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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.

To me, it’s more of the threat of the Phillies if Harper goes somewhere else.

Seeing as i think harper to the sox isnt very likely doesnt really bother me. But kris bryant and others have made it pretty clear their is no chance the cubs get him. Again who knows. Maybe its a super long con, but no way would boras go for that and not get a bidding war.

You want the real answer? You don't want it do you. 160+ innings nearly every year, in fact 200 last year, and would be cheaper on a 1 year contract. You don't want to hear the name. No one does. He pitched for the White Sox last year. Yeah that guy.

E

The top tier players get on base 35 -38 times out of 100. That is not a good percentage overall. When you mix in lesser players on the team, the odds of getting on base and scoring are low. This is why teams sacrifice outs for a chance to score one run. I care more about Runs produced and defense than OBP. How often do middle of the lineup jitters score after a walk? Harper and Machado's OBP difference is what 4 extra times standing on first out of 100?

It isn't like the Trout/MItchell draft was a month ago or something, right?

that makes zero sense. an opt out is just an insurance for the player. even if he wants to stay there he can opt out and rengotiate a better contract. he was already offerened a contract with no opt outs from the nats for 300+mm and declined it. also, boras would never let him decline an opt out. bad prescedent

https://thebrandedsports.com/2019/02/01/majestic-website-is-hinting-where-the-two-biggest-names-are-going-to-sign/ Grain of salt but this article was very interesting. Linking Majestic's jersey stock with Free Agent signings. It makes a case that the Sox may be close with Machado. Phillies and Sox are the two teams almost sold out.

An out is NEVER a good thing, there are simply some situations in which you’re willing to accept an out as the cost for an increased chance of a run.

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.

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.

Projection systems also have to no idea how to account for a guy like Moncada who is a couple adjustments away from being a stud.

I can’t believe anyone can think Lopez is what he is for the most part. He pitched quite well down the stretch and has significant room for improvement. I think he’s ends up a 4 win pitcher next year. Rodon & Moncada easily have the most room for improvement IMO. Anderson will always be limited due to his below average plate discipline, but can get a little better with more consistent defense. Giolito is a wild card, but I still don’t see anything more than #3 starter even if his mechanics finally click.

No offense, but this is just stupid. We have significant financial flexibility that is completely worthless if we’re afraid to spend it. And we should be spending thaf money on high-end talent, not B & C tier free agents. If we land Machado, Madrigal becomes a great trade piece for a cost-controlled stud. If we sign Harper, we can move one or more of those OF prospects to fill holes. Saying Harper is only a marginal upgrade over a 2 or 3 WAR outfielder (if you buy he’s a 5 win player) ignores the fact that said player he’s replacing can be traded to help improve the team in other ways.

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

This is the killer for me. Starting pitchers used to be main attractions - guys like Ryan, Doc Gooden, Randy Johnson, Maddux - their starts were appointment viewing. Now, outside of Sale, DeGrom, Scherzer, maybe Verlander - who are you tuning in to watch? Baseball's devolved into 5 innings of starting pitching, and then an endless parade of anonymous flamethrowing relievers who blow their arms out and are replaced by the another carbon copy - and this leads to excess strikeouts, 45 minute innings with 3 and 4 pitching changes, etc, etc - just as the drama of the game should be building in the late innings. Fix this, bring back the attraction of the starting pitcher, and you fix baseball, IMHO. Tanking is a problem, but IMHO, the problem is that it takes 4-5 years to really rebuild. Tweak the draft/acquisition process so that teams can turn around much more quickly, and that will fix itself.

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?