fathom

They just drafted in the first round just about the safest pick in recent draft history.

Not big, but to me it meant acquiring big league assets (controllable) instead of going another offseason failing to bring in anyone that could be projected as being on the next contending team. Still plenty of time to go this offseason, but I highly, highly doubt their intentions were to just bring in stop-gap measures like they have so far.

Yeah the Sox literally went out after 2005 and got Thome and Vazquez. They just ran out of gas that year, especially with pitching.

Didn't he specifically say they're in a "transition phase"?

Where did I say they should be fired (Hahn should have been, but that wasn't the point I made). Rather they seemed to have the idea via their quotes that it was time to start having this team compete more, despite all of 2018 seemingly pushing the rebuild back a season.

But what if the issue is that Hahn and Kenny fall into this category also?

If these guys are dead set on being free agents again at age of 30, why not get the most you can in a front loaded deal during those 4 years? To this day it's why I think the Dodgers and Cubs have a great shot at Harper.

and would make acquiring Yonder even more of an insane acquisition

fwiw, Buster Olney has retweeted what Bruce said.

I tried and couldn't find anything about Machado. Anyone else hear WSD talk about him?

I never got the angle that the Sox have to offer the most years. Given their payroll flexibility, a huge front loaded deal always made more sense. If Harper or Manny can get the same overall total for 7 years that they might have for 10, then why not do that?

Stick to watching Pitch Perfect

This goes against how I usually feel, but for some reason this being leaked makes me feel better about their chances.

On the bright side, I don't know why the Sox would leak this to Bruce if it was true. That's why the Guff confirmation is strange to me.

Interesting that Guff retweeted this also. Wonder if he's suggesting the Sox 10 year offer was to get other teams to go higher.

Yeah if he's backing it up, that's not good. He's always been so optimistic about the Sox going after these guys.

Pretty good

Said today he loves them. Only other thing he’s said recently was Sox were very, very confident they get one of the two.

FWIW, the latest Simonetti video. Sure seems like he expects Machado to Yankees soon https://mobile.twitter.com/SimonettiSource/status/1080515054573744128

Yeah but if you’re about to start charging significantly more for viewing your games, it doesn’t hurt at all.

Well getting Manny to play 3B would also allow them to upgrade their defense while keeping their offense great and give them a great asset to go out and get that pitching you say they need.

No doubt the Sox have more incentive than anyone, but that means nothing to Harper. Just means Sox need to be more desperate than other teams.

From a business perspective, getting Harper could help the Cubs increase their subscription numbers for their new network.

Always thought if Harper signs with Cubs or Dodgers, it would still be for long-term deal (for luxury tax reasons), but it would be so front loaded before an early opt-out that it would make little sense for him to stay there past the opt-out year.