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Twas the night before Machado, when all through the thread; Not a poster was stirring, they'd all gone to bed. Bob Nightengale with his smoke and the local news stations; Had prepped all us Sox fans for more negotiations. When out of the blue there arose such a clatter. I went straight to my news feed to see what was the matter. I searched for Machado and sorted by top. Excited and nervous to see what would drop. When to my wondering eyes did appear? But $250 million for a term of eight years! With a crafty, young GM so lively and quick; I knew in a moment he must be Saint Rick. A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread. He spoke not a word but went straight to work. And as the contract was signed, he gave me a smirk. He sprang back to the Rate, to his team gave a whistle. And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight; Merry Machado to all, and to all a good night!

Nightengale, Merkin, DVS, Garfein, Levine, a few hours from now: Per a source, the White Sox are NOT putting a full court press on for Machado, nor do they have any edge. Their pursuit has been described as a "half court press", or by some, as little as a 2-3 zone.

ban-able offense imo

Just wait until Passan tweets out "The White Sox and Machado has agreed in principle to an 8 year deal" and then Nightengale fires back with "No deal has been reached yet". We will all lose our shit.

I see it's time to dunk on Rick Hahn because of some conflincting tweets, and guess what? I saw Rick Hahn at a grocery store today. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him about the ongoing Manny Machado negotiations. He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?” I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying. The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter. When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.

For anyone who is struggling with sanity, keep these points in mind: - Huge contracts take a TON of negotiating. And the degree of contract we're talking about here is almost unprecedented in this sport. - In said negotiations, it is the JOB of agents on one side and billion dollar organizations on the other to work out the terms that are most beneficial to them, regardless of how long that takes. - People involved in these negotiations make a LOT of money because they have negotiating skills the average person doesn't have, and the temperament to let things play out. (i.e., the casual fans who thinks they could be a GM really don't have the stomach for it.) - If either the agent or the braintrust of the organization lets the stress level of a bunch of idiots in a discussion forum affect their decisions and/or timing, they should be fired. - In this day and age social media is ubiquitous and is used as one of many negotiation tools. - Social media is ONLY used as a negotiation tool BECAUSE a significant number of people pay attention to it. If no one paid attention, all the social media agent vs. org BS would eventually evaporate. - This could be done tonight or it could take another month. - It is totally in your power to turn the computer off. Your choice.

There really is no need for this. The 50s called and they wanted to pass on that using females as a way to insult men died with them.

I have never realized how big of pussies Sox fans can be. Every neutral piece of information is met by people panicking and expecting the worst.

If Manny Machado (Or Bryce Harper) is a 5 win player for the next 6 years, that is better money than the white sox have spent in the free agent market this decade. If the headline number scares you, you wind up with Melky Cabrera and Adam LaRoche.

The guy isn't here any more, why are we posting his tweets and making fun of him in a Machado thread? Give me a break. This doesn't help with board quality.

The "Sox are pissing off fans by negotiating" takes are laughable.

Let’s do 9/$300M and call it a day.

LOL, they couldn't sign Jesse Chavez, but now are going to sign Harper/Machado. Okay bud, I'll have whatever that cat is smoking.

Guys, The Sandlot is on MLB Network right now. Take a break and enjoy baseball for a bit. Back to the grind tomorrow, unless something breaks late night.

Because the sky is always falling.

Imagine in 200 years when our distant relatives find the relics of this thread. It will be studied for years as the fall of mankind's ability to reason.

If Machado signs with another team and there ends up being reason to be mad at the Sox for how they handled it, I'll be mad.... But predicting that the fanbase will revolt because Scott Merkin and Levine and others are tweeting out leaks from the Sox is silly. The Sox should not care or adjust their strategy to make the nerds at SoxMachine and a couple hundred idiots like us on the internet happy.

Wow, dude. I thought I was casually being a dick when I posted the Tatis batflip video. This is like Ron Jeremy level dickage.

When you have an owner who is well known for being cheap and valuing image and loyalty over winning, that's what happens. Its years of frustration boiling over, not this one negotiation

Merk: "Kenny literally every chicago writer has tweeted out the 7 years i think they get the point" KW: "You got twitter ready?" Merk: "This isn't nec-" KW: "what's happening? per VERY HIGH DISTINGUISHED SOURCE the white sox offer does note exceed 7 years" Merk: "Can I at least get a dollar range to differentiate?" KW:" can i at weast get the dowwar wange SEND TWEET MERK"

Yes I did. Everyone is radio silent today. Weird. When I went to bed last night everything was going like I was told it would. Even Merkin was speaking in past tense But remember what I said today Reinsdorf is now involved. And I would expect he’s at the Governor’s inauguration which means that any hiccups can’t be dealt with. I’ll keep trying to get information.

Pay attention to the wording. This standoff over what "offer" is on the table could well be a lot of lawyer speak from both sides. We know the Sox put a formal 7 year offer on the table. If the 8/250 was a verbal offer, or something that was floated in discussions it is 100% true to say that they have not revised the original offer, as that took a different, and more formal, form. In a situation like this, technically both sides would be right. The original offer would not have been revised, but another less formal offer could be out there.

And Soxtalk, you're welcome.

He who will remain nameless is still being the judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to having sources lol

Soxfest if we don't sign either...

Maybe the Tim Anderson to catcher idea isn't so far fetched after all??? Clearly Manny will be playing SS and Tim will be at catcher.

Just to show you guys how ridiculous this entire process is, here’s a quote from Rick Hahn at the Jon Jay presser just last week: Here are five tweets in the last 24 hours:

Get off your high horse. I have been a member since Summer 2005. You are judging fans based on posting on game threads?!?! I am a season ticket holder and I am sorry I don't post on SoxTalk all the time. I know that wasn't personally directed at me, but I am part of the few. I have faith, as a fan, in Kenny and Rick. As many faults Kenny has, he did win a World Series. Jury is still out on Rick, but the returns on Q, Sale, and Eaton were top notch and not many, if anyone, was upset with them. You want to play Monday morning quarterback, wait til the signings happen.

I'd prefer to get pissed off because none of this fits my own personal timeline.

Totally agree. It's the same but not even close to the same thing at all

And thus concludes the most annoying day since yesterday.

I really loathe this "public negotiations are insulting to faaaans" train of thought. I wish we could elevate our discourse back to the days of wondering which potential city has a better atmosphere for marital infidelity and getting away with murder.

Ok yeah sign any time now machado I think we have hit peak offseason.

They want to refute it strongly because if a team does try and beat their offer, the Sox would rather have a team push up against a 7/200 offer rather than an 8/250. When that call from Lozano comes and says "X team went past your offer, will you beat theirs?" you dont want their offer to be artificially inflated from the start. It just makes more ground for you to have to cover to get back to being the top offer

If 7/200 is the highest they go, I see no reason for this fan base to support the organization anymore in all honesty.

Because many folks on this board have a massive Cubs inferiority complex.

Eyeroll.

Oh so close

Not a good enough reason to subject myself to kap

Please go away

I can't wait until tomorrow when it is confirmed that the Phils offered at least 7 years, and the board debates how much the franchise will be worth once it moves to Portland.

You should be banned.

cc that one poster who said everyone saying 90% was dumb

You could say it was Machado about nothing.

And you may find yourself Living in a shotgun shack And you may find yourself In another part of the world And you may find yourself Behind the wheel of a large automobile And you may find yourself in a beautiful house With a beautiful wife And you may ask yourself, well How did I get here?

If the white sox were offering insulting offers, the phillies would have signed him by now.

After the torii hunter fiasco I don't trust anything

Like...because you can't believe a team would be that asinine to offer up Eloy/Cease AND Abreu for an expiring player who doesn't have otherworldly road splits? Machado got 4 prospects, but only one was a Top 100 and he was #84. Not #3 and #25 Edit: Also, Eloy Jimenez becomes Death, Destroyer of Baseballs if he's in Coors Field.

Might want to check the date on the articles.