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I'm official out on the monitoring of this situation... I had a dream the sox signed machado for 10 years $340mm last night.. and that Hahn had a presser trashing the media about how awful their reporting was and that they doubled the $175mm rumors and the Sox are in it to win it. The fact that this made my dreams scares me. It's infiltrated my subconscious. A new low.

Have your sources confirmed this?

Alonso cost them 9 million, gave Indians salary relief to potentially keep their stellar staff together and is blocking Palka from getting at bats. I like Alonso, but if they miss on Manny, it’s a ridiculous acquisition.

lol stop man, you were talking about drafting players to rush them up for contenders and that is clearly not the case here nor was it the case with any of the players you cited (other than Burdi which I agreed about). Collins was seen as around that slot in the draft, where the Sox took him, and it was known there were deep questions about his defense and therefore he might not move as fast if a team was going to try to keep him there. And we are debating here whether or not to promote a guy after a full year after AA, or maybe a couple months later. I'm all for pointing out it is a mistake, but this is not some "so White Sox" thing to do to draft Collins. Your perception is like 5 years old on this topic. Don't try to turn a single, IMO poor, developmental diecision into something unrelated about draft philosophy.

I miss the fake rumor tweet nights, you guys. While frustrating, they were really fun. I hate life now.

That article was called bold predictions for February...meaning make up some stuff that will never happen. Context would have been nice...

Hes saying your wifes been sleeping with your bestfriend the last couple of years

The athletic said yesterday machado won't even meet with them until they put an actual offer on the table so there is currently no offer to even "up". I'll take the word of the athletic over some dude named paul crane with 1200 followers lol

If the Sox want to play with the big boys, they have to be able to outbid the Phillies. Phillies couldnt even land Corbin.

He's a real nowhere man Sitting in his nowhere land Making all his nowhere plans for nobody Doesn't have a point of view Knows not where he's going to Isn't he a bit like you and me? Nowhere Man, please listen You don't know what you're missing Nowhere Man, the world is at your command He's as blind as he can be Just sees what he wants to see Nowhere Man can you see me at all? Nowhere Man, don't worry Take your time, don't hurry Leave it all till somebody else lends you a hand Doesn't have a point of view Knows not where he's going to Isn't he a bit like you and me? Nowhere Man, please listen You don't know what you're missing Nowhere Man, the world is at your command He's a real Nowhere Man Sitting in his nowhere land Making all his nowhere plans for nobody Making all his nowhere plans for nobody Making all his nowhere plans for nobody

They doin' more than sleeping, ya know what I'm sayin'!?

What are your “sources” saying?

I was watching MLBN a couple of weeks ago and they were talking about the first draft they televised. They invited a bunch of players to attend and only one did. Mike Trout. They were feeling so bad for him as he kept getting passed over. He had the last laugh.

Again, outs are never a good thing. Sometimes, coaches are willing to accept them as a cost to create a run scoring situation. But in literally every one of those situations, a hit is even better, and in most of those situations, a walk is better. It’s a subtle but important distinction from what you’re saying.

____ | | | Guessed : | | | _|_ | |______ | | |__________| Word: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Anybody up for a little Hangman while we wait for Manny to sign?

It's more like 10 times out of a hundred. Or the difference between a .200 hitter and .300 hitter. Last year Harper was on base almost 15 extra times out of 100. Nobody is saying a walk is better than a hit. It's not. It's just better than an out 99% of the time. Teams that are on base more score more. Therefore they win more.

Your post was about Mitchell and Trout in a Machado thread...

These $100 jerseys are not the authentic on-field jerseys. Those are much more money. The team is given a stock of jerseys each year from Majestic, as part of their contract. They have an in-house seamstress who sews on the names/numbers for each player and coach jersey. Anyway, they do sell the $100 replicas (both player jerseys and blank) in the team store. They aren't going to have the poor team seamstress customize 10,000 Machado jerseys, but they could be buying those to send them to local shops. I'm not sure if Granstand customizes themselves currently. They used to send their jerseys to Exclusive Pro Sports in Rockford. Anyway, EPS could easily turn several thousand blank jerseys into Machado jerseys. So again, I'm not saying that it proves anything, but this would fit in with the Sox wanting to stock up in hopes they will land Harper or Machado and suddenly have a demand for thousands of new jerseys.

There is probably nothing to this report, but here are a few points: 1) I don't know if he's saying that the team buys the jerseys from Majestic's website and pays $100 for them. But the team *would* get the jerseys directly from Majestic for the wholesale price, which would then reflect the stock which was available for fans to buy. 2) Majestic is now owned by Fanatics, and it was recently announced that Majestic will keep producing the on-field jerseys next year, which will be Nike branded. So it's not like Majestic is going to stop making White Sox jerseys a year in advance of the Nike deal because they don't want all that dead stock. The replicas are likely to be the same this year as next, with the only difference being the manufacturer logo. The replicas have heat-pressed Majestic logos, so they would probably just leave those off the extra stock and press the swoosh on next year. 3) While there's probably no fan rush of jersey purchases based on the Yonder trade, I don't think the Sox buying up a bunch of jerseys is a smoking gun here. We know from many reports and our insiders that the Sox are confident they will land one of the two whales. They could have just bought the jerseys because they think they'll end up with one of them, and not because they are closing in on a deal with Machado.

Is it just possible they don't make as many White Sox ones as they do Red Sox/Yankees? Legit question, not a rhetorical question.

Next time I text my wife to stop spending so much money, I'm going to tell her it was a *typo/fat finger/autocorrect and I really typed love you.

The White Sox are going to make a large profit this year, whether or not they sign Machado/Harper. They weren't losing money when they had payrolls of $125 mil a few years back, and they aren't going to lose money now with an $80 mil payroll, especially since ticket prices and their TV rights have gone up since then. So, they have the $13 mil to spend on Jay and Yonder. They are both here for a year, using money that wouldn't be spent elsewhere, and not blocking young talent. That $13 mil is not going to come back to bite the Sox two years from now, like they can't trade for an ace at the deadline because they can't take on the extra $13 mil salary. They either spend the money this year or they don't. It won't influence the future at all.

*Rich Koz voice* MARWYN!

Agreed bmags. They're both great, and I wouldn't complain either way, but Harper is the superior player.

Machado isn't a guarantee? He's more of a guarantee to produce consistent high level of play than Harper just by being on the field more often. If we can't trust that our overflow of OF prospects are going to produce at least 2 quality bats and above average OF defense then rebuilding is ridiculous . The Sox are in a position where they have to believe high quality prospects will produce high quality results.

I don't think it is close tbh. I clarified. Harper's 3 worst seasons are .768, .814, .817 Machado's are .745, .755, .782 Harper's 3 best seasons: 1.109 1.008 .889 Machado's 3 best .905 .876 .867 Not even close in terms of ceiling and floor.

Nope.Machado hopefully costs less and has been on the field way more. You have no value when you don't play.Costing less also allows more financial freedom to upgrade where necessary.Top flight 3rd baseman way higher on Sox needs than an outfielder. I cannot actually see how anyone can think Harper is a better choice.

We have discussed this option before but its hard to get past the Alonzo and Jay signings then. If Harper is their guy wtf was Hahn thinking bringing in Manny's buddies?

I think from a purely on-field production standpoint, Machado has the safer floor while Harper has the higher ceiling. Manny has been more consistent at the plate, plays plus defense at 3B, and is far more durable since his knee surgeries. He seems like a guy you can reasonably project 6 to 6.5 win seasons from for the next five or so years. Bryce definitely has the better bat when it’s going right and in those moments it can be MVP caliber. As for his defense, while I do think many around here are overreacting to a rough 2018, I do think it leaves a lot to be desired. I don’t buy this “he’ll need to move to 1B”, but he’s never going to be a good defensive OF IMO. The durability is one of the biggest issues I have with Bryce. He’s played less than 120 games in three of his last six seasons. Certain guys always seemed to be banged up and Bryce just may be one of them. I don’t think you can wrong with either, but I do think Machado is the better bet to provide consistent star production over the next half decade and will likely come quite a bit cheaper. I currently lean Manny, but would still be ecstatic if we ended up with Harper.

Harper has two seasons right at .800(.814 and .817) so let's not act like his numbers are head and shoulders better than Manny.

1. It's Auckland, as in awkward. Say it in a mock British accent and go under instead of over the 'u'. People generally agree that Auckland is kinda lame too. Wellington is much more charming. 2. Raikoura/Stewart Island and Bluff would probably be best if you're trying to see the Southern Lights and from astronomy in general. I was on the Caples, Greenstone and Routeburn tracks last week and had some incredible night skies though. Didn't put the fly on the tent one night (living dangerously!) and the stars were really great. So still a bit further north than Bluff and Invercargill, closer to Queenstown, but still incredible. I'm a also a born and raised Chicago expat living in NZ. Not a true NZer, though as a country they do tend to reject the concept of "true NZer". You should come. There are new non-stops from Chicago on Air NZ.

Why deal OF prospects when you can just use them to fill the holes in the OF and have Machado and still have more prospect depth afterwards for trades or injuries?

Teams are probably willing to pay Harper $50M more than Machado over the course of his contract. Think about that.

If you want to deal with "ifs" the chances of Harper being injured vs the chance of Machado's defense downgrading significantly at 3rd base is way in Machado's favor given past indicators. Same goes for Machado's vs Harper defensively.

Except for the fact that Jimenez, Robert and Adolfo/Basabe (If you really squint) could potentially be 4 fWAR corner outfielders and the best we could project at 3B are currently Yolmer, Moncada or the ghost of Jake Burger.

That's if you ignore every other factor except for offense. So we would obviously ignore what the two bring to our defense and the positional needs within our organization. Plus any other intangibles that we think one might bring over the other as being more of a clubhouse fit.

No. The Jay and Alonso acquisitions kind of telegraphed who their main target is.

Disagree. I think Harper has the safer floor and the higher ceiling. I really don't think that it is close. If you're spending the money, you spend it on Bryce, unless he's not interested in playing here.

Machado's 3 best years: .861-2015 .876-2016 .905-2018 Those are the only 3 seasons that Machado has put up an OPS over .800 in his career Harper's best 3 seasons: 2015-1.109 2017-1.008 2018-.889 Harper has only had one season in his career with an OPS less than .800(2014) Machado has had 4 seasons with an OPS less than .800. Harper might be inconsistent, but he's inconsistent in a good way. Even at his worst ge'd still a really good player, and he has the potential to explode and put up MVP numbers any given season. IMO, there is more risk with Machado. Not to say there isn't risk with Harper, but Machado could go from very good to average overnight. I think the only major risk with Harper is losing his ability to play a position. Even so, his numbers translate well to 1B/DH.

Harper is simply not worth what he is asking for in my opinion. He is too inconsistent, shitty defender, and gets hurt too much for my liking. Give me the gold glove infielder that rakes every year please.

@Jack Parkman @CWSpalehoseCWS @Ross Gload Fan There was an article about Eloy (which I cannot find) and in it his jersey number was discussed and he said he's going to wear 74 because, something to the effect of, no other player has made it famous and he wants to. Edit- @Sleepy Harold found it for us

No one is suggesting they trade him for a short term player...

Definitely. It's a cost-benefit analysis and unfortunately, I just don't have as much time for games these days. I miss playing them for hours on end, but if I do that these days, then I feel like a failure as I have other goals to get to. I basically play one game at a time. Last year (2018) it was all Fortnite. I quit that game as one of my resolutions in 2019. This month (January) I played a lot of Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge (very old game). February I'm planning to finish Ni No Kuni II and then March and beyond I plan to finish up Kingdom Hearts 3.

Moncada hasn't had a career yet. He's had 1 year. Calm down bud.

Yup, I truly believe we could afford both of them in the short-term and build a highly competitive roster with a payroll around $160M. That’s much closer to middle of the pack than top 5 in terms of payroll. And within three or four years, one or both guys will likely opt-out creating much needed flexibility as our young guys start getting expensive. The problem with this plan (which is where I think Hahn is coming from) is in the unlikely event both guys underperform and you’re suddenly plagued with two albatross contracts for the remainder of a decade. The risk of that happening may be small IMO, but it would be so catostrophic to the well being of the franchise if it did that I can understand Hahn’s reluctance.

Much of the talent surrounding them will be under control for the next 5-6 years though. Costs shouldn't be too high for those players. That makes it somewhat feasible to have two of those guys, especially considering past four years from now when that becomes far more normal to have anyways. I dont know, I am not saying its likely, it probably isnt feasible but I dont think its as crazy as you guys are suggesting.

If you don't want to believe them, don't, but lets not restart this.

Uh, yeah. From that article that you are talking about: ” Bush was clear that the teams he spoke with were told that his college commitment wouldn't be a sticking point in regards to signing a contract. "We told every team that I wanted to go straight out of high school. I also wasn't asking for that much money to do so". He also said that he wasn't sure which team would pick him even though multiple area scouts had been in to see him play. In regards to where and by whom he would be drafted, Bryce said, "I didn't really know. Lots of teams showed interest. I actually thought the White Sox showed the least amount of interest at first".” http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2018/08/prospect-focus-bryce-bush/

Bryce Bush? The 33rd rounder who had a college commitment who we literally asked him how it went down that he actually signed when we interviewed him because it was so surprising that he signed?