Dick Allen

If you were his agent, you are telling me you would have had no problem with him checking out of a meeting with a potential suitor, of which there appears to be 3, because he was bored or some other BS? Whatever the real length of the meeting was, we will probably never know, but it doesn't appear he walked out.

A great White Sox offer helps get a better offer from the other teams. And walking away, acting like a spoiled baby does not get him more money. Only less. They can throw mystery teams around all they want, but they only have 3 visits. Playing his offers off against the rest won't hurt him. If he just has 2, and the Yankees are not budging, he has nothing to play with, and prima donnaing out of a meeting could cost him millions.

Maybe not what the White Sox are willing to pay. You would not walk away unless you are an imbecile. That kind of stuff gets around. Manny's other offers would more than likely only go lower.

And walk away from a potential record breaking offer? Manny Machado is on his best behavior right now.

I have seen no confirmation about the length of the Sox meeting.

I doubt it was a 10 hour meeting, and if it was, I'm sure he was aware of the length coming in. But you aren't going to walk out. This may be the team offering you $300 million. Would you actually leave?

George Steinnbrenner's wife.

Funeral is in Florida

Yes , and he probably needed to clear it up with the others as well. And that is probably done better face to face than over a phone.

Face to face is a bit more effective, both ways. And I am sure there are Yankees personnel that Manny wouldn't mind meeting.

His agent's future clients? What does that have to do with anything? If he was sold on the White Sox, and was going to sign there no matter what, he wouldn't be making these visits, and the Yankees and Phillies would be happy he didn't waste their time. The agent's job is to get the player what he wants. If he wants the White Sox, then it's the White Sox. The theory that he is just going through the motions for his agent's benefit is laughable.

I'm sure they had an idea of what will be offered going in, or why make the trip? Just throw out some figures and say mystery team.

Right, but he's not negotiating at these meetings. That's his agent's job. He probably has an idea where they are willing to go, and maybe after a sitdown it goes higher. If it were me, I would prefer a 90 minute meeting vs. a 5 hour meeting.

His wife was there. I really doubt the agent would want to negotiate with Manny and his wife present. I doubt anyone has made a formal offer at these meetings. They might have come into them with some really good idea. Manny doesn't have to be sold on the Yankees. He does with the White Sox. I think people put too much in the length of the meeting. No one really knows how long he met with the White Sox anyways.

Greinke signed or agreed to sign the day he got the D Back offer. So this could go quickly. But if it's not done on Friday, I am guessing after New Years Day. I think MLB is basically a skeleton crew next week.

They did say that Machado is going to have to sell himself to the Yankees, while the White Sox are trying to sell the White Sox. I'm sure 90 minutes is long enough. I know the White Sox meeting with Harper was reportedly 5 hours, but so much about the Harper meetings have turned out to be BS, maybe that was as well. The other thing is Hal Steinbrenner's mother just died, so he might not have been able to make the meeting. I wouldn't take anything out of it being 90 minutes, good or bad.

He can be really good. The problem is, he has a tough time pitching back to back days. As a reliever, that's a huge problem. Maybe the surgery will correct it, but he also has had shoulder issues.

Stories that the Yankees might sign Tulo instead of Machado are pretty laughable. Like you could count on him. If Manny doesn't go there, they will pick up a 2B and move Torres to SS/.

If he was flying private, he wouldn't have been at an O'Hare bar. He probably wouldn't have been at O'Hare. But there is a ton of information from all sources that just isn't true. Abreu wasn't there. Alonso wasn't there. The one guy tried to show a picture of a suite, where they were going to give Manny and his wife White Sox jerseys. Really? Is this 3rd grade.?And why is the television on in that picture? Were they going to watch Jerry Springer, and tell him it used to be taped in Chicago? It couldn't have been it was snapped during the season. As for money, yes I think he will take the highest offer, especially if it's a record breaker. But I did here an interesting take on cash last night. Ego will play a role, they are going to either want to be able to say the signed the highest contract ever, even if a lot of it is deferred and current value isn't as high, or they are going to want to say its the highest AAV ever, but, when you are talking that kind of money and it isn't breaking records, there really isn't a difference to these guys if its 250 million vs. 275 million. It's all money they will never spend. If no team is willing to let Manny's agent mention a record being broken, the Yankees probably hold a big advantage. Supposedly if the Dodgers clear some space, Harper's contract will have a record breaking AAV,

You should be banned just for this.

I think it probably does.

I wonder if there are clauses that would motivate all 3 to have good teams. Like if ratings are at certain levels you get X per game. If they dip below a certain point maybe the go lower the next season.

I will be very interested seeing how they cover the Cubs. Other than that, probably mostly the same. I wonder if this will end the Sox on WGN. It was pretty obvious this is how it was going to go. JR and Rocky are tight. Funny that none of the teams is must watch TV right now.

Not many guys get their GM start taking over 95 win teams, and ranked with the top farm system.

Depends. Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams have been around forever. KW inherited a young, cheap team that won the division, and he struggled for a few years. Then won once. These guys don't have a track record of sustained success even when talent was handed to them on a platter. If you were a player and wanted to win, of what appears to be his choices, right now, the Sox would be last. But, they do have a lot of talent, and when you are as good as these 2 are, you have some ego, you he may feel he is the one that will change things.