Dick Allen

It's actually nice out. Supposed to be around 50 tomorrow. If Manny was coming in January, and weather was important, now would be the time to come.

He just said Machado, not Manny Machado.

The agent would have gone to any team with an interest. The White Sox have an interest, obviously. Whether that is enough we will find out. Buster Olney has been reporting what Levine is saying since the Winter Meetings. As I poster earlier, he literally laughed at the White Sox chances for landing one of these guys. I was a bit stunned. I thought it was a bit unprofessional. They were interested in Tanaka several years ago, and went in with the same, we are going to be great for years, win so many championships stuff, but were short when it came to money. KW was also pissed off last year Ohtanis people didn’t give them a final chance to tell them why he should take their $300k. Admittedly that was all they could offer, but to think they actually thought they could talk him into it is another thing. If they offer a ton of money and 10 years, I will be pleasantly surprised, but I will believe the Sox have the best offer when someone actually signs it.

With Darvish and Chatwwod as bad as could be, with Morrow injured. With Bryant a shell of himself, the Cubs won 95 games. I thin k their demise is way overblown.

I am sure his agent wishes he could have had a few more teams to visits.

How do you know they really have a seat at the table, and their lack of payroll commitment isn’t just something being used by Boras? He clearly was playing on the White Sox Interest when he claimed Harper was studying farm systems. Heyman is usually the guy Boras uses. So when he starts tweeting a lot about this, you know something will start to happen. Until then, and even then, it will probably be hard to determine the truth until someone signs. It will be interesting to see what the final contacts look like.

Our Chuck confirmed WGN is toast. If it isn’t a national broadcast it will be on NBC Sports.

The 2 highest wAR full time 2B last season where Merrifield and Altuve. One hit 12 homers, the other 13. This kid is a clever hitter who is only going to get stronger. And his defense is described as golf glove quality. Plus, he knows how to run the bases, something the White Sox have difficulty teaching. I think people put too much stock in his numbers last year. He had a lot going on including recovering from a hand injury.

Looking at what players are getting offered these days when they are over 30, it may behoove the White Sox to guarantee them a large sum during several of these years. The days of cashing in when you are 32 and 33 are going away quickly.

Buster literally laughed at the White Sox chances.

My brother lives in Switzerland and he can buy it by the game. A season doesn't make sense for him since most games start at 2 AM their time, but the Sunday afternoon games are perfect. He does buy it for a season for the Bears, so he hates when they get flexed to 3 pm or later.

But if you can secure someone's info, you can hook up with the app and get every game.

Passan had a lot wrong as far as teams meeting with Harper in Las Vegas. There was some right in there as well. Every single one of these guys had had some wrong. It would seem strange the Sox wouldn't offer 10 years, but had no problem with 7.

If a team upped their offer based on someone following a twitter account........................

People think I have some sort of vendetta against Don Cooper, which I don't. But posts like this baffle me. If White Sox pitchers are good, get on your knees and bow to Coop. If they suck, they just suck. It is if any White Sox pitchers success is 100 percent Coop. If Coop can't fix him no one can has ignored history. And some don't need fixing. I am not calling for his head, but he is getting long in the tooth. Every year it looks like he has to go up a Jersey size. I bet Hassler is the pitching coach by 2021.

Clayton Richard is the last active MLB player from the last White Sox playoff team. It is possible Boone Logan gets some sort of spring training invite as the Brewers released him during the middle of last season, so the total may double.

Free agent frenzy doesn't seem to hurt the other sports. Would it really kill baseball if no one was thinking too much about them in January during the NFL playoffs? Everyone loves trade deadline action, create some motivation to have most of your roster in place before Christmas,. Make the Winter Meetings a spectacle again, and pretty much shut it down until after the Super Bowl. No matter what, most fans and networks think a lot will happen during the Winter Meetings, and more times than not lately, they have been disappointed. It can be fixed. If the owners insist on this path, the strike they will cause could really set them back. And you know there is going to be a strike because it lines up almost perfectly with when the Sox should be good again.

I think that is the counter argument. But is this really healthy conversation vs. the conversation fans would be having had most of the moves been made by now? Wouldn’t Bryce Harper jerseys make nice Christmas gifts? Look at fanatics top selling jerseys. He and Machado aren’t even on the list. Whatever they do they need some sort of deadline. If they think conversation about how many free agents haven’t signed yet is a good thing, I really don’t agree. I think the owners like this because it will help suppress pay outs. If it leads to a strike, I don’t think whatever they think they are saving is worth it.

It’s insane And if something doesn’t budge in the next year or so, I think it will eventually lead to a strike.

I think it was spring training. The other thing mentioned was apparently it used to be after the Winter Meetings, there was no inter league trading for a month or so. That could spur some signings and trades. I also read that as of today, only 6 players have signed contracts this off season longer than two years. And if you are in your 30s, you might want to reconsider ever becoming a free agent if you get a good offer beforehand. I hope the Sox wind up signing both big guys, but if not, will they still do something significant?

Would you put him in the top 10 GMs in the game, next 10, or bottom 10. If it isn't top 10, and the goal as Rick has stated numerous times is sustained winning and multiple championships, how do you justify his continued employment as the GM? Especially after 6 losing seasons as a GM, not all being rebuilding seasons.

Yes. At this point, I'll just take going to the game thinking they should win that day.

He didn't inherit it, he helped create it. He isn't going anywhere. I know that. But he shoudn't be where he is. He seems like a decent enough guy. I think he's very bright, but I don't think MLB GM is his thing. And it's not all on him. KW needs to go as well.

It may be one reason I am so against bringing Shields back under any circumstance. For some reason, my ticket plan synced up with James Shields starts way too often the past 2 1/2 seasons. I can't take another.

It's not just that, it's the fact that they said they NEEDED these pieces. And, they spent $9 million as bait. If it doesn't work, it is a fail. I just hope we never hear their plan was to hopefully get Machado at a discount by paying $9 million to Alonso.