Scott Boras on Bryce Harper, MLB Analytics, and the Mount Rushmore of "That Guy"
This league is in absolute overdrive. Between the Raptors' championship parade and the Houston Rockets reportedly hating each other's guts, there isn't enough sage in the world to fix the vibes in some of these locker rooms. Big Cat and PFT point out that James Harden and Chris Paul haven't spoken in two months, which is the ultimate NBA drama.
James Harden and Chris Paul hate each other because the Warriors drove them insane
These two guys are very outstanding basketball players... but they develop these little nitpicky things that they have to go at each other by because they're just not good enough to beat the Warriors. So now all of a sudden they fucking hate each other because the Warriors have just driven them insane.
Speaking of the Raptors, the parade was an all-time scene, but the reality check is coming for Toronto. Big Cat isn't buying the idea that a trophy keeps a superstar in place when the weather is that cold and the questions are that awkward.
Kawhi Leonard is definitely leaving the Toronto Raptors
Doing a parade which looked awesome... and then continually answering questions when people say, like, 'What does this mean to Toronto?' and [Kawhi Leonard] is like, 'Well, it's something they can build on.' Why don't you ask someone who's lived in Toronto for more than four months? It doesn't feel like he's staying.
The Binders of Scott Boras
The guys traveled to the "lair" of super agent Scott Boras, which was protected by a door so massive Big Cat felt he needed to solve a riddle to enter. Boras, a man who rarely does long-form interviews, went deep on the mechanics of the MLB draft and why the current system of slotting and caps is essentially killing competition.
MLB draft caps incentivize teams to lose on purpose
When they put that [draft] cap in, what did it do for the game? It had a horrible impact because what it created is... teams say, 'Wait a minute, I don't want to be competitive at the big league level because I want these draft picks.' So one-third of the league says, 'Why win 80 games when I want to really only win 65 and get top picks?'
Boras didn't stop at draft reform; he took aim at the front offices that think they've solved baseball with a spreadsheet. He argues that the "Moneyball" era might be hitting a wall where old-school scouting actually produced more consistent results than the high-priced data rooms of today.
Baseball front offices are beginning to realize that their expensive analytic valuation systems are somewhat of a fraud
Now, they're determining that this valuation system has a bit of a fraud to it, that it's not exactly quite real, because we have all these evaluations that they're making that are turning out to be probably about a 40% success rate to them... Whereas in just general scouting, the success rate may have been 60%. So all of a sudden there's an equilibrium being defined as to whether the old way or the new way [works better].
One of the most enlightening parts of the sit-down was Boras explaining how fans and media misunderstand mega-contracts. When people complain that a player is overpaid at age 38, Boras views it as a simple accounting trick for the value they provided at age 26.
Long-term baseball contracts are actually deferment portals for the player's true value
Long-term contracts are... for the true value of the player in the short term being a deferment portal for those values that you didn't pay up front in the future years. For example, a player is worth $80 million a year... they pay him $32 million over 10 years. And then we have the public complaining that the last four years he didn't earn the $32 million when they forgot that he was worth $80 million the first four.
Mount Rushmore of "That Guy"
Mount Rushmore season continues with a category everyone knows too well: "That Guy." We've all encountered the person who ruins a perfectly good time by being just a little too much. Big Cat led off with the "Well Actually" guy on Twitter, while Hank targeted the office social butterfly who doesn't know when to stop talking.
You shouldn't make daily small talk with coworkers who are outside of your direct department because they probably hate you
If you don't work with them directly, you shouldn't be striking up conversations with people every single day. Because those people probably hate you.
Other notable entries included the guy who takes intramural sports way too seriously (batting gloves in slow-pitch softball is an automatic disqualification from being a cool person) and the guy who remembers his specific stats from a beer pong game in 2014.
Hot Seat/Cool Throne
Mark Zuckerberg is on the Hot Seat after Facebook announced its own cryptocurrency, Libra. PFT is ready to cave to our new digital overlord before the first coin even drops.
Mark Zuckerberg is going to run the world and we should all start bootlicking him now
The guy who just stole the world's privacy and helped rig elections is now going to control our money... I'm going to start bootlicking the shit out of Mark Zuckerberg because he's going to, like it or not, he's going to run the world. So you might as well get on his side early.
Meanwhile, LeBron James is on the Cool Throne because his hairline has made a miraculous, wealth-fueled recovery. Big Cat finds it inspiring that if you are sufficiently famous and rich, Mother Nature’s rules simply no longer apply to you.
LeBron James having a full head of hair again proves that wealth has officially cured baldness
I'm happy for LeBron because... there's a certain level of wealth/fame that if you can't figure out your hair, no one else has a shot in life. So LeBron is the perfect case where... you have to know that baldness has been cured by some level of wealth. This is the whole reason why people aspire to have wealth is so that they don't go bald.
To wrap up, the guys hit a quick "Uhhh Ya Think" regarding the latest FIFA arrests, proving that shock and awe regarding corruption in international soccer is about five years too late.
The awarding of the World Cup to Qatar was definitely not above board
The former president of FIFA was arrested because it turns out the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar or Qatar may not have been above board. Oh, you think? No doy.
If you're looking for Bryce Harper's Secret Service look or an underground baseball dome, Scott Boras has the blueprint.

