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All of those qualify for what Law identified as maybe a #5 starter. I hope pilkington dominates, but all of these feel like guys that will move up the white sox list due to attrition and not due to climbing into higher performance tiers. We do have a bunch of players that could feasibly make an mlb roster, but when we were ranked as the top farm system we had a bunch of groups of players that could feasibly become the top pitcher and position player prospects. Now past Robert/Cease there's not a lot of players that fit the bill as a potential big riser. Just bush/sosa level. The lack of investment into young players bites them, but they also haven't developed what they have invested in.

Good article from Jonah Keri on the Pads pursuit: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/the-padres-are-in-the-mix-for-bryce-harper-and-manny-machado-will-they-strike-a-deal-or-fall-short/ In short, it's hard to see how it's not b.s., as they often cry wolf as a pursuing team, and this part that caulfield I think has brought up before

It was one of the more exciting nfl seasons and it ended with a thud, especially after these teams had such flukey plays that allowed them to make the game.

Mostly enacted through the salary floor that is dictated based off of revenues from the previous years (one of the reason there is a delay in FA in basketball is that is tabulated then the salary floor and cap is defined). If any one team employs players for less than the salary floor, they would pay a dividend to that teams players whatever the difference is. There actually may even be an end of year accounting to ensure it was hit that may get paid out to players if it wasn't. The same for teams over the luxury tax, except that is paid out to other nba teams.

I know drafting is a part of it, but this especially is where the lack of production we get from LatAm kills. For as little as we get on the hitting side, pitching has probably been more barren. The pitcher we traded for swisher was the last success I can remember?

That rings fairly true. None of the pitching prospects past dunning are remotely interesting based on what they've shown so far. Basically there is Hansen as a wildcard, and then a bunch of pitchers that don't feel like they will grow to be better. That pitcher we traded for Nova is probably more interesting than any of our pitchers in single-a/A+ aside from wherever hansen goes.

Yeah Lavine and a second for Payne and Nwaba seems good

According to Lowe’s latest, the only untouchable bulls right now are Lauri and WCJ, but it will take “a haul” to trade Lavine. So like, Cleveland could get him with cam Payne

I do wonder if it's about keeping Collins with similar pitchers.

I think a swell-opt is almost certain but I think teams have shown quite a bit more leverage in last few years and I think there will not be a straight up opt out.

Probably. They may have forgot about the white sox jerseys this year.

I have zero doubt they are trying to get in JRs good graces by acquiring enough money to off-set Hoibergs salary

If that's the case they are doing a poor job because they would be sold out of the jerseys that there are rumblings about. This is saying this typically happens when the team makes a big purchase.

...well I stopped laughing at others. Keep goin Pax and Gar, you are almost at Hoiberg's salary for the year!!!!

Lol, ahh, feels good to laugh at other fanbases for a change.

Lost in the initial reporting was that two firsts were included by the Mavs. So Dennis smith and 2 firsts, it's not the worst return in the world especially for an injured superstar. But for the knicks who finally landed a top player after 2 decades and one where they could land KD and maybe zion? It sucks.

My wife's on maternity leave and blowing through tv series. Really enjoyed one recently that's on the sundance channel/app: Deutschland 83 and it's second season Deutschland 86. German show with East German main characters. Very stylish and fun. Hard to turn off, we went through two seasons in two nights and now I'm exhausted.

I would hope not, taking HS guys in the 4th and 6th rounds shouldn't expect to pan out talent any more than a college player. For sox, I'd be fine if they banned high school RHP from drafting in the top 20 of the first round. But if they are scarred from 2012, they should look a few picks past where they drafted hawkins to find Corey Seager, then go down to first overall to see Carlos Correa, the other best player drafted that year. The two best big leaguers? High School Shortstops. More of them needed to be added to system.

Yeah, and this is largely OBP driven. Machado hits the crap out of the ball as much as Harper, but Harper's elite plate discipline buoys his numbers tremendously.

2016 it definitely seemed like he was trending down and something was wrong. I don't think that was an unlucky year. But then 2017 happened and so much of his value last year was dragged down by defensive value that does seem like an outlier. His offensive season was fine. Now, if he's scared to play defense because he's afraid of getting injured, if he goes back to going all out does it just introduce a bunch of injuries? That is the "harper to 1b" risk I worry about more than poor defense.

Well, I disagree with you that "it's not close". It is close, but it's clear mlb teams value paying for the bat more (harper is almost certainly going to get more than machado and I don't think you can chalk that up to marketing) and harpers bat has shown it can touch the heights of being elite that is so valuable in a team makeup.

"advanced stages" in the 18/19 offseason means it's done in July.

I mean, we would be on the verge of sox having two consistent .900 ops bats in their lineup. Find some good corner bats out of the rest of the talent and you have yourself an offense.

The thing is, if I'm taking an outlier season I'm taking the high one. There has been a lot of discussion here on which of the two, I'm firmly in the camp to not overthink this: they are both great. I'm more with Parkman though, I'll take Harper if it's truly head to head. His obp makes even his low offensive output seasons easier to handle, while his great offensive seasons are hard to replicate with other talent. If machado puts up a few sub .800 ops seasons, I for one won't really care that he's providing great D. For a big buy like this I'm taking the better bat. But despite that, Machado hits the crap out of the ball. He could easily find his high offensive season at .950 ops and end up with a 9 WAR season of his own. They are both great.

If the bulls were hiring a president of basketball operations I think that's actually a very attractive job. You have incredible security, you can undercut coaches and players with little scrutiny. You have tons of cap space and some young assets. If they did it, it's a great job. If they tried to just hire a GM under pax, it's a terrible job.