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Makes perfect sense, unless you missed Survivor Series, TLC, and Rumble. Incorrect. She lost at all three events. She shouldn't get free opportunities. Meanwhile, Becky went on to win the Royal Rumble and earn her opportunity in a 1on1 match against Ronda. Charlotte, coming out of nowhere, does not deserve it kayfabe wise and it just doesn't make sense storyline wise.

As a fan, I have no idea what goes on behind everything, but holy f*** it's hard not to be upset at this situation. Machado is worth the money. Just pay him and get this over with, stop trying to nickle and dime your way to a contract.

Has Hector made any comments that are even comparable to Dan Clarke? I think this is very poor take developing in this thread. On one hand we have a reporter speaking opinions on the situation (Hector) and on the other we had a reporter stating confirmations that Manny would be a Yankee with certainty. It's not comparable.

Agreed -- these are completely different situations. Seems like Hector is speculating and letting it be known that it is of his opinion. Dan Clarke was stating it was a fact and promoting his knowledge like he knew things that no one else did and deserved massive credit for it.

Don't think so. If Harper was hypothetically open to a short term deal, that would have introduced a number of potential suitors with playoff aspirations. I think, realistically, there was no chance from the get-go that Harper was going to sign a short term contract and the Giants offers/interest was overblown.

Yup -- they've been on fire recently. Just awesome matches. The 'money' match is Becky vs. Ronda. That's the match with the storyline, the emotion, and the natural path to wrestlemania. That has classic WM moment written all over it. Adding Charlotte makes a triple threat and devalues the match. Also, storyline-wise, it makes no sense for Charlotte to arbitrarily be added to the match. Speaking from personal bias -- I'm a big fan of Charlotte and I can get behind a triple threat (even tho I'd prefer a 1on1), but they way they went about adding her was a failure. Could have been executed significantly better compared to making Becky look like a tool.

I wasn't super opposed to the triple threat Char vs. Ronda vs. Becky... I would rather it Becky vs. Ronda but what they did to introduce Charlotte into the fold was fucking moronic. Made Becky look like an idiot. Didn't turn Ronda Heel with super heet. And randomly added Charlotte. The McMahons stated in late december that things were going to change... but they absolutely haven't. It's really... really fucking stupid.

Welp, Raw is back to being straight awful. Methinks the spark of the Royal Rumble gave it a good 3-5 week high and now that the most exciting PPV of the year is over, Raw has fallen victim to the nothingness that we are used to. The whole Becky Lynch-McMahon Saga has served only to hurt her. I can't believe the storyline that they've come up with is set out to make her look like an idiot. All she had to do was get a doctor's check up, but she refused for whatever reasoning making any logical viewer think she was being unreasonable. Not to be outdone, she has made the whole 'im sorry' situation so difficult. I'm not saying that this is horrendous like most of the other stuff on Raw, but it certaintly isn't good. The 3-woman tag match was fine, nothing wrong here. The Elias moment with the Lucha's was OK/kinda funny. The whole like hour long segment and all the angles between Strowman/Finn/Angle and Drew/Bobby/Baron is so unbearable right now. 5/6 individuals are being hurt by this. The only one gaining right now is Bobby Lashley, but only marginally. Strowman has been completely buried in terms of where he was before. Angle looks like a Grandpa. There's just nothing interesting coming out of this. The matches at EC are going to be hideous. Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross -- Sorry, I have absolutely no reason to care about Ruby all of the sudden, just because they put her in a match with Rousey. Straight boring. Ambrose vs. ECIII - Boring. Repeat of the same thing we saw last Monday. Not a way to build up ECIII or say good bye to Ambrose. Rollins interview -- I just don't get it. Rollins isn't 'it' for me. Interview was mediocre, not horrid, but nothing that got me excited. Raw Tag team match - This was a great match. They've been tearing down the house reportedly on the house show market and they did it here. But how many times do these two teams have to compete? Happy to see Revival become TTC. As for EC, there's so much useless shit on this PPV. It's quite clear that WWE is saying, fuck it, let's put some shit together in between RR and WM. I'm wrestling-sad.

I think it’ll all happen within like a 6 or 12 hour burst... the first runors will come out then immediately escalate to an end.

Not sure how they finished 24th, that team is straight ugly! Their best hitter is Brandon Nimmo... their best pitcher is German Marquez. ?

I doubt he'll ever get a chance to. For one, the market will not be this kind to the White Sox organization ever again. There are two 26 year old phenoms available and all the big market teams are out on them. There's almost no competition for them right now. If there was any competition from any of these teams, there's almost no chance that the White Sox get them. That's why I'd prefer striking now while the getting is good. Next, it's very rare that these types of players ever make it to free agency. Look at Nolan Arenado -- the Rockies are trying hard to negotiate a contract extension with him already, and my gut tells me they will have success. Additionally, if what you say about Reinsdorf is indeed true, it goes to prove my biggest worry that the front office is filled with cheapskates not interested in the goal of winning, but interested in filling their pockets.

I'm highly considering starting a year to year Soxtalk Fantasy Roto league. It would be a more relaxed league with preference to the more dedicated posters here. Not sure if it would include any money considerations, I kinda prefer no money. Would require at minimum 12 users.

It's true that these contracts very often backfire. There's no denying that. However, as a fan of the Chicago White Sox, we don't get these opportunities, we just don't. The market is begging us to make a move. I think we surely will with Machado, but I'd also love to get Harper. Currently, we are at 80,000,000 in total salary, which is higher than I assumed. We can thank our newest arrivals: Ivan Nova (2nd highest paid player on the team to Abreu at 9.2) K. Herrera (8.5) Yonder Alonso (8.0) Alex Colome (7.3) Jon Jay (4.0, 10th highest paid on team) James McCann (2.5, 11th highest player paid on team) That's 40 million spent this offseason. I'm not going to deny that we needed the solid RP help, but most of the others acquired have been pretty questionable. Would it be better spent on a contract for Harper? I think so, but this argument is beginning to diverge so i'll get back on topic. With a lot of these being short term contracts and Abreu being a FA after the year, that puts our future total salary somewhere around 20-25 mill. Adding Harper+Machado for, say, 60 mill would only put us around 80-90 million total salary giving us a ton of room to extend anyone or buy a few more pieces. Getting Harper+Machado allows us to use our batting prospects to make trades as soon as this deadline for stud pitchers. My largest concern as a White Sox fan right now is that the front office is going to be cheap and pocket the money for themselves. I want this team to have a medium-to-large total payroll and I see no reason why they can't do that. I don't agree with the argument that signing both Machado and Harper (as long as it's in the range of 60-70 million per year for both) limits us going forward.

I like taking this thread in a different more baseball related direction, so +1 for you. Maybe I'm off my rocker, but I don't understand spending money on patchwork when we could sign Bryce Harper. Throwing money towards Adam Jones, Gattis, Moylan, other SP's, etc. for a couple of years is perhaps more realistic, but why not save the money and roster spots and spend that money on a guy that will transform this team for the next 10 years a long with Machado? I know that their is a big financial difference here, but I can't let the FO off the hook with the payroll that this team is trotting out there. They have room and payroll flexibility even with the signing of both Machado and Harper. With the way this offseason has gone, I'd strongly want the front office to sign Machado and go very, very hard at Harper. If the Phillies go harder, then so be it... but I'd want them to immediately turn their attention to the Harper sweepstakes with the mindset of getting him around the $300 million contract mark. If the Phillies go larger, say, 325++ then forget it, but if we can get Harper for $300 mill you take it and run and have a beast of a team for the next 5-6 years.

Well, I think the argument would suggest that front offices are *finally* starting to buck the trend here and are realizing how much they are losing by signing these guys to big time contracts after their more productive years. The bottom line is that these players are coming up to the big leagues not making much, spending their (likely) most productive years making rookie contract money for years, and then hitting free agency after the fact. It truly is broken and just not right. Eloy would have been up last year if it wasn't for this system.

It looks like they are roughly 40 million away from the luxury tax in 2019 if I am reading it right. Signing Harper would put them beneath it, but against it. Their financial situation combined with their horrendous team make up is what makes Harper going to the Giants such a long shot that us fans can safely ignore the interest. As even with Harper, they'd have to somehow add significant pieces to their team for it to make any sense. Especially since the SFG is a big market team that won't see the huge benefits in marketing from a guy like Harper. I think Harper sweepstakes is the following: 1. Phillies (only thing stopping them is whether or not Harper is cool with joining Philly) distant 2. White Sox (unlikely due to front office not wanting to go both Machado and Harper) very distant but possible 3: San Diego Padres Don't think any other team in the MLB has a shot here. I could see teams like the Cubs join in if indeed Harper is going short-term.

I'm sure they could hypothetically go get Harper, but at what further cost? Limiting their moves for a team that isn't going anywhere fast. It just isn't happening there.

Brandon Crawford 15 mill, 15 mill Brandon Belt 17 mill, 17 mill Evan Longoria $15 mill, 15 mill Johnny Cueto 22 mill, 22 mill Jeff Samardzija 20 mill, 20 mill Mark Melancon 14 mill, 14 mill That's about 110 million for the next couple of years. Looking at those contracts will lead you to the conclusion that their in a disastrous financial situation for the next 2 years.

Sorry for not getting back to you in the personal message before. I'm looking hard for my fantasy baseball options this year, but I don't think I could take this league on/ team. It's a bit TOO much, methinks. 30 teams, big time dynasty. But holy shiat -- that team sucks, no?

The latest 'news' is that the San Francisco Giants will be offering Harper a 'lucrative' short-term deal. Loool. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2019/02/10/bryce-harper-free-agency-san-francisco-giants-serious-late-entry/2829955002/ For anyone in the know -- we know the SFG will NOT be getting Harper. Just another one of Boras's tactics to try to drive up the market. SFG have a pretty bad financial situation and an even gloomier outlook for winning due to a terrible prospect system and horrid mlb club.

I like and agree with your strategy of alternatives to the 3-batter rule, however your solution is even worse then the 3 batter rule IMO. I haven't run any statistics or anything, but I'm pretty sure that it happens quite often where closers or MR pitch in back to back games. Forcing this to stop would not be a good idea and be a major change.

Yup -- can't blame the owners or the players for the delay. Gotta blame the rules and structure. Players come up not earning what their worth, then hit FA and want to strike big. But it is getting absolutely bonkers... this weekend is the first time it's started to negatively effect me in real life. I realllllllyyyy want to get into fantasy baseball for the season but I just can't until I know whether or not the white sox sign one or both of these guys.

If the market is indeed terrible, I really wish the White Sox would zig when everyone else was zagging and sign both machado and harper to big time contracts around the $300 million mark. Coming into the offseason we were thinking Harper was looking at half-a-billion, and Machado would be over $325. Getting both for around the $300 mark would be an absolute steal. Obviously, the other teams would likely match it if that were the case and try to compete -- but it would be something if the front office decided to try to attack here.

In the spectacular rare case that they do sign a one year deal, there is absolutely no bloody chance in hell that they sign it with the White Sox. That has to be one of the worst takes in this entire 585 page depression.