The Jesse Blake sports report with Jesse Blake.

Welcome to the Jesse Blake sports report. Whether this is your first time here or your last time here or somewhere in between, I appreciate that you are here today so that we can discuss quite a few things, actually. I want to run down three different topics today because a couple of different things have piqued my interest this Sunday afternoon. And that is Juan Soto possibly becoming a Toronto Blue Jay, which is our lead story today. The San Francisco 49ers, and I don't think anybody will stop them. And this college football playoff story, and admittedly, I don't follow college football at all, but I've been enamored with this playoff format that they have in Alabama, sneaking in on Saturday and all that stuff. So I just want to talk about it briefly. But first, one Soto to the Toronto Blue Jays seems like a real possibility. So on Sunday, we got a report out of John Heyman of the Network who said the Toronto Blue Jays are among multiple teams talking to the Padres about acquiring Soto after discussions with the New York Yankees stole. So the Blue Jays are right now frontrunners for one Soto.

And it seems like if the Ohtani thing fails, if Shohay O-Tanya, as we talked about last episode, goes to the Dodgers as we all think he's going to go to the Dodgers, it seems like the Toronto Blue Jays are going to be frontrunners to land one Soto on a trade from the Padres. Because the Padres, after going for it last offseason, need to unload everything they have. And that includes in their biggest player, a $30 million player, 25 years old, one Soto. And this coming season is his last arbitration eligible campaign before hitting the open market. So it'll be more of a one year rental, it looks like, for the Blue Jays, unless they're willing to sign into another massive contract pending the season he has. But it's very interesting that the Jays are in on all of these big name players. And the player going back the other way could be, according to Ben Nicholson Smith of sportsnet, Alec Minoa. So we know now, based on a couple of reports and the main one coming from Ben Nicholson Smith, Alec Minoa has been in trade talks to go to the Padres in some package for Wand Soto.

And I think that's cool because there's no evidence that Alec Minoa can just get it back. There's no evidence to say that, yeah, he's going to be the Si-Young potential pitcher that we saw briefly during his stint in the majors. And then last season was just a complete and other disaster from game one to eventually getting sent down to the Bisons to eventually refusing toreport. Well, getting sent down to Florida League first to do some training down there, and then eventually refusing to go back to any type of competitive baseball and not wanting to play for the Jays for anymore because of how poorly this season went. We covered the the Alec Minoa Saga quite extensively in a couple of different episodes throughout the summer on this podcast. So go back and check out those if you want a little history on the in the moment reaction to how that Minoa Saga played out. But I don't think he has a long future with the Blue Jays. It'd be nice if Alec Minoa comes back and is the Alec Mino of old, but I don't see that happening. Roy Halliday is the greatest example I can give if somebody hitting rock bottom and then bouncing all the way back.

But it doesn't typically happen with pitchers. Sometimes they just lose it and they never get back to that. So if the Blue Jays can sell on Mino now and sell on the idea of him being good one day and not going into game one and he starts and it's the same, not very good Minoa, I'd rather they try this offseason to get rid of him. And it looks like that's what they're trying to do. And try and hopefully get a little trait package that includes One Soda. There's going to be other pieces going back the other way. It's not going to be one for one. But I think including Manoa to lessen the other pieces you have to give back in the deal is great, great trading by the Blue Jays if they can get this done. And One Soda as a consolation prize to not landing O-Tanya is a pretty good consolation, Jayes fans. That's going to be a huge addition to the lineup and exactly what the Jayes need. Last year, they had the best pitching staff in the American League. And to not do everything you can this offseason to support that pitching staff for next season would be a disservice to the fan base and disservice to the team.

So I'm very happy at everything we're hearing out of the Blue Jays this offseason where they're trying to go for it next year. And Juan Soto would be a huge swing. And it could be a potential home run if they land. But like Big Fish, fingers crossed, they end up landing Shohayetani, which is the... It's coming down to them and the Dodge. There's been a little bit more talk of the Los Angeles, Angels of Anaheim getting back into the sweepstakes of re-signing O-Tani. But I don't know, personally, based on really nothing, based on the tea leaves, I guess, I think O-Tani wants a change of scenery. And why not Toronto? Why not the entire country of Canada? You already have America. No matter where you are, as long as you're in the MLB, you can market to America. But if you're playing for the Blue Jays, you can market to Canada, and then you're obviously going to be the international star that you're going to be. But it makes a lot of sense for O'Tany to want to come play in Toronto, and I hope it comes true. But if it doesn't, if you end up going to the Dodgers, I'd be cool with One Soto.

That would be fantastic. So other thing I want to touch on today. So we've covered that. That's the latest. We were supposed to hear something this week from Ohtani. That's the latest of the latest, is that maybe this week at the GM meetings... The GM meetings are happening in Nashville right now for all of the MLB general managers. So we could hear something this week, a decision from Ohtani. And once that decision is made, then the dominoes start falling. Then we can see a One Soto trade come to life. And that would be really cool if that all happened this week. I'll come to you with an emergency pod if the Blue Jays end up doing one of these two things, Soto or Ohtani for sure this week. So yeah, look out for that. We could get it by the end of this week while all the GMs are in Nashville. So other thing, the San Francisco 49ers beat up on the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. On Sunday afternoon, they're in the 4/25 game, which the NFL needs to figure out the scheduling with these one o'clock games and the four o'clock games. They load up the one o'clock games.

There's eight of them. And then the four o'clock games, there's three. And I get some teams are on buy this week. We need to figure out that schedule. It's ridiculous. You have so many games, just spread them out. Just play some of those one o'clock games at four o'clock. It makes no sense. Anyways, the San Francisco 49ers, I don't know who's stopping them in the NFC. I thought the Eagles would have given them more of a pushback this game. This game, this was the rematch of the NFC title game from last year. So Brock Purdy, he goes out that game. He's not there. He's unavailable. They lose. Philby goes to the Super Bowl. And the word from the fan base, the word from the players out of the 40 Niners group is that if Brock Purdy was in there, if they had any semblance of a healthy team, if McAfrey is 100 %, they win. That's what the 49ers fans and the teams and all the players, that's what they believed. If we were healthy, we would have beat the Eagles. And watching a healthy 49ers team against an Eagles team that, they're not the Eagles of last year, but they're 10 and 1.

They're the Eagles. 10 and 1 or 9 and one. Well, they have two losses now. Let me just double-check that in real time. As you can tell, no edits in this one. We're just going straight 10 and 2. Yeah, they're 10 and 1. Now they're 10 and two. And the 49ers are right on their tail for that top spot in the NFC. And watching how the receivers and the weapons that the 49ers have, watching Kiddle and Debo and McAfry. And Ayouk out there too dismantled the secondary of the Eagles, which is supposed to be decent. They're not supposed to be this terrible secondary. Just dismantle them time and time again. And Debo getting space and going on those long runs after the catch. And Brock Purdy being the best game manager in the game right now, he leaves the league in completion percentage and yards per attempt. Those stats were during the game. And it's like, how do you deny Brock Purdy being excellent at what is required of him now? We all need to admit that he's good. He is very good. Not everybody can step into Brock Purdy's role and accomplish what he is doing.

I think we need to give him his kudos from here on out. Brock Purdy is the dude. He is good. After a shaky, what was it? First series? That was the first two series they had after that, solid. Exactly what we expect out of him at this point. And that says he's going to take the weapons that they have, which is every weapon that you could ever want as a football team, and he's going to utilize it in a creative way where everybody's moving, they're getting into open space, and it's the run after the catch, and they dismantle secondaries. I'm going to pull up the standings here right now. I'm trying to go through it in my brain and it's like, who would I take right now ahead of the 49ers in any type of power ranking, in any type of who's the best right now, who's going to beat them on the road to the Super Bowl? In the NFC, the challenge really are the lions, cowboys, eagles. Lions are sneaky. The lions are going to sneak up on somebody in these playoffs and cause an upset. I could easily see that NFC Championship game, depending on how that bracket breaks down.

I could easily see it being Lions 49ers easily. And then who knows, in one game, it could always go either way. But I don't see the Cowboys, the lions, the Eagles. I'm not taking anybody over the 49ers right now in the NFC. And then if you go to the AFC, the Chiefs are looking rough against the Packers. I'm typing this at the beginning of the game there. Jordan loves going off on... The Chief's defense is supposed to be their new thing this year is that, Oh, my homes doesn't have any weapons, but the defense is great. And now Jordan Love is dismantling the defense of the Kansas City Chief. So how good are the Chiefs? Actually, the Dolphins, great win. Great win against the commanders today, against Sam Howe there. Just great, dominating offensive performance by the Miami Dolphins. But the Miami Dolphins against any good team in the league, they struggle. They struggle against any team that is over 500. So I don't know about that. And then you have the tertiary teams like the Jags. And are we still calling the Bills a playoff team? The way things have broken down for them and Josh Allen has been unfortunate.

And then you got the Ravens will be sneaky good in the playoffs. They're going to cause a little bit of disruption there. They're going to probably win one or two games, who knows? But there's 31 other teams besides the 49ers that are below them. It is the 49ers and then 31 teams is how the NFL is breaking down right now. And just the way that that Eagle's game went, it cemented it. It cemented it. And just in the game itself, the chippiness between the two teams was a lot of fun. That was good to see. I don't know, I like that in football. I think we need more tension between the players. Sometimes football players can be too buddy-buddy. A lot of these guys went to college together. They were on some of the big school programs. They're friends off the field and they changed teams so much that they know each other. And it's good to see tension on football field. It's great stuff. I wouldn't say it was a great game from a competitive standpoint, for sure. But watching San Francisco do their thing and work their magic is a beautiful thing. Last topic I want to hit on today because Saturday, I'm not the biggest college football fan.

I mentioned this off the top. I'm not the biggest college football fan in the world. But Saturday was the SEC Championship Game. Sec, for people who don't know, is Division 1 football. In my mind, all I have is Drake's draft day. Drake's got a song called draft day. Johnny Mansell is in the course, in the hook. And at the end of it, there's a snippet. It's a skit of one of his buddies doing an impression of a coach who went on a rant. He's like, It's the SCC. It's Division 1 football. Heck, they're pledged into it. It's so funny. Anytime I say SCC, I'm thinking of that. Anyways, side-rant over. The SCC Championship game was on Saturday. Georgia was playing Alabama. Georgia was the number one team in the country. Alabama was somewhere in the seven-range in terms of the college football rankings. So they have a four-team playoff is the way this thing works. And Alabama beat Georgia. Alabama had one loss coming into that game. They had lost earlier in the year to Texas. And that's very important to note because Alabama goes on to beat Georgia. So Alabama wins the SEC Championship.

Now everyone's like, Okay, so Alabama should deserve to get into the college football playoffs. And the playoffs aren't determined by any wins or it's not determined by wins and losses. It is literally determined by a committee of people who look at everything that happened that season and they say these four teams deserve to get in the playoffs. So first things first, that's how they disturb the college football playoffs. A committee says these teams deserve to get in. So Alabama beating the number one team in Georgia caused a lot of controversy because now there are more than four deserving teams. Michigan deserves to get in because they went undefeated. Washington deserves to get in because they went undefeated. Alabama now looks like they deserve to get in because they beat undefeated Georgia. So Georgia is now they can't get in because they lost one game and Alabama beat them. But Alabama lost earlier in the year to Texas. So Texas deserves to get in, but they have one loss. But they beat Alabama, who beat the undefeated Georgia. So now Texas gets to get in. So we have three cemented teams there. Georgia, sorry, Georgia, Washington, Michigan, Texas.

And now it's like, okay, who's this fourth team? There's this fourth team called Florida State University, FSU, is what everybody likes to call them. Fsu went undefeated during the regular season. And usually when you're undefeated and you come from one of the power five conferences, so there are five big conferences in college football, which Florida State is in, they're in one of the power five conferences, and they went undefeated, and they didn't get into the playoffs. And instead, the committee said that Alabama gets to get in instead. And people are livid about this because Florida, by the way it's supposed to work, Florida should get in. If you go undefeated and you win your conference championship game, you're supposed to be like, Oh, that's how it works. But Florida, they lost their starting quarterback. So despite doing everything on the field, never losing a game, winning a big, power-five conference championship, they didn't make the playoffs because the committee said if they get into the playoffs, they're going to get creamed anyways. So we're not letting them in. And we're instead going to let Alabama in who beat Georgia on Saturday. And college football is a complete mess with this unfolding on Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday is when the selection committee unveiled the playoffs, the four teams that get into the playoffs. And they said, Alabama gets in over F. S. U. It's a little overly complicated. I don't know if I explained that well. Hopefully, I explained that well for you. But I'm fascinated by it because of how how ridiculous... It's been so long that College football has done this committee polls thing where they don't... They've only had a playoff format for a few years now. They used to just decide the two teams in the championship game by committee. They select the two teams that get to go to the championship. Now they select four teams that go to the playoffs. And it blows my mind that for so many years that college football still decides their champion this way. A completely deserving team in FSU doesn't get to go to the playoffs because the selection committee says that they're going to get destroyed in the playoffs, which is like, yeah, probably. I think in the end, they made the right decisions for all of the wrong reasons. I think Alabama, Texas, Washington, Michigan are the four right teams. But FSU did everything they needed to do during the regular season to get into the playoffs.

And they don't get in there because of injuries and because they're probably not as good as the team, but they did everything right. So the College Football Selection Committee made the right decision for all the wrong reasons. And I was just following that storyline and how outraged people are about this decision. And it's such a... I get the third-person view of this story because I'm not a college football fan. I don't follow week-to-week, but I like the big moments. I watched the championship game and all that stuff, and I watched some bowl games on on January first. So seeing the reaction from the hardcore American College football fans has been just a joy to watch. Just to doomscroll online and read all the comments and everything because people are so passionate about their college football teams. Anyways, I just want to talk about that story for a little because it took up a lot of my weekend. I'll read and all the reaction, waiting for Selection Sunday and then see if people get so mad about FSU. Anyways, that's it. That is it for me today. A little different pod for you today. We just guys went for...

Was that like 20 minutes? No edits. You get straight just talking about stuff. I don't know if you liked it. If you liked it, let me know. If you liked it, hit like. If you really like it, hit subscribe on the channel. We're trying to push to 100K subscribers. Go to YouTube. Com/sdpn if you're not there already, hit subscribe. The subscribe button help us hit 100K. If you really like this podcast and you've been enjoying it all year. I saw some of you on your Spotify wrapped at the show, which is crazy. That's cool. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Rate it on your favorite podcast app so we can continue doing this and get some more people in. That is it for me today. I will see you on Thursday. Thank you for being here. You could have been anywhere in the world if the shows would be listening or watching this podcast right now. I appreciate you. Good night from Toronto. And that is how it's done.

The Jesse Blake sports report with Jesse Blake. Jesse Blake, the guy that likes to hear his name twice in one sentence. Sure, I know him. No, he doesn't have an.

Ego at all.