Small Thoughts Catch-Up

 Today is just a big hodge podge of a post because I have a bunch of little ideas but no idea big enough for its own post. For the first time in a while I actually didn't even watch the home run derby last night, completely forgot that was going on. I guess without a Jay in the competition it's hard for me to get into it. Anyway, here's some things that I've been thinking about all combined into 1 post: 

Steelers Trade for Jalen Ramsey

I wanted to do a fully flushed out reaction to this, but then I realized I'm maybe not knowledgeable enough to break down cornerbacks and safeties the way I'd like. With that in mind, we're going to do a quick emotions driven reaction! It's now been a couple of weeks since the Steelers traded free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick for CB Jalen Ramsey and TE Jonnu Smith. Initially my reaction was sweet we got Ramsey! Jalen Ramsey at one point was the best cornerback in football and he had the personality to go with it. Say what you want, but to combat all these diva wide receivers I love having a diva cornerback I think it just makes for good TV. In recent years Ramsey lost a bit of a step but he's still an elite DB and has shown an ability to shift over to safety in some sets which will be useful for the Steelers. The Steelers have a stud in Joey Porter Jr. as their #1 corner who's only going to keep getting better going into his 3rd year. They went out and got Darrius Slay who's a little over the hill himself but still was an effective cornerback last season and just came off winning a Superbowl. Now they add Ramsey and all of the sudden the Steelers pass coverage is looking amazing. I still worry that they lack speed in the backfield playing a couple of guys over 30, but they do have young guys who filled in pretty well last year that can rotate through as well. I was really excited about the addition and what it does to the defensive backfield until I learned about the price. 

The Steelers traded Minkah Fitzpatrick in this deal which now leaves a pretty big hole at safety. Now I'll admit just the name alone made me think that the Steelers gave up too much, and maybe this is high level copium from the fans, but the narrative going around now is that Minkah is not as good as he used to be. I saw a couple videos out there of Minkah blowing coverages or not being fast enough to be a true back line of defense last season. Having TJ Watt on your team rushing the passer can make defensive backs look better than they are, and maybe my perception of Minkah is warped by that. Still though, I think he was one of the better safeties in the league during his time in Pittsburgh and I was sad to see him go. 

I guess they also got Jonnu Smith in this deal. That's a guy I don't know too much about but it seems like he's a solid tight end that adds depth to that room. The Steelers love running the football and playing with multiple tight ends is conducive to that. Ok I've gone on long enough about this, overall it's probably a net neutral trade for the Steelers with a big injection of personality which will be entertaining so I'll take it. 

Fernando Tatis Jr. 

This one is more of a commentary on a cross-section of my two interests: finance and sports. My favorite finance writer: Matt Levine, which isn't saying much he's probably the most popular one, wrote a couple weeks back about an interesting Fernando Tatis Jr. situation that I need to bring up on my blog. Back when Tatis was in the minor leagues, he had little money to even get a place to live let alone afford proper nutrition and training to try and make it to the big leagues. A company approached him with an offer: $2m today in exchange for 10% of your future MLB earnings should you make it. Tatis took the offer and used the money to live more comfortably before eventually making it to the MLB and becoming a star. Tatis then signed a deal worth $340m making this agreement look super lopsided. For just $2m this company now is claiming Tatis owes them $34m. Tatis is now suing to try and get out of this massive obligation. 

I think there's two ways to think about this and it's really funny seeing my finance friend reactions vs my non-finance friend reactions. My finance friends viewed it like Matt Lavine, it's almost like a venture capital type of payoff. You offer this deal to a bunch of minor leaguers, most of them fail and you don't get any money back, some of them play a few years in the MLB and you get paid back your investment and some of them become Fernando Tatis Jr. and your entire strategy is paid off. Similar to venture capital investors buying stock in early stage companies, most of them fail but some of them become the next big thing and your stock goes 100x. My non-finance friends viewed it as extremely predatory, which I can see as well. These companies target guys coming from impoverished countries, likely without a ton of financial literacy or people to help them sort these things out. They dangle a ton of money in front of their faces and for many of them it's hard to turn that down. I can see how you would have a moral objection to buying equity in a human being for sure. 

I am just interested to see how this plays out. On one hand Tatis signed the deal and he's even credited the money he got early on for helping him make the MLB in the first place. On the other hand, come on you get $2m and now you owe them $34m? That's insane. Matt Levine was breaking down how there is precedent to treat these kinds of transactions like a loan rather than an equity investment, which would cap the amount Tatis has to pay back at an interest rate. If you're the company making these deals though you're going to be highly motivated to see a lawsuit through, not just to collect this big pay day, but to protect the viability of your strategy in the future. Ah finance, always finding new corners of evil I never knew existed. 

Summer League Rookies + Chomche 

Finally I wanted to express some excitement about some of these new guys who might be contributing on the Raptors as early as this year. Collin Murray-Boyles played his first game of Summer League on Sunday and he looked pretty impressive on defense. There's a whole highlight clip going around of all the deflections and plays he made on defense, and watching the whole game he just seems to have a really good feel for how to play that side of the ball. Offensively it was a bit of a work in progress, he airballed the first 3 pointer he attempted from the corner and bricked another one later in the game. He was good on the offensive glass and running in transition which is encouraging to see. The Raptors ended up closing a tight game with CMB at the 5 and Mogbo at the 4, a bit of a sneak peak into what it might look like with Scottie taking Mogbo's spot, and it was really fun. They had the size and length to keep up with post players while still being switchable. I think CMB's offense is going to be more opportunistic in his rookie season, but his defense plays for sure and that's pretty exciting. 

A soon to be fan favorite on the Raptors is second round pick Alijah Martin. Martin is a rabid defender for a guard. He has long arms and is really strong for his position while still being quick and determined. He spends the entire time he's out there pressing ball handlers and forcing turnovers and mistakes. He's really vocal on defense and isn't afraid to call out his teammates when they do something wrong, similar to Jamal Shead. Offensively his handle does need a bit of work if he's going to cut it as a guard, but he's a good shooter and audacious driver. He had one of the best dunks of the summer in the first game on a play where nobody in the building thought he was going to rise up to the rim. Overall he just seems like a guy that isn't going to do too much, but just understands winning basketball. He hustles, does the little stuff, guards and can pop off for a crazy exciting play at any moment. People are going to love this guy I'm calling it right now. 

Finally I'm lumping Ulrich Chomche in with the rookies considering how raw he was last year and how he's still only 19 years old. Chomche is a physical specimen and it really shows on defense. He's a 7 footer with crazy hops and very long arms which help him to be an awesome rim protector. When he checks into the games in summer league, the scoring at the rim tends to stop for the other team. He's still caught over rotating sometimes and isn't always in the best positions, but he makes up for it a lot of the time with his insane athleticism and reach. On offense he's definitely still a work in progress, but he is progressing. I still think his hands need some work, I've seen him bobble passes a few times in each game. He should be a great lob threat with his size and jumping ability but that hasn't played out yet because he has trouble catching the ball. He's surprisingly thrown a few really nice passes which to me shows his feel for the game is improving. You can tell he's working on things like the Jakob Poeltl floater that is so effective, but as of right now those things are still pretty hit and miss. Overall I am impressed with how he's coming along. This guy was pitched as essentially an elite basketball body, but a guy who doesn't know how to play basketball yet. You can tell he's clearly worked on some things and is starting to look like a guy that you could stomach playing in the NBA. He probably spends most of the year in the G-League, but if he keeps improving like this the Raptors might have a defensive menace at center sooner than people might think. 

That's all for today! Ended up being a bit of a long post haha I probably could've flushed these out into more, but whatever. Probably taking tomorrow off with an appointment in the morning and meetings in the afternoon so see you again on Thurs!