Gabriel should make their non-DLC debuts along with Slater. Bryan and Riley also seem like safe bets. Since he debuted the night after Mania and was hyped heavily before it, I can definitely see Sin Cara making the cut as well, I hope so.

Chances are the only roster decisions they need to make is deciding between including the non-Punk Nexus members or investing the final few spots on more members of the Superstars brigade.

Yeah, it got removed from YouTube but it basically was just showcasing Orton. Showed a punt along with the ability to pound your fist/taunt in the lead-up to the RKO. Like I said, the camera and angles seemed shaky. Also the sound effects for big moves could get a little irritating as was the case in SVR11, hoping there's an option to turn it off.

Looking forward to seeing if the E3 vids look much different. Pics/vids have shown Orton, Cena, Miz, and Del Rio to be the first guys confirmed - so chances are they'll be playable at E3. Would love to see Del Rio's entrance and armbar.

Meh. The few gameplay vids I've seen make it look like the same game. The camera also looks really jittery. Hoping it's just a one-off deal via early build and that it'll look more polished once E3 rolls around. The graphics also look downgraded for the second year in a row, unless it was vids of the Wii version they were showing.

I'll continue to track the development. But after years of getting hyped up, buying the game day of release, and then abandoning it and getting buyer's remorse within 2 months - it will be a tough sell. I'll likely give it a rent before I buy it this year. Of course, I expect they'll announce some sort of amazing changes to WWE Universe that will convince me to buy the game, and the cycle will continue.

Loved the episode.

NO TERIYAKI IS NOT FROM A-F***ING CHINA!!!

What a joke. He pretty much forced all of the suspended players to return next year by blocking them from the Sugar Bowl if they didn't agree to do so. He claimed he didn't want them "skirting the consequences" and avoiding the suspensions by going to the NFL. And yet now he resigns, avoiding his suspension, and his next stop is probably the NFL to be an assistant. Can't imagine it would be too long before he winds up being a coordinator or even a head coach.

Holy hypocrisy, Batman. Fantastic coach, shame he handled this entire situation badly.

Yeah I think I fucked up on "The Golden Butterfly"...but fucking up in this game actually makes it more fun an adds to replayability.

Despite getting all of the interrogation questions right with both suspects, I'm only given the option of charging the husband. Then I get reamed at by my boss and the "Case Notes" suggests that I charged the wrong guy.

Not sure if it's a built-in thing where you are supposed to lose for storyline purposes or if I just missed an important piece of evidence that would have opened up another question so I could have charged the pervert guy. Already has be looking forward to replaying that case again.

Only done like 2 dispatch calls since I've been so wrapped up in the story.

The past couple of weeks I thought Darryl was a shoe-in, but he appeared to shit the bed with his interview. It's possible that by the time the next season starts, he would have attended the business classes he was supposed to take. But yeah, Andy does make the most sense. Great character build. He also seems to have a shitty sales record - so moving him out of that spot and into a "people person" role would make sense from the selection committee's perspective.

Wanted to punch him in the face for turning down Erin though

Really liked The Office finale. I knew they weren't going to actually name a new manager, which still felt like a bit of a cop-out given the way the episode was advertised.

Spader's character was brilliant. Couldn't see him as the manager or anything but I'd be all for making him a recurring character. Glad Creed got an episode as manager, one of my favorite characters on the show. Hope Gabe is still a regular next year, he's gotten increasingly funnier as he's become more and more of a douchebag.

"There used to be a paperclip guy who would help with letters or resumes. Where is he? I think his name was.....Clippy."

Looks like the Giants weren't really impressed with any of the offensive linemen outside of the ones that went in the first. Another year of riding the aging line - MUST take O-Line in the first round next year no matter what.

God, fuck off with this "let's show the player on the phone beforehand and ruin the suspense" shit

Will be happy to see the Giants get either Pouncey or Castanzo.

Hopefully everybody takes the full amount of time on their pick so I can watch Michael Scott's last Office and not miss the Giants' pick.

I need to have my head examined for actually going to tonight's Mets game, especially since I've been sick as hell lately.

Was actually a fun game. But between Pagan getting thrown out at the plate in the 8th and Thole popping up a crucial bunt on the first pitch causing a double play in the 9th, it really feels like they are inventing new ways to lose. Thole popped up a bunt. Dickey popped up a bunt. Willie Harris failed to bunt so he gave up and promptly struck out. 3 fucked up attempts at bunting in one game may be some kind of record. Last Thursday to tonight may legitimately have been the worst week of baseball ever played by a team.

They have found a way to lock up 100 losses in April. I'll always watch the games but at least with the 2009 Mets I didn't become basically apathetic about the results until like July. This year I'll be feeling that way on April 21st.

I'll probably still wind up going to Pittsburgh because A) I'm a sap and B) I can't really afford to go on a proper vacation this year anyway. So I'd just go hoping it's a fun long weekend with good games even if the teams involved suck. At least PNC is meant to be one of the nicest parks in the Majors. I'm also going to Wednesday's game as I found seats a few rows behind the dugout for ridiculously cheap before the season started. Beyond that though I'm going to have to try really, really hard to not head out to the ballpark if the team continues to be shit. I want to stop giving the Wilpons money.

But yeah, it's going to be a longgggg road back. As much as I want the team to succeed, if they suck enough to trade away Reyes to a contending team for some really good prospects (I want to keep him but let's but real, Alderson ain't giving him Crawford money) and Beltran for a decent prospect, it'll be for the better. Hell I even hope K-Rod pitches well enough for a team to roll the dice on his $17.5 million option and pick him up for the playoff run.

I'm willing to give Alderson's attempt at Moneyball a chance...but unfortunately I feel like the fanbase is going to run him out of town since it would mean sacrificing at least next year and possibly even 2013 while the Yankees and Phillies continue to dominate as their fans rub the Mets' fans nose in it.

Might cancel my planned trip to Pittsburgh for the Mets/Pirates series in June. Already have tickets to the games but they were cheap despite being good seats and can be StubHubbed. Not sure it's worth the other expenditures, time, and travel to watch the Mets play at this point.

Damn. Feels weird to lose on Opening Day. First time since 2005.

Not surprising though. Pelfrey always sucks against the Marlins. Good to see them show some fight in the 7th by knocking Johnson out. Not a fan of pinch-hitting Thole for Scott Hairston, who promptly K'ed. I get that Hairston mashes lefties and had a great spring - but it reeked of Jerry Manuel-esque overmanagement.

Hopefully they bounce back tomorrow.

Gotta say, I absolutely love the fantasy team I just drafted. Auction draft, got most of the guys I was targeting. This isn't my starting lineup, just listing the players at the positions they are eligible:

C: Jorge Posada

1B: Adrian Gonzalez

2B: Dan Uggla

3B: Casey McGehee, Martin Prado (Prado is also playable at 2B and will be playable in the OF soon enough)

SS: Jose Reyes

OF: Vladimir Guerrero, Jacoby Ellsbury, Manny Ramirez, Carlos Beltran (will simply DL Beltran if necessary and pick someone else up)

SP: Josh Johnson, Justin Verlander, Chris Carpenter, Tim Hudson, Matt Garza

RP: Joakim Soria, Francisco Rodriguez, Jose Valverde, Joe Nathan, Jonny Venters, Aroldis Chapman

The one guy I was targeting that I didn't get was Delmon Young. Got into a surprising bidding war for him. In retrospect I wish I would have given the extra buck to grab him since I finished the draft with money leftover. Also I really didn't want Posada, there was a huge Yankee homer in the draft so I figured I'd bait him and it didn't work out. Hopefully he bounces back.

aaaaaand Oliver Perez is gone too! ZIPPITY DOO DAH, ZIPPITY AY! MY OH MY WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!

Luis Castillo has been released! You're next, Ollie.

The Show is amazing. I was playing against Halladay and he threw a borderline pitch that was called a ball.

Eric Karros then said: "Well he might have gotten that call if he weren't on the cover of the wrong game."

aaaaaand 2 days after finally DH'ing in a game, Beltran is shut down with tendinitis in his OTHER knee.

Unreal. He is physically incapable of staying healthy, his knees are shot. I feel bad for the guy because he works hard to get out there but he's turning into the new Moises Alou. Mets are downplaying it of course and saying he'll be back in games within a week - but truthfully I see no way he's in right field on Opening Day.

The thing that worries me more is that these Beltran and Santana injuries make it even more likely that Alderson (who already is against long-term contracts) won't re-sign Reyes. Hell, Wright's a free agent after 2012 and he'll want a huge deal too. Good thing Sandy's got good draft reputation.