bmags

I would do that every day.

Ah, I thought he switched because he was trying to hit 500 hr

good way of putting it.

For FA in general, has there been a free agent that has regretted jumping the market for a deal?

Yeah I thought it was good news. I really have a hard time believing that there are other teams that will offer high value, long term offers other than the white sox and phillies. It's also why I just can't see waiting changing improving the situation for either player and hope it wraps up by mid week next week at latest.

This may be a fan concern, this is not a Reinsdorf concern. After all, he could say " you said you wanted this, bryce harper just signed for x, our offer is much more in line"

Sure, this is more charitable. But at the very least, he will not be actively subverting another teams negotiations to ensure they pay more

This, and especially so for our owner.

Jerry Reinsdorf's grand dream isn't signing both harper and machado, it would be signing on of either and orchestrating a market that underpaid the top players and kept labor prices in check. That's better than a world series.

I disagree. I think the clearly negative player sentiment right now is due to the sox and phillies both know they can come away with one, and are in a prisoners dilemma game except they are both avoiding bidding up each other so they can get the players at the best possible prices.

Honestly this sounds every bit as crazy as Charles the Cat's unwavering confidence the cubs are about to sign harper and shed heyward

I will take what we can get from him now.

It's kind of amazing Hriniak and thomas isn't it? You had this hulk of a man that hit the crap out of the ball and he had him try to slap line drives down the middle. I wonder what would have happened to thomas in today's environment with more emphasis on pulling the ball, and if it may have played too much to his strengths and made him more one dimensional (ala 02-05 thomas)

Damn I thought the yanks were definitely about to build a *looks down* one billion dollar outfield

Sorry, too much effort to pay attention to.

holy smokes kingery was bad last year.

I think with the schools and academies now available to prospects in the offseason, if they see substantial improvement it's a lot more interesting than just body. If it was just fulmer lost 15 lbs this wouldn't be a big deal.

https://sports.yahoo.com/carson-fulmer-turned-one-baseballs-top-data-driven-companies-reclaim-career-140030895.html

So basically today is thursday.

I know the white sox aren't a global sensation, and part of this is due to boring teams, but the padres have been where players go to be forgotten.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/picks-to-click-who-we-expect-to-make-the-2020-top-100/ Burger makes bounce back candidate possibility. None of the remaining outfielders mentioned. All these relievers they've invested in, not mentioned. This org needs more young talent.

That's when it officially went down, but it was announced on the Monday of actual spring training starting. So Feb 18 (monday) is a better proxy.

I just don't respect Bowden at all. Not that excited for this.

I mean it's not impossible. But they have not spent like a big market team in the past, have reduced but still considerable debt payments from PETCO, and tied up around around $38 million to two first basemen. They will likely get some very cheap production forever because they actually scout and develop talent well (novel) but that's a lot to ask because they still would need to buy SP and RP talent.

I think it's a miscalculation to say they aren't signing because they are embarrassed about the optics of signing a lower deal. They still aren't losing money by not signing now, but may get a team that says "ugh its spring training, screw it, here's some more money please sign". I don't think that will happen, but again, the sox and phils aren't going away. But I do think we will hit a point next week where the players realize nothing is going to change and their leverage isn't really working and the deal is reached.