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Scott Boras, Mt Rushmore Of "That Guy" And The Rockets Hate Each Other

Wednesday, June 19, 201916 takes

This League is in full swing with the Rockets hating each other, Carmelo back, Kyrie ghosting Danny Ainge, the Raptors parade, and the Warriors taking out newspaper ads ( - ). Mt Rushmore of "That Guy" including well actually guy and guy who tries too hard at intramural sports ( - ). Hot Seat/Cool Throne including Brett Favre and Lebron's Hair ( - ). Super Agent Scott Boras joins the show to talk about his career, the Bryce Harper negotiations, arbitrations that have gotten nasty, and negotiating Kris Bryant's next contract ( - ). Segments include bachelorette talk for guys that don't watch the bachelorette, respect the biz umps, PMT sports biz minute, locker room talk, uhhh ya think, and guys on chicks.

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.

Win
Jun 19, 2019·This League
#11998
PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

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.

Reporting from the time confirmed a major rift between the two players, leading to Paul being traded that offseason.

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.

Win
Jun 19, 2019·This League
#12000
Big CatBig Cat

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.

Kawhi Leonard signed with the Los Angeles Clippers shortly after this episode aired.

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.

Win
Jun 19, 2019
#12006
Scott BorasScott Boras

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?'

The phenomenon of 'tanking' in MLB became a significant issue in the mid-to-late 2010s, which supports Boras's observation of team behavior.

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.

Void
Jun 19, 2019
#29552
Scott BorasScott Boras

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].

This is a debate between the efficacy of proprietary data models versus human scouting that continues to this day in MLB.

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.

Void
Jun 19, 2019
#12007
Scott BorasScott Boras

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.

While mathematically sound in terms of net present value, it's an economic interpretation of value rather than a binary fact.

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.

Void
HankHank

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.

This is a subjective matter of social etiquette and personal preference.

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.

Void
PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

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.

The take is satirical and about political/economic power, making it subjective.

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.

Void
Big CatBig Cat

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.

While LeBron did undergo treatments to restore his hair, the claim that baldness is universally 'cured' by wealth is comedic hyperbole.

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.

Win
PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

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.

OpinionSoccerMildSarcastic
Widespread corruption in the Qatar 2022 bid was confirmed by numerous investigations and the US Department of Justice.

If you're looking for Bryce Harper's Secret Service look or an underground baseball dome, Scott Boras has the blueprint.

mlbnbascott-borasmount-rushmorebryce-harperhouston-rockets

More Takes

Win
Jun 19, 2019
#11999
Big CatBig Cat

Roy Williams has been a better coach than Coach K since arriving at North Carolina

Roy Williams has won more since he's been at UNC over Coach K. So I don't know what they [Duke] do.

Since Roy Williams arrived at UNC in 2003, he won three national championships (2005, 2009, 2017) compared to Coach K's two (2010, 2015) in that same window.
Void
Jun 19, 2019·This League
#12001
PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

The NBA Draft is the most anticlimactic show on television

Is there any more anticlimactic TV show than the NBA draft? ... It's like the reverse of watching an actual NBA game is like you only have to tune in for the first five minutes of the NBA draft and then you're good to go.

This is a subjective critique of sports broadcasting.
Void
Jun 19, 2019
#12002
PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Brett Favre would be a better NFL quarterback today because defenders can't touch him

I would actually make the argument that the rules of the game have changed where Brett Favre would probably be a better quarterback right now. Can't touch the quarterback. Just throw the fuck out of the ball downfield and get pass interference.

While the rules protect QBs more, Favre's age and the speed of modern defenses make this physically impossible, though the rules certainly favor his style more than the era he played in.
Void
Big CatBig Cat

The 'Dad Bod' trend is a total lie

Dad bod is such a lie... You love Seth Rogen because he's so funny and he gets high and he makes funny movies. That's not what every other dad bod [is]. We're dad bods because we're lazy and we're grumpy and we suck. At everything.

The desirability of a body type is entirely subjective.
Void
Jun 19, 2019
#12005
Scott BorasScott Boras

The MLB draft system is essentially a servitude that hurts the sport

The common theme was you get what the guy got last year, and if you don't accept it, you're greedy... So it basically turned into a servitude. And I really felt that was not good for the game because I felt we're going to lose the great athletes to other sports.

This is a legal and economic philosophy of an agent, making it subjective in nature.
Push
Jun 19, 2019
#12008
Scott BorasScott Boras

Baseball should adopt an 8-team wildcard 'March Madness' playoff format

My feeling is we have to make the game more competitive... we're going to create a baseball March Madness so that you have the bottom three teams. So you have five, six, and seven. Seven... will play six, one game. Then the winner of that will play team five... Then you get into the divisional playoffs. So you're going to have three days of sudden death Major League Baseball playoffs.

In 2022, MLB expanded the playoffs to 12 teams (6 per league), including a 3-game Wild Card series, moving closer to the 'more teams' model Boras advocated for, though his specific gauntlet format wasn't used.
Void
PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Vacation activities are overrated; a perfect honeymoon is just hanging out at a beach or pool and getting hammered

This is why activities on vacations are overrated in general. Really, a guy's perfect honeymoon or vacation is just go somewhere, hang out at a beach, a pool, and then get hammered. He only does the activities because you want to do the activities.

This is a subjective preference regarding vacation styles.

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