Dam8610

Who cares? Machado and Harper are both going to sign the biggest money deal they can, and I doubt they care who they play for because they likely believe in their abilities enough to know that any team that gets them will dramatically improve by that alone. They'll go to the highest bidder, so the Sox have to be the highest bidder for Machado if they want him.

This is the exact thing that put the White Sox in the current fanbase deficit they're currently in. If the Cubs do decide to do their own network, I say the White Sox do as much as possible to make their games accessible for free to most of Chicago. Hopefully the same effect will happen.

Harper will probably get over $400 million, maybe even $500 million. Machado will likely get $350-$400 million.

I think if they do their own network, they're going to be very disappointed in the results.

I'd love to see them commit that much money to yet another outside free agent so that they have no money to resign their core when that bill comes due. I just don't think Theo is dumb enough to do it.

He traded Gleyber Torres for 4 months of a closer. What's $100 million for several years of one compared to that?

Fixed.

They'd be stupid to try that and even they know it. Next offseason boils down to the Yankees and Dodgers each getting one of Kershaw and Harper, then quite a bit of the league in the Machado derby. The Cubs will likely strike on Kimbrel and a starter early and not go after Machado.

THIS! He can be a huge part of it, and that's what the org needs to sell him on. Being the face of a franchise and bringing that franchise into relevance and prominence (which will hopefully allow them the money to resign key guys like Moncada, Jimenez, Kopech, etc.) and building the winning culture.

I hope they do, but I doubt Theo's that dumb. Kimbrel is the smart and likely play for them given their inability to develop/retain a good closer.

And that matters to Manny Machado's marketability how?

Why don't you think he'd be ankle to get those same opportunities as the face of the White Sox franchise?

Hahn should just tell Machado "Whatever the top offer is you get from any other team, we'll beat it by $10 million". This team needs a 26 year old superstar middle of the order bat to kick off their competitive window, even if it would still be a year away at that point.

Fortunately, Rutherford is raking at Winston-Salem. He was the whole point of the deal.

Especially with the way he's hit this season, I fully expect Machado will get 10/$350 with a bunch of silly contract gimmicks like opt outs and such.

No, mainly because there's no way he signs that deal when he's so close to free agency he can taste it, but also because it makes no sense to give up that kind of talent for him. It's not like he's the missing piece of an otherwise championship ballclub, here.

Getting a surprise mid-rotation starter out of a guy like Stephens would be a huge boost to the rebuild.

It seems like Winston-Salem is always playing Down East or Blues Creek.

I'm not expecting that result, it's just the realistic ceiling I see in him. And of course he probably has less than a 5% chance of reaching that ceiling, but that's why drafting, especially in the top 5 or 10, is about both ceiling and floor. Madrigal has one of the highest perceived floors in the draft, maybe even the highest. One of the biggest knocks on him that I've seen is the lack of a high ceiling, but I think that has to do with old scouting tropes that haven't quite died off yet, mostly related to his size, like that his power potential and defensive range will be limited. I don't buy into those tropes, so I see a much higher ceiling than most are willing to acknowledge with him. On the Fangraphs scales, I'd have him at: Ceiling: 80 hit 60 game power (50 raw) 80 speed 60 arm 70 field Floor: 50 hit 30 game power (30 raw) 80 speed 40 arm 50 field Obviously the top one is a perennial all-star while the bottom one is a fringe major leaguer. Also obviously the bottom outcome is more likely than the top outcome, but when there is a player where the top outcome is considered any more likely than the absolute fringe of chances, they typically go 1-1.

That has much less of an effect today than it used to, and has literally nothing to do with the hitting mechanics I'm talking about. Make the bat out of whatever substance you want, any player is going to hit the ball harder by leveraging their core and legs in their swing, which is the mechanical adjustment Altuve made between High A and MLB, and the one Madrigal would likely benefit from making.

I've seen several scouts put an 80 on his bat control, so I'd guess to whatever degree a guy with 80 bat control's contact skills diminish when leveraging for more power. I'd assume that's minimally.

I saw the same video, and I didn't like the things they pointed out. Then I saw a video of Jose Altuve hitting when he was Madrigal's current age in the minors, and he had the exact same leg reach Madrigal has that saps his power. Now at the MLB level, Altuve plants much more than reaching with his front leg, and that combined with the juiced ball has yielded much better power results. I see no reason to believe a player like Madrigal couldn't make the exact same adjustment.

Someone with Madrigal's speed and defensive ability isn't as limited as you make him seem defensively, and someone with his bat control and work ethic isn't as limited as you make him seem offensively. To me, this post describes his (ML caliber) floor. His ceiling is much higher. No one wants to project power on him because he's 5'8", but Altuve, Betts, and Ramirez seem to be doing fine at similar heights as power hitters.

Can't wait for the new players to get into the system. Hopefully it's the impetus for several long overdue promotions, like almost all of the Kannapolis and Winston-Salem squads.

The market seems to be low on 1B/DH types, but J.D. Martinez did still get 5/$110 this offseason, which is quite a bit of money even if it's less than what he wanted when the market opened. That tells me that middle of the order bats are still valued, and Abreu is a middle of the order bat. If no one is willing to pay for that, keep him and hope for a team friendly extension. I think some team will come calling, though, his skillset is valuable even in a league where defense is highly (over?) valued. Guys who can produce at .300/30/100 levels with OPS around .900 aren't common.