bmags

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.

What was his 2001 injury? Was that wrist?

You never know, you never know.

ugh, i'm still holding out hope. I just know that if some miracle happened and they cleaned house and brought in like Masai Ujiri (he is like already president so not possible) .that the bulls would be good immediately.

Ugh so we do need to keep following this stuff as hopeless diehard nerds

He's been really chippy in interviews on being frustrated with the young players.

Oh it's a terribel move, I'm just not as surprised that people didn't beat this offer or that draft picks from good teams didn't sway them. The mavs are looking at a possible championship team after being down and out for a bout 2 seasons. The bulls are looking at a possible depression.

I should note that I missed that Porzingis was an RFA after this season, so if he said he wanted out they would have been pretty balsy to match offers anyway (though didn't they think they would be getting durant?) So this return makes much more sense.

Arb can still be pretty expensive. Betts got 20 million, Arenado will likely be between 20 and 23. Hell, Colome in arb 2 gets 7 million. So starting 2022 you could be talking huge, huge payrolls.

My favorite part is the front office saying that they operate specifically to keep flexibility for moments like this but they always pass them by. Part of it historically was falling in love with their own players, but now it's because they've become such a joke nobody would re-sign long term.

Worse than that, had they not won a frickin coin flip. (they'd have probably drafted bagley and then portis would have kicked him in balls and ended season)

I think they would have had trouble matching the kristaps trade because NYK definitely wanted to clear all salary and our best assets would have been lavine/dunn/portis (don't give up LAURI) and you wouldn't have WCJ obviously. That said, ha, imagine a team with doncic that has porzingis and lauri at the 4/5. Would have been hilarious.

I know that trades are never that good for stars but...that is weak for NYK especially targeting Mavs who couldn't get a pick. Before draft I was hoping to trade a future first to trade up for Doncic. For hawks to take it, maybe it couldn't have been done, and then signed capela. Hoiberg with Doncic Lauri Lavine. Killer. Oh well we suck haha sigh.

This is a great point.

Porzingis also on the block. Bulls well suited to...nevermind.

So when all of us say "you think a GM is actually reading media reports and influenced by that?" the answer is actually yes apparently.

Right, while I'm not concerned about the padres, this is something I didn't want. While a number of posters are adament that you don't negotiate against yourself, what I didn't want was for sox to sit on a number so low that it still allowed other teams to get into mix. Do I think Pads could scrape together an 8 year 250 mill contract? No. Do I think they could work out a 7 year 175 contract? Absolutely. Now, I have no freakin clue what number the sox are on and years they are on, and maybe they are at a high enough number that repels everyone but the phillies. that 175 number sucked for basically this reason. And once someone is invested enough to offer once, you have no idea how far that could take them.

Reminds me of when college recruits post "i'm so confusssed" and fans go nuts and they were talking about ordering fast food.

I'm not really. The White Sox are not spending bohemoths compared to the padres, but the padres really did handicap themselves in this by signing hosmer and myers. The entire case for the white sox is that the only long-term money on the books is an affordable one on the shortstop. Hosmer's deal is not gangbusters (except when you factor in that he sucks), but it is $20 mill on the books for the next four years on a 1b, and $20 mill for next 4 years for Wil Meyers. They could sign Machado for 30 million, and it would ease up obviously when some of their star young players hit meaningful arb years, but they'd need to pay for a bullpen and sp support. They'd be up against it pretty quickly.

I mean, for all of these guys, you can do both. And considering the lack of downtime during the season, I would rather be in a major city than San Diego, which while beautiful, has the charm of a cruise ship.